We were standing outside, doing some outdoors chore, or talking about it. We were in the backyard, near the kitchen corner of the house. I’m sure we were pointing or looking or otherwise considering a plan of action. This is what I do. I work in the home office for a few hours, and then I go find something else productive to do for a while. Then it is back to work. Study breaks and work breaks are both useful. And this particular one involved being outside in the cold for a few minutes. That’s when I heard it.
honk.
Honk.
HONK HONK.
HONKHONKHONKHONKHONK!!!
I looked up, putting my eyes where my ears told me to go, toward the east. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and trained it on the sky, waiting for the geese to fly through the frame.
“QUITTERS!” I yelled, so as to be heard over their honking.
OK, I muttered it to myself. We have neighbors, after all.
Somehow the geese heard me anyway.
“We’re not quiting,” they said between honks. “We’re just going over to a field a few miles west of here. You know that. We’ve seen you over that way.”
Of course geese have recall and distinguish between humans.
Also, please note the skies.
It was 3:16 p.m.
