One of my classes is from 4:30pm to 7:20pm. I live in a very woodsy town with a lot of deers roaming around, plus there's barely any lit places at night (not enough street lights) so it can get dark to the point you can't see.
My home is just 2.5miles (50 min by walking and 5 min by car) from my college and I will probably have to walk home every Wensday unless the teacher let us out early since it's a 3 hour class. The last bus is always at 7:22, so that gives me about 2 min to try to make the bus, but if not I have to walk home. I should've just did the dorms.
But I'm planning on asking my teacher to let me out at 7:18pm instead 7:20pm but there's no guarantee. I can't rely on a cab because sometimes they just don't show up at all and then won't inform you that their not coming.
My brother tells me I could do it because he has been hitchhiking and backpacking across Europe by himself, but I'm still nervous about the whole situation.
Does anyone have any words of encouragement for me or how to best deal with the situation? I'm hoping that I don't have to drop the class because I need it on my application by the time I apply to the nursing program, but it looks like I have no other option.
I really think they're just stupid. They can be perfectly safe in a ditch or in the woods or a field near the road, the car startles them, so they run. Trouble is, they run into the road rather than away from it. My parents trained me to watch for their glowing eyes while driving at night, because if they were in the ditch they'd be darting into the road when startled.
This reminds me of the time where a young buck suddenly appeared on a busy main route on my way home very casually; sniffing the ground and oblivious to the cars; once the traffic light turned green, on cue it began to trot, then the cars started beeping and in a flash it jumped over the cars and back into a wooded section.
I wouldn't believed my own eyes of not for my sister driving.
My mother had also encountered a deer jumping over her on the way home from work when I was a teen...she said she heard the hooves and some wind and saw it gallop (?) across the street and into a more wooded area.
These stories are reminding me of my early driving days. I drove a 1980 Toyota pickup that had no power steering or anti-lock breaks. I was driving home from a friend's house, following another friend. A massive buck with the largest rack of antlers I've ever seen even to this day went in the road in front of her and she just maneuvered around him. But then he stayed in one spot, quite literally a deer in the headlights, and when I put my breaks on, they locked. I spun out and ended up going backwards over the curb on the other side of the road. Man my heart was racing!
I've lived in country and suburb most of my life and as someone else said - I just look for them. I know they're there, so it's just programmed second nature for me.
All kidding and story-telling aside I agree with the poster who sugested a bike. Although I really cannot imagine your professor holding you hostage for the last 5 minutes of your class causing you to have to walk home in the dark but if this is true then a bike is the answer. Even at a sluggish 10 miles an hour that will get you home in 15 minutes limiting your risk of exposure to nefarious creatures both two and four-legged. There are many ways to light your bike, yourself and the road to allow for safe travel in the dark. Even if it gets snowy there are tires for that too and ways to keep warm. I am a cyclist so if you want some suggestions just let me know.
So deer have been known to gnaw on bones of other animals? Well, here we have a body farm, so the available bones happen to be human. I say it's ststistically skewed. The only fear of deer I have is them damaging me or my vehicle when they run out in front of me in the road.
I should've just did the dorms.
LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN
8,429 Posts
This reminds me of the time where a young buck suddenly appeared on a busy main route on my way home very casually; sniffing the ground and oblivious to the cars; once the traffic light turned green, on cue it began to trot, then the cars started beeping and in a flash it jumped over the cars and back into a wooded section.
I wouldn't believed my own eyes of not for my sister driving.
My mother had also encountered a deer jumping over her on the way home from work when I was a teen...she said she heard the hooves and some wind and saw it gallop (?) across the street and into a more wooded area.
All in the city, I might add...