Blaine the Groundhog is dead ....

... I am afraid. But honestly, the lummox had nothing to do with it. Much to his regret.

It was about 10 tonight when I decided to take the lummox for a walk. It's supposed to go down to 20 tonight so I thought it would be fun. He thought so too.

He was full of vim and vigor and took off down the steep hill in front of the house, down to where Blaine's hole is. He snuck up on it very quietly and then stuck his head in the hole. Taking his time he inserted nearly his whole body into the lair. Blaine did not appear to be at home, so I pulled the lummox out and we headed on through the field into the UPS depot by Moravian Creek. Lummox loves to pee on the UPS trucks, which he hates for some reason.

As we came out of the depot lummox went into his killer crouch and approached something dark in the road. It was the carcass of a groundhog laying in a pool of blood. He must have been struck by one of the trucks. Lummox rushed forward and grabbed the carcass and began to shake it with surprising force (he is a killer you know). I got him to drop it and pulled him away.

I can't be sure, but Blaine was the only groundhog in our neighborhood, so I assume that was him. Killed while coming home late in the evening.

A rabid raccoon...?

Possibly not, but I wasn't going to take any chances. The other day with the little lummox I had found a good walking trail from the playground at the top of the reservoir dam down to the new bridge over the creek for the Wilkes Greenway. I decided to go back and walk along the new portion of the Greenway by myself yesterday. As I started down the road I saw a strange looking animal loping up the side of the road towards me. It kept coming and I assumed it was a dog - but as it got closer I realized it was a raccoon.

Now raccoons are wild creatures and are supposed to be afraid of humans, and this one didn't seem to mind heading straight into me at all. And one of the signs of a rabid animal is that they lose their fear of humans.

I turned aside and walked away at right angels as fast as I could. The raccoon sat down and watched me for a bit, then picked himself up and loped on down the road.

So Nurse Tech Cindy wakes me up at 5 am...

.... and by 5:30 I am out the door. It's still full night and I have nothing to do until I meet my friend Tim for breakfast. I go over to the Boone Greenway for a walk. It is remarkably peaceful that early in the morning waiting for sunrise. In the mountains there is no real moment of the sun popping up but simply an increase in light. The Greenway is a paved walking/biking path along the New River Valley as it cuts through the mountains around Boone. You walk along the flat valley floor surrounded by low ridges on every side. At that hour all I could hear was a faint hum of traffic nearly drowned out by the chirping of birds and the rippling of the river. Walked all the way out to the ruins of the old electric dam power house. It looks like an old medieval keep and lends a suitably romantic air to the place.

It makes up a bit for the cement man hole emplacements for the sewer system that erupt out of the valley floor here and there. They look like turrets of old Renault battle tanks abandoned from some forgotten war amid the cow pastures.

I don't think I will see the sun come up at the Greenway again, but it was a nice way to start the day. After breakfast I went to my office and took a nap.

And another one when I got home this afternoon.