Today was urban wildlife day in my neighborhood. I saw the first bun of the year in my driveway. The second bun of the year was hot on his heels. They both fled from the terrifying sounds of me getting into my car, then stopped to play garden statuary a few feet into my back yard.
I turned onto Broadway and had to brake for a local production of McCloskey’s Make Way for Ducklings, except there were no ducklings, just two adult ducks (one goose down white, the other more of a traditional dark teal neck with mottled brown/tan body feathers). It was like they had decided to check out the Family Dollar in one of the oh-so-sixties strip malls, and when they didn’t find what they wanted (because it’s Family Dollar) waddled home to the cemetery across the (four-lane plus a center free-for-all turn lane) street.
Just a couple of jaywalking water fowl.
The jacka$$ in the other lane honked at them. Which really only seemed to startle and confuse the white duck as it almost turned back to recross to the strip mall parking lot.
The rest of the day was a losing battle against burn-out. The updated front desk schedule with six-hour blocks of public service pretty well pushed me over the edge. There’s a reason the usual library rule is two-hour blocks on with one to three hours off. Six straight is too much. But the others do their back office work at the front desk, so switching every couple of hours is an annoyance for them.
I relate to the buns, wanting to run for my life but really how far can I go? Or maybe I’m more like a nervous duck, dodging traffic but still some jacka$$ honks at me. Mostly tho I feel like a very stressed and very tired introvert human who really can’t deal with people for hours and hours and hours.
That’s it. There’s no punchline. Life is exhausting. And I just want to barricade myself inside my house.
Comments