Better to Walk on the Wild Side Than the Sidewalk

This afternoon Eliana and I were walking peacefully up the sidewalk on our way to the park.  She had stopped to pick up a couple of sticks.  She was poking them in a hole in the cement, and I stood watching her, wishing I had my camera since I was making up a blog post for some imaginary pictures.

"One, two, buckle my shoe" (and a picture as she put on her shoes...)

"Three, four, close the door" (and a picture as we left the house...)

"Five, six, pick up sticks" (and a picture of the present moment, which inspired my little pictoral edition of this diddy...)

"Seven, eight, lay them straight" (and a picture of Eliana putting the sticks down, probably not straight, but it would still have been pretty cute...)

"Nine, ten, do it again!"  (and a picture of her throwing her hands up in the air; some might say a big fat hen, but where would I get one of those in the middle of my street?  And do you think I would let her hold it?!)

Well, in the middle of my composing (silently, of course...what do you think?  I talk to myself?) I heard a shriek right behind me, or maybe above me...it was hard to tell.  I turned to see what it could be, and at the same time I heard a,"Splat!"  It sounded just like that, too.

I jumped a bit, saw a squirrel lying in the middle of the road, and heard a big whoosh of a noise.  I looked up to see a huge bird of prey circling the tree, RIGHT ABOVE MY HEAD, AND RIGHT ABOVE MY SMALL CHILD!  It looked like it was smiling.  And on its underside there was a streak of a pinkish color.

I thought,"The dinosaurs have followed me home!"  I wanted to pick Eliana up and run back inside or down the street to the park, or some place that that giant bird couldn't swoop down and pluck her up in its talons.  We headed toward the park, but I kept my eyes peeled.  (That is a strange thing to say in the past tense.) 

I didn't see the bird anymore; it must have given up on the squirrel (which I thought was weird).  I kept looking back as we went toward the park, and I even saw that crazy squirrel, which I thought was dead, leap up and run to the side of the road before the coming car could hit it.  What reflexes!  I'm pretty sure some of its insides were, um, on the outside.

Yuck.  I had to walk home on that sidewalk. 

Did I mention...Yuck?

I found out that I possibly saw a red-tailed hawk.  All I can say is that it was just over my head, and it freaked me out.  I felt like I had squirrel guts in my hair the entire rest of the day...and just like any normal obsessive-compulsive person would, I took a shower as soon as my kids were all in bed. 

By the way...YUCK!  If you don't know already, I'm not that fond of squirrels.  Or birds, for that matter...