A Child Of Atom

I've been back in the mountains for less than an hour and managed to kill a large animal. I spent all summer here marveling at how bold the local deer are, rarely running when cars approach, even when approached on foot they just seemed to stand there and stare you down. I saw a deer or three every single day that I was here, and quickly got into the habit of calling out "Deer!" whenever we were driving, to make sure the driver was aware of the animal, on the off chance that it decided to dart out into the road. Three months of driving and riding and there wasn't a single incident.

Today an approximately two year old buck, who still had spots and velvet on his antlers decided to dart out in front of us as we were on our way to Wal-Mart. I started to call it out, as I have trained myself to do, but it was too late. A significant portion of the windshield was in our laps, and the deer was sprawled out on the opposite side of the road from where I had last seen it.

No one was hurt, Alison had a few very minor cuts from the glass, but there were no other injuries. The deer managed to get up and limped off into the trees, we assume that it is probably dead or dying in the woods somewhere. The car had some pretty major damage, the hood is dented, the windshield is gone of course, and the roof is a bit crinkled where the windshield meets it.

I haven't been in an accident of any sort in a number of years, and I don't really ever want to be in another.

Welcome back to the woods I guess.