This just in from the "Things that only happen to me files...."

I had to get a new tire. That happens to everybody, every once in awhile, though it couldn't have happened at a worse time - I don't get my first paycheck until Friday, so it was sort of a crisis. Anyway, I managed to find a place that had the tire I needed in stock, and I was lucky, really, that the whole thing didn't blow out, so I felt fortunate overall.

While the car was being worked on....

I walked over to the mall which is nearby. There I confronted a severe case of consumerism, since I found not one but two PERFECT handbags, which were on sale at 50% and off, which made them so cheap I could have afforded to buy one of them if I had any money which, after buying the tire, I did not. When I HAD money in my pocket, around the time of my birthday, I looked high and low for a pocket book but couldn't find one and so naturally I spent the money on bills and gasoline.

None of this has anything to do with the story. I'm just telling it to you anyway.

The point is that the tire guys drove my car out after it was done and parked it by a grassy area. They weren't busy, so that part of the parking lot was deserted, though it wasn't far from the garage. I went in and paid my bill and as I did the skys opened up and it poured down rain! I knew we were going to be in trouble weather wise this morning when I went outside and it was humid and 65 degrees, but I could see storm clouds off in the distance. That's tornado weather, to be sure, but we are lucky that we don't get such monsters in our area very often. It was raining so hard I could hardly see the car, so I just hung out and talked to the manager of the garage for a few minutes.

Finally, the rain slowed to a drizzle and I as I walked to my car I saw that there were about eight highly discombobulated Canada geese surrounding and on top of my car.

Oh, I see what happened I thought I bet these guys were flying fairly high when that storm came up on them unexpectedly and they just came to ground wherever they could land. Well, I guess they'll move in a minute, but they're clearly having a rough day so I ought not startle them.

They stopped preening/feather repair as I approached and the ones on the ground moved off a little, but the one on the hood just stood there giving me a somewhat offended look. "Um. Excuse me. You're on my car." I said to him.

He looked down between his feet as if to verify that yes, this was a car he was standing on then looked back at me warily. It's my guess that he was injured or shocked. Meanwhile, his loyal flock mates seemed disinclined to move much further. That's the way of Canada geese from what I understand. They try not to leave injured flock mates behind, and they mate for life.

I thought that if I got into the car and closed the door the sound and the motion would motivate my self appointed hood ornament to get down. But no. If anything he looked like he might decide to settle down and take a nap or something.

So I started the car. And I honked. Then he honked! But he did seem to wake up and hopped / flew off of the car. However, I was still surrounded by a flock of birds. They moseyed around the back of the car, looking at the tires and underside of the car with very much the same expressions as The Hub and my dad have when they do that. It was a little wierd. I really wondered if they were inspecting the work or Merchants Tire and Auto!

Finally, it began to rain in earnest again and they moved over the the grass to take shelter under a tree or the sign for the theatre.

As a result, I was late for work. But at least I don't have goose-acide on my conscience!