Natural Born Killer

Today (Monday, June 3) was the start of my new summer work hours, 8:30-4:45. Beginning at 8:30 instead of the normal 8:00am gives a notoriously non-morning runner such as myself the opportunity to get a run in without losing much sleep. This may be TMI, but it is also better for my bowels as I'm not continuously scanning the landscape for port-a-johns or thick bushes.

As I'm doing a loop around the village streets on this beautiful 52 degree sunny morning, a day made for running, a bird flies across the road and begins attacking my ankles! I'm not kidding. It was insanely trying to peck at me and flapping its' wings. I yelled at the thing and it continued so I kind of kicked it and the bird flew away.

Or so I thought. Suddenly the bird came at me from the other side, again attacking my ankles. I didn't want to hurt it but I didn't like being preyed upon either. So this time I kicked and hit the dumb thing. It landed in the grass and kept coming at me! I stepped on it. Yes, this sounds horrible, but imagine being out there and a wild animal won't leave you alone? The bird kept moving so I ran away hoping it wouldn't regain its' strength and renew the attack. I do hope the bird is okay, but I am going to be cautious running on that street again.

All the way home I heard birds caw-cawing and black crows and buzzards kept circling above my head. I know they were waiting for me to drop so they could come in to peck me.  Running in the morning may be over-rated.