Fence For Geese

Canada geese have an appetite for apples

My neighbor Crandall stops by.

“How are you doing?” I ask.

“Everything is nearly copacetic. I dream of a better tomorrow where chickens could cross the road and not have their motives questioned. I attended the Poison Ivy Festival. I’m itching to go back. I didn’t win the festival’s demolition derby for yet another year. I would have won if I hadn’t had to stop so many times to ask for directions. I could have used the money. I know that money isn’t everything. Take Henry Ford, for example, even with all of his millions, he never owned a Cadillac. I didn’t come from money. My middle name is just the initial Z. That’s all my parents could afford. I’ve been thinking about my financial situation. Today, I diversified my portfolio. I buried half of it in a coffee can in the front yard and the rest in a sandwich bag out back. I had a toothache so I went to see Les Plack, the dentist. I asked how much he charged to pull a wisdom tooth. He told me his rock bottom price was $300. I whined that $300 was a lot of money for a few minutes work.”

“What did Les do?” I say.

“Oh, he charged me $300, but he pulled the tooth slowly.”

Freed

It was my pleasure to recruit children to release butterflies at the Steele County Fair. I placed a butterfly, recently emerged from a chrysalis, into a child’s hand. The butterflies tested their wings before flying away. The kids smiled broadly. I felt like I was wearing tights and was made of steel.

I transported a cliff swallow that had been sprung from the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center to a prime release spot. On the way there, an Eagles song played softly in the car. I hoped the swallow would find the music inspiring. There were a number of swallow species present at Albert Lea Lake, including cliff swallows. I wished the swallow traveling mercies and opened its carrier. It zoomed off, heading north as if it were a Delta flight late getting into Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport. Just when I thought it would fly beyond sight in a northerly direction, it banked and flew back to the lake. It encountered a number of cliff swallows. It followed two of them so far out over the water that I could no longer distinguish it from the other swallows. A good ending. A greater beginning.

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