Adolescents Are All The Same
Oct. 27th, 2005 02:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladyspriteApparently the human race does not have a monopoly on stupidity in adolescence.
There are stages, I've realized, of adapting to wildlife. For a city girl like me, however much I may be used to racoons and squirrels and hawks, it takes some time to get used to the casual closeness of wild animals out here in the less-urban areas. It starts out with awe and excitement, and a breathless 'oh, wow!' when the young deer are playing in the road while you're driving to work. This rapidly progresses to calm, cheerful acceptance - 'yes, my deer are here in my road, in my rural dwelling-place.' However, in a remarkably short time the exciting becomes commonplace, and you find yourself instead in the 'goddamn idiot deer' thought zone.
It wouldn't be so bad, honestly, if the deer weren't, as far as I could tell, either actively suicidal or blindingly stupid. There is a small clique of about four smallish young deer that live near our house, and they seem to take some sort of obscure delight in playin in traffic. To be specific, they particularly like playing in the middle of our narrow, twisty, poorly-lit one lane road just past a hairpin bend as the road abruptly surges downhill.
It's a fairly simple game they play - one of the deer stands in the middle of the road waiting for me to come around the curve, while the rest hide on the sides and do their best to blend in with the trees and dead grass. The lucky critter in the road then stands there looking perplexed as I do my best to brake, eventually sauntering off to one side just as I come to a rolling stop. Then, as I begin to accelerate again, one of his playmates on the sidelines decides that, since the other deer has left, it is his turn to immediately leap into the middle of the road and become King of the Asphalt. The upshot of this is that I wind up swerving off to one side trying to dodge the intrepid newcomer, bringin me dangerously close to the first deer, who is now placidly watching from the shoulder I'm being forced into.
Actually, the more I think about this, it seems less and less like stupidity, and more like pranking the newcomer. I haven't quite gotten up the nerve yet to look back after I've managed to pass the Venison Gauntlet, but I'm fairly sure that, if I do, I'll find them all laughing....
There are stages, I've realized, of adapting to wildlife. For a city girl like me, however much I may be used to racoons and squirrels and hawks, it takes some time to get used to the casual closeness of wild animals out here in the less-urban areas. It starts out with awe and excitement, and a breathless 'oh, wow!' when the young deer are playing in the road while you're driving to work. This rapidly progresses to calm, cheerful acceptance - 'yes, my deer are here in my road, in my rural dwelling-place.' However, in a remarkably short time the exciting becomes commonplace, and you find yourself instead in the 'goddamn idiot deer' thought zone.
It wouldn't be so bad, honestly, if the deer weren't, as far as I could tell, either actively suicidal or blindingly stupid. There is a small clique of about four smallish young deer that live near our house, and they seem to take some sort of obscure delight in playin in traffic. To be specific, they particularly like playing in the middle of our narrow, twisty, poorly-lit one lane road just past a hairpin bend as the road abruptly surges downhill.
It's a fairly simple game they play - one of the deer stands in the middle of the road waiting for me to come around the curve, while the rest hide on the sides and do their best to blend in with the trees and dead grass. The lucky critter in the road then stands there looking perplexed as I do my best to brake, eventually sauntering off to one side just as I come to a rolling stop. Then, as I begin to accelerate again, one of his playmates on the sidelines decides that, since the other deer has left, it is his turn to immediately leap into the middle of the road and become King of the Asphalt. The upshot of this is that I wind up swerving off to one side trying to dodge the intrepid newcomer, bringin me dangerously close to the first deer, who is now placidly watching from the shoulder I'm being forced into.
Actually, the more I think about this, it seems less and less like stupidity, and more like pranking the newcomer. I haven't quite gotten up the nerve yet to look back after I've managed to pass the Venison Gauntlet, but I'm fairly sure that, if I do, I'll find them all laughing....
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Date: 2005-10-27 07:03 pm (UTC)It's almost like I'm sitting in my eighth grade study hall all over again.
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Date: 2005-10-27 07:10 pm (UTC)No, they really ARE that stupid. Sadly. Ask
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Date: 2005-10-27 07:43 pm (UTC)Deer horns in on Shoppers in Tony Georgetown Stores
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Date: 2005-10-27 07:49 pm (UTC)So it's not just that all adolescents everywhere are stupid.
It's that horny male adolescents everywhere are stupid, which I think is one of the immutable laws of the universe.
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Date: 2005-10-27 08:13 pm (UTC)I breed pet rats, and the adolescent males are currently being all hormonal. And one of the adult males tries to mate with my foot every time I let him out!
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Date: 2005-10-27 09:00 pm (UTC)Every winter. some new RIT parent got a bill for his child's completely destroyed car along with the RIT tuition as Stupid Deer, Stupid College Student and Rochester Ice do not mix. Those who got the inside scoop religiously used the side entrances, which were generally deer-free.
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Date: 2005-10-27 09:18 pm (UTC)The up side is, of course, that venison is yummy.
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Date: 2005-10-28 05:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-28 12:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-28 05:33 pm (UTC)