a first encounter

I had an experience this evening I wasn't quite sure how to handle. While driving down the feeder of the beltway, I hit a bird. That's not the experience. I mean, I might not have hit a bird before. I don't really remember. But it was what happened after I hit the bird that was weird. It flipped from the front of my car, where it did not narrowly miss the contact with steel as most birds usually do, and flopped onto the roof. I heard it hit, but I didn't hear it bounce off. Bad sign.

I arrived at my destination and wasn't sure what to do. What if it was right on top of the roof by the driver's door and when I opened my door it fell down? On me! What if it was still alive or at least partly alive and tried to fly at me? I gently opened the door and waited a heartbeat, but when nothing happened, I pushed open the door and jumped! away from the car. I looked up at the roof and didn't see anything. Small sigh of relief. Maybe it really did fly off. Uh, bad choice of words. Fall off. I took a step further away from the car so I could see the entire roof and sure enough, there! At the back of the roof, caught in the luggage rack, was the bird. Ewww! There wasn't anything I could do about it in the Cheddar's parking lot though, so I walked in to meet Jill for dinner.

I walked out later, hoping it would have somehow disappeared, but nope. It was still there. I sent a text to a friend, "I hit a bird and it flopped onto my roof and got stuck. Help" I didn't hear anything back from him though and I didn't want to just drive over to his house. But I knew I was going to be girly about this. I COULDN'T take the bird off my roof. I just COULDN'T.

I had to run an errand on the way home and sure enough the bird was still up there when I walked into the store, and back out again. I called another friend of mine, and Bingo! He answered the phone. He laughed hysterically at my predicament, but said he would help. I drove over to his house and when I got out of the car...no bird! That's right, the dumb thing finally fell out. I was planning to borrow his camera to take a picture to post, but now I have no proof. Man! Ain't that always the way!?

But, it was a good laugh. :)