Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Deer Hunting

I am working in Ciudad Acuna, Mexico currently. I commute each week from Los Angeles to San Antonio, and then drive to Del Rio, Texas. I cross the border each day to spend a pleasant day in Acuna.

I normally drive between Del Rio during the daylight hours. This trip, I drove at night because my normal flight was booked solid, so I had to take a much later flight. My drive was uneventful until I passed the town of Uvalde on I-90 west of San Antonio. Just outside of town, I had my first near miss with a deer. I was traveling about 75 miles per hour; the deer missed my car by about three feet. It came out of the passenger side bushes. In three bounds it was in front of me, and then it vanished into the darkness on my left. I left a hundred yards of rubber on the road trying to avoid it. The near miss scared the crap out of me.

A little further down the road, I noticed a car on the side of the road with a dear partially embedded in its front window. The police were just pulling up as I drove by. It occurred to me that driving in the Texas Hill Country at night might not be safe. I turned my cell phone off; it was time to concentrate. My 75 mile per hour average speed dropped to as low as 50. At one point, I drove slowly by a deer standing on the side of the road. It had a death wish type look in its eye. I was sure it was going to jump in front of me. The deer just stood there in the darkness. I don’t even think it knew I was there.

I had two more near misses before arriving in Del Rio, but I got skunked on the deer hunt. I was told by my project team the next day that it was not safe to drive this time of the year in Texas, especially around sunrise. Deer related car accidents are quite common.

I’m schedule to drive back at 6:00 a.m. Friday morning. Maybe I’ll get my first deer of the season then.

4 comments:

Johnny C said...

When did you move? Am I missing something here?

As far as deer and texas... its a dangerous game driving at night/early morning. I've some people hit deer and nothing happens to the truck and othertimes the who front end is smashed. Be carful, you should get those things for the front of your car, and run on highbeams when you can. Or like we did on the ranch have a spotlight in the back and someone with a rifle to pick em off before hand.. lol j/k.

Careful Driving.

Mojoey said...

I did not move - I'm just working in Acuna for a few weeks on an IT project. I commute from LA to Acuna each week. Fun stuff too! I had the bible lady sit next to me on the flight out. she thought I was gay. I was so funny.

Johnny C said...

Ah ok.. my bad.. I was thinking Del Rio, TX. Wait you catch a flight? Thats a cool job. I miss doing IT sometimes.. Then again.. all those stupid questions.

The Bible lady huh? I wonder why she thought you were gay? I hate people who assume things and also who make judjments. Esspecially the relious zealots

Mojoey said...

yep - my job is way cool. I like to see the world and fix problems. It gives me a big rush to figure something out that has been killing a project. I'm more like a IT project manager than an IT tech. the PM role gets me a lot of flight time.

The bible lady saw me readin David Sedaris' "me talk pretty one day". She assumed I was gay because Sedaris is gay. It was nuts. I'm going to post on it later tonight.