Thursday, August 27, 2009

A Tall Feathered Tale

Sometimes things happen when you least expect it and it will totally turn your day around. This was one of those times.

I was driving down a mountain road thinking about the state of affairs, which, if I had any thing to say about them, would be substantially different ~ Way Better, to be more specific. I came around a corner and what I saw before me was too weird to be true.

There was a man on a bicycle, moving rather slowly as he was pedaling up a steep incline. And running beside him was a long legged turkey. I was shocked silly! The turkey looked very tall, the man looked very unhappy and I slowed down for a number of reasons, this was just too good to be true. I rolled down my window and leaned out to get a better look. The poor man was trying to pedal and the bird was viciously pecking at him. I casually asked him if this was his pet turkey. He had a hard time talking but I think he squawked something like, “this damn bird is trying to kill me!”

As I slowed my car beside them, the turkey was loudly vocal and threw out his tail feathers into a wide fan. He was dark brown, wild, and rather trim, apparently from jogging, and appeared to be much more in control than his opponent. The gentleman biker had grey hair under his little helmet, and shiny black bike shorts that fit tightly on his upper thighs leaving the rest of his poor leg exposed. I feel quite confident in assuming that he had no idea when he dressed that day that he would be fending off, or racing against, a rabid running turkey.

Lest you think I am being unfair to the biker, he outweighed the bird by 150 pounds at least, and I will confess, under different circumstances, I would have found them equally attractive specimens. I wanted to yell some encouraging words to the man on the bike but I was struggling with my vocal chords not to laugh out loud. It was tough; I was choking up as I wiped tears from my eyes. As I slowly rolled down the road, the scene in my rear view mirror was so comical I nearly wet my pants. That long legged turkey ran beside the bike in a dead heat. I believe the fellow was trying to throw a kick at the bird without losing momentum. The turkey, never missing a stride, would expand his tail feathers and then pull them back into a neat bundle. I know it is cliché, but seriously, the last thing I heard as I rolled around the next curve was the man cursing and the turkey answered with a long gobble.

* annette

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