Arch-Nemesis

To give you an idea of kind of what my week has been like, this afternoon I came home from work to see a gentleman in a kilt walking up my front steps. Yeah, weird.

Back to the beginning though! This week I developed an irrational fear . . . of crows.

Tuesday morning. I was walking down my street, headed for the bus stop. All of the sudden something blows by my head. A crow. I was kind of freaked out, but I just figured it was a one-time thing. It was kind of dark and rainy, maybe it didn't see me. I didn't even mention it in Tuesday's post because I wasn't really worried. Wednesday morning. Walking to the bus stop again and in the EXACT same spot, a crow swoops down behind me . . . but this time, it's wing actually hits me in the head! Now I'm really freaking out. So much so that I actually suggest to my brother that he might want to come out here and visit and bring one of his hunting guns with him. At this point I started to develop a theory that the crow liked my hair and wanted to use it for a nest. I was seriously giving it the benefit of the doubt that it just figured my hair was some sort of natural nest material. Thursday morning. It was raining pretty good today, so I had my hood up and my umbrella out. I didn't see the crow. Friday morning. Thinking I had solved the problem with my hood on Thursday, I approached the tree to see the crow glaring down at me. Taking defensive measures, I put my hood up and figured I would be in the clear. Nope. I was wrong. I walk by the tree and suddenly the crow flies into my lower back, bounces off my elbow and keeps going. I pretty much lost it at this point. I ran down the end of the street and vowed not to walk on that side again.

Then, after I calmed down, I became a little more level-headed. Try doing a Google search for crows attacking people. It's an actual thing. Apparently, in the Northwest (where I am living now) from May to mid-June is fledge season, when all of the baby crows are learning to fly. The crow parents get super protective during this time to protect the babies and will actually attack people. Ahhhh! I took a picture of the crow's lookout and camp from the other side of the street . . . where I will be walking from now until mid-June!

Now for a couple of random observations:

1) It's really weird that there isn't any bagged milk out here. You have to buy it in jugs and then unlike pretty much every other type of container, you can't even return the jugs for a deposit. You just have put giant 4L jugs into the recycling. I can return an orange juice container, but not a milk jug? Weird.

2) There is very little President's Choice out here, but an insane amount of Safeways. Also, this weird brand called Western Family.

3) The automated voice on the SkyTrain that announces stations seems to actually sound relieved when we get to the final stop, YVR. Obviously I can't do inflection and tone on here, but it's really weird!

4) Two days this week I have seen a girl at the SkyTrain station where I get off the bus with a canoe paddle. She's all dressed up in business clothes, but randomly carrying this paddle.

Now just before I tell you about the gentleman in the kilt, I wanted to share my purchases from the little stores that I stopped at on the way home tonight. It's going to be a tasty dinner! I bought an in-store made chicken Kiev breast, then went to the market next store and picked up some corn-on-the-cob, potatoes, a pepper and some feta cheese.

So, the man in the kilt. I saw him walk down my front steps as I was taking a picture of the crow's tree, figuring I just saw wrong and he was actually coming from somewhere else. Then, we ended up crossing the street at the same time and he headed right back up the stairs to my place and around the side. I caught a glimpse of the back of his t-shirt as he rounded the corner. Apparently, the company the cleans the windows of my building is Men in Kilts Window Cleaning. Excellent.

And on that note, I'll leave you with some pictures I took of the sky and the ground. I love the leaves drawn right into the sidewalk! And remember, I am doing the Great Strides Walk next weekend and I am still collecting donations!