The Wild Wild Midwest

There is a golf course near my home. It has beautiful rolling hills, ponds with fish and frogs, and lovely landscaping. If I get up early enough in the morning, and it’s not too hot (or too cold), and it’s not raining, and I don’t have to be anywhere soon, and there isn’t a tournament planned (admittedly, there are lots of conditions), I like to walk the course. I’m probably not technically supposed to do that, but I’m always off well before any golfers come out, and sometimes I even pick up trash along the way. (Well, not cigar butts. But wrappers and broken tees are fair game.) I can’t be hurting anything, right? And it’s so pretty and peaceful that I can’t resist.

One of my favorite things about this walk is the wildlife I get to see. Scampering squirrels, adorable rabbits, majestic herons, startled deer, and even the occasional fox are among the animals that cross my path (or I cross theirs). Sometimes I stop and try to get a picture (some of which are included with this post), but that requires me to take off my cool phone armband, pull the phone out, turn on the camera, aim, and shoot…most often there isn’t time for that before the wildlife scurries or flies off, so I just quietly enjoy the spectacle.

A few weeks ago, however, I noticed a coyote on one of the greens. It was stunning! Standing and staring off across a pond, probably musing about how tasty a goose would be for dinner (or, well, breakfast). I stopped and quietly pulled off my armband, hoping he wouldn’t move. I zoomed in and took a couple of pictures, then started wondering if I should be that close to a coyote. Before I even got my phone resituated, I started jogging quietly away (which requires extra effort, as I’m really more of a walker. Well, entirely a walker.), hoping that he wouldn’t follow. Once I got around the bend I slowed back down and heaved a sigh of relief. I do love seeing wildlife, but I don’t want any of it chasing me.

When I got home that morning, I was so excited about my coyote sighting that I shared the information, and the pictures, with my husband and youngest son. “Wow, that’s cool,” my husband said. “It’s a statue,” my son said.

“What?!?” I said.

Laughing, my son went on. “It’s a statue. I think they put it there to scare off the geese.”

By this time all three of us are dissolving with laughter. “Well, I guess that explains why it didn’t chase me,” I said. A little embarrassed, I deleted the pictures from my phone.

This morning, back out on the course (on a day which really was too warm given my usual parameters), I saw the coyote again. He was a little farther away from the path this time, but still I stopped and took his picture. From this angle, he is more obviously a statue. That will be perfect for a post, I thought. After all, the point of my blog is to bring joy by making others smile–getting people to laugh is even better. As Carl Reiner said, “Inviting people to laugh with you while you are laughing at yourself is a good thing to do. You may be a fool but you’re the fool in charge.”

The only thing I want to be in charge of today is making you smile. I hope it worked!