The Ungulate Alces Alces

What did I say about that previous post being the last one of the evening? I should have known better.

Tom had an appointment tonight that should have brought him rolling in around 7:00 or 7:30. He never showed, but I didn't worry because whenever I do . . . there's never the need. So, no worries. Then, about 8:00, I get a phone call. It goes like this:

Me: "Hello?"

Caller: "Hey, Weslie. This is So-and-So (a friend of ours). I'm calling from the Sheriff's Office. (Oh, that's right, he works as the dispatcher from time to time. Hmm, wonder why he's calling me from there?) Ummm . . . Tom wants you to go get the truck and come down and pull him out of the ditch."

Me: "He's in the ditch?! But . . . it's not even icy out tonight!"

Caller: "Heh, heh. I know."

Me: "Well, wait . . . how did he get ahold of you?!" (I knew there would be no cellphone service where Tom was . . . even if he had the phone with him which he didn't.)

Caller: "Oh, one of the deputies was heading up that way and saw him. He called it in."

- End of conversation, for all practical purposes. -

Now, what you need to know is that there is NEVER a cop car, no patrol whatsoever up our road. There's the occasional Border Patrol (more so in the summer), but that's it. But as luck would have it, the cop shop had taken a call that brought him out our way tonight!

So, fast forward to 9:30. We are home and starving. Tom's appointment had been with our good friend and massage therapist who'd spent 1 1/2 hours working on his lower back . . . and whose work he just basically erased by shoveling for 1 hour (waiting for / hoping someone would drive by or I'd get worried enough to head out) in near-zero temperatures with an emergency shovel that was 24" long with a 12" wide scoop. Ah, yes.

But, the up side is that the cop came by when he did, we are going to meet him next week to buy a new phone system from him (new to us, used and no longer needed for him), and with all the shoveling Tom had done, the car popped right out with one pull from the truck!

Now it's nearly 11:15, and we have had a very late dinner of French scrambled eggs and toast with strawberry jam. We've both had a couple cups of tea to warm up. Tom is tucked in bed, and I am finishing up what I was in the middle of when the call came in.

But, OH! Why did he go in the ditch in the first place? Alces alces. A moose. Popped right out in front of him. As they are want to do. It was the moose or the ditch. I think he chose wisely, don't you?