Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Dead Leaves, Almost-Dead Self


Dear George

I took our sheepdogs Mike and Duffy to Parker Woods in Northside the other day to take some photos of dead leaves in the November forest. The dogs were enthusiastic about being out on a sunny cool day, but they do get puzzled by the constant stops and starts of photo-taking. Duffy stays right at my heels when I step off the path to take a picture, but Mike just sits down and waits for me. Sometimes he winds up so far back that I lose sight of him altogether which is scary. As I moved in to take a shot of a picturesque fallen tree, I walked straight into a broken branch that had a pointed end as sharp as a dagger. The jagged end of the branch struck me right in the front of my neck where I fancied my jugular vein to be. The sudden sharp pricking hurt and shocked me. I put my hand up to my throat to see if blood was pouring forth (it wasn’t), then fantasized about how I would need to run for help to try to save my life. I felt my neck again – still no blood. After four or five more checks, I decided I wasn’t going to die after all. So I went back to taking photos of dead leaves. Dead leaves, I concluded, a lot more enjoyable than dead humans. Here are some of the photos I wound up with.

Love,

Dave





















































































































































































G-Mail Comments

-Linda C (11-17): david , that is horrible and now when katya really needs you to help her. i too would have been sure my jugular vein was punctured, and how do you tie that off, just press your hand to it and run, or cell phone. i am so glad that you were able to soothe yourself into thinking the most important vein in your body was ok. i however, would have wondered if perhaps a little tiny prick was still in there filled in by the tree needle and soon it would come out and the bleeding might start. i would have taken my self right down to the er to get an mri immediately, after all, what is my insurance for. well , hope that didn't start you to worry again, i am sure you are just fine, what if a tiny particle of wood got into the vein, what would happen then. how long do you think you would live then. bad things happen when you take those dogs out to the woods. as K says i know that bad things happen to good people but i hate it when good things happen to bad people

-Phyllis SS (11-12): Dave, I don't know - I think I disagree about leaves being more interesting than dead humans. Have you never seen the photos from the 19th century of people in their caskets? pss

-Ami G (11-10): You are getting awfully good at picture taking. These are pretty amazing!


No comments:

Post a Comment