Way to die and ruin MY day...

Is this your life?

After I battled two construction zones, one stripped road, and traffic being rerouted because of an arrest I finally made it to Lew St. This time of year Lew St. is a breath of fresh air. There is no construction, no heavy traffic. It is about a quarter mile stretch of road that gently curves and becomes Rock Creek Rd. This is the last two minutes of my drive to work. It is quiet and pretty as the leaves are changing. Sometimes they litter the road and it is like being in a leaf tunnel with the trees stretching above and the fallen leaves covering the road below making it more reminiscent of a forest floor than a paved road.

Yesterday morning as I was turning the corner, smoothly transitioning in the limbo somewhere between Lee and Rock Creek I spotted a squirrel in the road. He obviously wass running about trying to store up nuts for the coming winter. And by some will of fate, his travels brought him to stand on the dotted yellow line in the middle of Rock Creek Rd. Although his tail was a bit mangy, he was slightly cute the way all animals that wiggle there noses rapidly are, so I veered right and give him a wide berth.

I'm not quite sure what happened next. Even though there were no other cars, even though I was steering the car away from him, even though he was facing away from my side of the street... when my car came within five feet of the squirrel, he turned suddenly and ran in front of my car. He started to dart across the road and then stopped. I swerved to try and angle the car so it would pass under the middle and not under a tire. Just before he left my line of sight over my hood, I see him turn and leap. I felt the bump. I heard the thud. I looked in my rear view mirror to see his body twitching on the road.

I did everything I could. He had every opportunity not to be in that situation. I don't get it.