I interrupt this Blog
The vast majority of my blog entries are notary related. Occasionally I write something on the silly or humorous side. This one is a bit different, it’s personal. I’m going to share a magical moment that I experienced, nothing whatsoever to do with notarizations.
The wife and I were on vacation in Colorado. We were camping at Cheyenne Mountain State park, an awesomely beautiful place. First I will discuss the campsite, then share an experience that I will never forget. We had no reservation and were fortunate to find exactly one spot available. It had a steep entrance ramp, and was not “reserveable”, but our little camper had no problem with that. The view was extraordinary, over 180 degrees and went to the horizon. I live in Manhattan, we see very little of the sky; I gained a new appreciation of how big it really is.
One sunny afternoon as I was walking to the water fountain in one corner of the campsite, I stopped in my tracks; I was about 3 feet from a full grown Mule Deer! It looked at me with its large brown eyes. The park ranger had instructed us to look away and scan the horizon with our head moving, not our eyes. This conveyed to the deer that I was not interested, but rather was doing the same as the deer; namely, scanning for predators. Every once in a while our eyes would meet for an instant, then each of us would continue to scan. Pardon the pun, but, my “deer friend” would pause now and then to munch some of the clover.
This encounter lasted for over ten minutes. I did not move my feet, only scanned the horizon by turning my head; but could clearly watch the deer from the corner of my eyes. There was the noise of a car door slamming at an adjoining campsite. The deer, which had ears at least six inches long; raised its head and did a scan for sounds; prior scans were visual. It was most amazing.
The ears rotated in what appeared to be discrete 45 degree turns; four turns to scan 180 degrees. After which it turned its head and repeated the four ear rotations, thus scanning a full 360 degrees trying to find the sound. The precision of the ear turns was remarkable; they did not turn slowly, but rather “snapped” rapidly into position, paused about half a second then moved to the next position. Other sounds caused the deer to repeat the performance.
It walked closer to me while inspecting me. Now it was about two feet away! The deer was within an arms length of me. Again looking with those big brown eyes, curious about me, not at all frightened as it appeared to the deer that I too was concerned about predators with my head rotations. After a while the bed of clover was consumed and the deer slowly walked a bit away from me to more clover, now we were about ten feet apart. How I wished I had my camera with me! Now I stared at the deer whose eyes lingered to meet mine. What was the deer thinking? I doubt that I will ever know. Eventually the deer slowly wandered into the brush, but paused and gave me a final look.
A remarkable animal, somewhat used to humans in the state park, but still curious. Later talking to the ranger I learned that this particular Mule Deer frequented the site that our camper occupied. We saw the deer frequently, but never again as close. If you ever find yourself in a similar position, use the advice the ranger gave me. “Look away, the deer stay”.
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