a strange occurance occured...

...on Wednesday morning. I have mentioned going, usually once a week, with a list to shop at Sam's Club for church. Getting mostly food/consumable items. Assorted coffee accoutrements to supply the needs of hundreds of coffee and tea drinkers who have been trained to expect a variety available for their convenience when they arrive on Sunday mornings. Creamers, sweeteners, tea bags, cups, stirring sticks, napkins.

I got up early, to shower and get up on the  north side of town to do my shopping before the store got crowded and check out lines backed up. Uneventful trip. I came back home, with the plan to wait and deliver before I had to be a work at eleven. So, there I was, turning into the driveway to putter around at the house for a couple of hours prior to leaving again.

When I turned off the street, headed down the little hill, on the asphalt leading to the house, I saw: an armadillo. A live one, actually on it's feet, in motion is pretty unusual. Often seen alongside the road, on the verge, with feet up in the air, deceased. Or smooshed in the travel lanes. But actually travelling? Pretty odd. It looked to be about half grown. Not a baby, but not the size of the adults you would likely see killed along the right-of-way. Really strange, to see one toddling along, following it's pointy little nose, plowing through the leaf mulch, looking for tasty morsels.

After I recovered from my amazement, I got out my phone and took photos. I knew you would not believe I had seen an armadillo casually going for a stroll in the underbrush. But he was pretty much camera shy. So the pictures are almost cartoon like, with this woodland creature standing stock still, immobile behind a tiny little trunk of a pine tree. If it had really been a cartoon, there would have been a thought bubble above his silly little head, with a comment like 'invisible', or 'betcha' can't see me! 'which was obviously a falsehood.

Then it occurred to me that you rarely see nocturnal animals in the day time unless they have a problem. Something causing them to behave abnormally. Like rabies. Holy cow! I was still so surprised by this creature, I followed it down the driveway, hoping for a better photo op. But decided: 'you need to back off, let it go to do whatever armadillos do'. Though it was probably not as big as my shoe-shod foot, I don't know how I would have responded to an armadillo attack. Speaking of cartoons/amusing mental pictures....

Come back later to see the photos, when I have someone who can put them here... it was amazing, strange, remarkable, baffling, weird....