Coyotes

The coyotes were howling this morning to beat the band. The pack sounds like it has grown (groan?) appreciably since I left for the UK. When I left a couple years ago, I would have guestimated that the population of coyotes in the park was fewer than ten. I saw one or two once-in-a-while; occasionally, they could be heard howling.

This morning, the chorus sounds as if it is at least twenty-strong! The howling came at me from down the valley (toward Wadsworth) and up the valley (towards Fox Hollow) and, by the sounds of it, is pretty wide-spread. The sounds of the pack echoed off the sides of the valley for a while after the singing had stopped.

I would not have known any of this had I been able to keep to a schedule. At least, I would not have known about it this morning.

Despite my plans, I have yet to leave for Minnesota and it is well after five. My plan was to have the car parked and have all the provisions laid-in so that all I had to do this morning was walk with Saga a while to get her tired for the trip, jump in and go. And all of this was to have taken place more than two hours ago. The plan kind-of fell apart about six last evening. Well, it started to at least.

After working from home yesterday, I spent the afternoon gathering things for the trip and had planned to pack the car before bed. Of course, I wanted to do this after I had popped out to run a couple errands and finished a few last-minute things I had to do before leaving town. I'm sure you can see where this is going.

One thing lead to another and by bedtime, the car was not packed. But I decided that the few minutes it would take to pack the car in the morning were not going to seriously inhibit my progress. I went to bed and slept the night away.

This morning, bright and early (if 02:00 can be called bright) I rolled over and looked at the clock. I was up right when I wanted to be. It was time to get moving. But, that snow on the lawn looks cold. Who could blame me for snoozing just a bit longer? Besides, I'm on vacation and don't have to be anywhere at any specific time. Thus thinking, I lay myself back down and took a little (three-hour) nap.

Well, that's pretty much it. I was up at five, which allowed me to hear the chorus of coyotes across the road in the park by the creek. The car is all packed. My breakfast is on passenger seat, all that is remaining to do is to take Saga and go for a walk and hop in the car. The Weather Channel shows that I should have great driving conditions all day long and so, there is nothing keeping me from the open road!

Wherever you are this morning, I hope your day starts out with a serenade!

Don Bergquist - December 20, 2007 - Lakewood, Colorado, USA