The Birds of the Air

Then God said, "Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness: and let them rule over.......the birds of the the sky.....And God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the birds of the sky." Genesis 1:26, 28

Well....I think we've done a pretty good job so far at being fruitful and multiplying but apparently there was more left to do like subduing some birds. So....we definitely subdued this one. I think in some form he kinda subdued us too. So, this would be what your windshield looks like after nailing a 15 or 20 pd vulture when you're doing 70 down rural highways. After taking this one out Grayson asked me what other animals I have planned to take out next since we have successfully nailed a buck and vulture at this point with the van. Since we caught the buck at an angle he only did headlight damage but the vulture proved to be a little too heavy for a windshield. Talk about the shock of a lifetime.








It was early morning since Brad and I had planned to meet in town for a grocery day after he got off shift. It meant the children and I needed to be there around 8...or at least that's the goal each time we do this. Usually it's a little closer to 8:30 by the time we get there. But we've got the system down and are able to get breakfast down everybody and get them town ready and be on the road about 7:30 or 8 each town day. The girls were set on wearing their Easter dresses and matching so this morning included braided hair and a little more fru-fru stuff that I usually skip.







So, we hit the road and Brad and I were brainstorming over our day and how to organize the errands. We came up on a deer that had been pleasantly ground up all over the highway and a fairly large group of vultures hovering around. This is everyday life here so I honestly thought nothing of it. We have had several close calls with the "birds of the air" but only ever managed to hit a dove and some other mysterious breeds...nothing too large. But since these beasts fly rather slow if they don't get up and going pretty fast they are right at windshield height. Lovely. Our close calls have always consisted of them being a little farther down the road so they clear the van by the time we get there......obviously, this one didn't. And you can't really dodge them by swerving since we drive a large box that just happens to have an engine in it and upon swerving is a little top heavy and prone to rolling. Over and again Brad has drilled into me....."DON'T swerve! Just hit it." So, I happily did as told and this was the end result. I will admit that by the end of the shock and making sure everybody was unharmed that it was kind of fun. The big thud and the sight of a large black bird bouncing off the vehicle was actually quite thrilling.

Waiting around at the station.

So, we talk and suddenly a shotgun sound echoes everywhere. The notorious sounds of glass cracking and splintering.....we have lots of experience with this sound......and pieces falling and hitting paper like soft snowflakes are heard in the silence. I screamed when contact occurred and since we were on the phone as it happened Brad was fully aware that we had done something not so grand. I pulled over when I realized I was covered in little tiny pieces of glass and that it had blown some ways back. Grayson sat in the front with me but most was contained on my side. We checked to make sure it hadn't shot as far back as Gavin...who sat in the middle strapped in his carseat directly behind us...and found that he went untouched by the flying glass particles. I got out and brushed off what I could with only a few minor ones clinging to my shirt. It felt a bit like being bathed in insulation. The windshield obviously hadn't fared so well so the debate began on whether to continue into town...as we were not even to the 1/2 way point yet. Now determined in every way since I had successfully gotten every kid up and ready and more than presentable and was not about to think of turning back home after all that work we continued on. As the speedometer crept back up into the 60's so did the glass that started gently falling out. I finally figured that if I did a consistent 60 mph that the glass was fairly stable and we'd make it. But at speeds of 70 mph it started making scary ominous sounds and chunks started to fall out. With visions of the windshield caving in I kept the speed at 60 all the way into town. It was a long drive, to say the least.

Waiting on Daddy to take care of the business end of it. I think our front windshield now compliments the 2 huge deer dents in his door nicely.

With the day's plans now more than a little altered we met Brad at the station so I could wash the remainder of glass off and he could survey the damage. Not entirely drivable at this point. It was kinda funny since once we got a good outside look at it there was a small feather sticking out of the glass proudly blowing in the breeze. The mental image of a cherry topping off a sundae couldn't help but float through the head since it looked a bit like that in every way. The children were highly entertained by watching the ambulances leave the bay on several calls so they didn't seem to notice the time it was taking to try and deal with this. With plans to leave town on Saturday for a day trip to Lampasas we were a bit in need of a rather immediate fix. None seemed to exist. With Brad seeing more dollar signs every time he looked at the window the mood seemed a little more somber than what the day had started with. We headed to the only place we could find only to find that they could not get to it until the next morning. So it was that we drove the van around like that for the remainder of the day in town and then crept the 32 miles back home that afternoon. We headed back into town yet again the next morning to leave it with them from, supposedly, 9 to 1. Of course, since it is an ancient, giant, mammoth vehicle unforeseen problems arose and we were stuck in town until 5:30 that night waiting for it to be returned.

Watching Daddy spraypaint mile markers. Quite thrilling.

Honestly though...I have never driven a vehicle with a cleaner windshield than what I had that evening as we headed back home once again. Of course, it lasted all of 2 minutes after we got out on the highway since the bugs felt so entirely obligated to do suicidal dives into it all the way home.




Still spraying mile markers





After the excitement had ended we piled everybody up on Sunday after Brad and Grayson had returned from church and took off to go find our dead bird. I am quite certain that is about the most redneck thing to do ever......but thrilling none the less. I wasn't quite aware that it was a mere 58 degrees and drizzling that late afternoon or I probably wouldn't have been so bent on making a party out of it. Since Brad was in need of remarking his mile markers for running he took his spray can and we stopped all along the way to mark miles and half miles. So we sat in the drizzly cold anticipating the lovely dead bird that awaited us at the end of the journey. As soon as we had taken a few pics of our prized trophy the remaining 8 of us piled into the cab of the truck and blasted the heater throughout. We enjoyed the pretty overcast view from the inside the rest of the way home. Just another day in the life of.

All of that for this thrilling pic. I thought it'd be a little more grand than this. It was so cold and he stunk so bad that we didn't try to get any closer ones.....not that we really wanted to.

More markers

And more markers

Hanging out while we wait

The roads we run...looking towards home

The roads we run.....looking towards the 2 mile bend

The beautiful views we have to keep us running

So, to sum up, I think we'll be steering clear of all vultures for awhile....literally.