Scoop

A long time ago....as I seem to recall.....there was a senator from the state of Washington (as opposed to Washington State, where the S is in capitals; per formal APA writing)....  well anyways, his name was Scoop. Scoop Jackson. I am not sure of his real first name, nor do I really give it much thought, even as I write this blog. I suppose, yes I do....that I could look it up or no..strike that: google it...as really, who looks up anything anymore? We just google it. But his name was Scoop or so he was called.

Scoop Jackson...for what it is worth.

Now...the other day I was driving to Ikea in Philadelphia and more specifically down Christopher Columbus BLVD or N Delaware Avenue. You see, yes you would if you had Mapquest on, that they are essentially the same road. It is just that one Christopher Columbus BLVD runs to IKEA and the road coming back (on the same road mind you but going the other way) is called N. Delaware Avenue. City planners...oh yes, you have to appreciate the job they do. 

Well, I was either North or West of Ben Franklin Bridge going to Ikea, so I must have been on Christopher Columbus BLVD. But whether North or West, or for that matter even East, is somewhat impossible to tell at times when traveling in Philadelphia as everything is at an 'angle'. Come to think of it, so is South Jersey, or is that just south Jersey (minus the capital S on south). Have you noticed that? 

So, as I was traveling North, West, maybe East but surely not South of the Ben Franklin Bridge.....I came up to a stop light. Now as my lot in life has chosen itself to be.....I most always 'stop' at stoplights' as the red light just always appears. How rarely am I chosen to have a green light to freely pass to heaven's gate on the other side of the intersection. So I stopped, as I do. Stopped....

I wait...Sometimes I see a car go by but in very many cases as I wait, I just wait for the sake of waiting. It is almost like there is a little person (could be a woman as well as a man) that must have a button that they press when my car approaches. There they lie, someplace...off in the distance having a chuckle at my  expense as I patiently just wait, for the sake of waiting.

This time as I waited....I saw really nothing. My mind in a daze. Most likely I was trying to think how I could navigate IKEA without having to go in at the ground level and work my way "up' and spend a few hours around winding bends in the road....only to then go down and spend a few hours attempting to find my way out of the store. I think about things such as that.

As I waited....and my mind just wandered.....to IKEA and back and whatever...  I saw out of the corner of my eye this huge bird swoop down in front of me and 'scoop' up a mouse that was on the road. Not road kill mouse-like, but most likely a live mouse on the run. This bird, a hawk....maybe a falcon...but I couldn't tell even though it was down on the road on the drivers side of my car. Hey listen, I wasn't expecting this...I wasn't looking for it...it just occurred. This bird swooped and scooped. And then off it went. Just like that. No warning to begin with and certainly no 'adios'. Quick...like lightening this event occurred. No one was around me to back me up and chime in and give me a 'wow' in blank fashion or pen words with their mouth I couldn't hear as both of us would have experienced the same 'wow' moment. Just a Scoop....a take...a fly out...and be done. What was that? A peregrine falcon? A Coopers? A Sharp-shinned? I didn't know...nor did I care....

But a quick scoop...     (no Image to compliment this blog....How could I? I suppose I can make one up and pretend that 'that image' is what I saw but I can't do that to myself. You, you my friends would never be the wiser in this day in age of fake news or images or whatever. But me? No...I can't fake myself out. Not worth it. Thus, no image of that....but perhaps one of 'Scoop'