Close Range

Deborah came across an entry about author Annie Proulx on Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac website and kindly passed it along to her book loving friends. Many quotes and comments jumped out. For example, she credits her mother with teaching her to observe "everything - from the wale of the corduroy to the loose thread to the disheveled mustache to the clouded eye."

I need to cultivate better powers of observation, because I have had two close encounters with coyotes in the past week near the Legion of Honor in San Francisco (a museum that is surrounded by a golf course with plentiful rough for burrowing) and the only thing I noticed is that they were very close by (10 -15 yards away) and didn't seem afraid or threatening. If anything they seemed to be waiting patiently for me to leave so they could proceed with crossing the road toward the big fountain in the parking lot. I say "they" because the first coyote I saw looked scruffy and walked with his head hung down. The second coyote looked young, well groomed and perky (like this photo - not taken by me).

After the first sighting, I noticed that they (the park dept) had put up a COYOTE ALERT sign to remind people not to feed or approach them. They endorsed throwing small stones to chase them away if clapping didn't work. (My technique was to keep walking -- but backwards so I could make sure we were moving in different directions.)

After the first coyote sighting, I happened to be at a garage sale and discovered a beautiful (to me) coyote sculpture made of barbed wire. It was a large outline of a sitting coyote in full howl, and it seemed to be calling to me. (Maybe this is the dog I told the kids we'd get as soon as I got laid off.)

Both sightings happened a few minutes before 7, so Ty is planning to go with me at that time tomorrow to see if we can conjure up another sighting (and get our own photo).