A deer trotted across the road right in front of me this morning on my way into work.

Don’t worry, I didn’t hit him. I was going slow enough that there was never a chance for collision. But can you believe it???? A deer! And he was so close. And less than a block from my house!

After he crossed the road he kinda look back over his shoulder at me, with this look in his eyes. Not the deer-in-the-headlights look one would expect, but a look of relief and of "thanks for not hitting me." Which is kind of odd, considering he rather trotted across the road instead of running, almost as if he didn’t expect me to hit him. Maybe he saw me turn onto the road and knew I wouldn’t pick up enough speed before I got to him. Maybe he even saw I have a Fix-Or-Repair-Daily car and knew my little Escort didn’t have the speed in him that early.

Either way, I’m glad I didn’t hit him either. I have to confess, I had a little deer-in-the-headlights moment of my own when I saw him dart out. And it wasn’t because I might have been the cause of this beautiful creature becoming the morning’s main course at the roadkill banquet. Sad to say, but my first thought was of how much damage I’ve heard these beautiful animals cause to a car upon collision. I could see my little mangled Escort being carted off to car purgatory by the flat-bed-hearse-for-cars while the cops handed me its little death certificate, "cause of death: deer x-ing."

Oh, dear.

I think I’ll always drive a slowly through my neighborhood now…. I’m sure I can safely say that both deer and Lu are glad our morning encounter turned out like it did. He really was beautiful. Little antlers and all.

I live in the city limits of Nashville, only about 12 or so miles at the most from downtown no less. And I saw a deer less than a block from my house. You would never see that in LA.

I love living in Nashville. This place is so cool!