>I had to work on Tuesday, but nothing much after that. I hung around the house and played Need For Speed: Underground incessantly. I unlocked everything up to level 3 — and godDAMN it’s fast. It’s all city courses, traffic, shortcuts… amazing… buy it, buy it!

Thanksgiving was nice — headed up to VT early. It took me about 2 hours to do the 3 & 1/2 hour drive. I found my aunt’s house after a bit of driving around, but for the most part without issue. My Mom had come up with her “companion” I think this might have been the first time they slept in the same bed, unless they got a dual bed hotel room… I didn’t ask, don’t want to know. Anyhow, my brother also came down from northern VT, my uncle Moris, and my cousin and her husband. I’m the youngest of the group and I’m past 21… had to reassure them before I was allowed a glass of wine 😉

I hung around for a little while after dinner, we took a walk… almost got into a really good conversation with my cousin, but didn’t quite make it as my mom was there and they saw something along the way that changed the subject. My whole family has a short attention span and is easily distracted. At least I know where I get it from.

I headed down about 5 or so… was driving only about 45 minutes, on the highway when I felt the turkey kick in. I got really really sleepy. So much so I had to open the window, put on fast music… and it still wasn’t doing it for me. I pulled into the next rest area and took a little siesta.

A good 20-30 minutes later I was on my way again, feeling alert enough to go on… I was just getting into 4th gear when the car in front on my swerved. It was the only car up ahead, so I wondered what the hell was going on. Deer never crossed my mind. It apparently hit one… the other was in the right lane, the hurt one was limping into the left… I was braking but there was no way I was going to make it as I swerved to the left to avoid the one standing in the road. As I swerved, the hurt deer was headed for the same place… I had just about slowed to a stop when I made contact. It hit the left side, right about the headlight – and I pushed him off to the side. I pulled over a bit down the road to check for damage… nothing but a little brush from his fur above the headlight, not even a scratch. I yelled sorry to the deer, thanked it for it’s life… and sparing mine, then was on my way.

I made it the rest of the way home without incident.

So this Thanksgiving, I was thankful to the deer, thankful for being alive, and thankful for it not resulting in a worse accident. 65mph is hardly a good speed to hit anything.