Night Vision

 

It started off as just a fun idea.  I was going to get some night vision goggles and sit out in the woods next door after dark just to see what kinds of animals came by.   I had a small camping stool and lots of bug spray.  I knew better than to sit out there with all the mosquitoes and not have my bug spray.

 

First off, I just want to say how very noisy the woods are.  I never hear it during the day because, I guess, there is so much other stuff going on, I never pay attention to all the little twigs snapping or leaves rustling.  Daytime hours bring the sounds of passing cars, and neighbors fussing with their yards, but at night, without all those other distractions, it really is a busy place – noise wise.

 

Anyway, I set my stool up against a good-sized Oak tree.  I didn’t want anything sneaking up behind me.  This way, I thought anyway, that I wouldn’t been seen by anything out there if I was up against a tree, also it gave me something to lean against.

 

I didn’t bring anything else with me, just the stool and the night goggles.  I certainly didn’t want to have the smell of food around.  If the critters were going to smell anything at all, it was going to be bug spray, nothing else.

 

I tried not to fidget while sitting there, I knew the slightest sound would scare off whatever was around.  Not fidgeting, by the way, is not easy.  It didn’t take long to get tired of sitting in the same position, and the last thing I needed was to get a leg cramp or something, but I did it.  I sat motionless for what seemed like three hours, even though it had only been an hour and 10 minutes when my first visitor showed up.

 

Here’s what I didn’t expect.  My first visitor was not walking towards me, or just passing by out there in the woods.  It was climbing down at me from the Oak tree I was leaning against.  It apparently had been up there from the time I set my stool against the tree.  I could hear its claws digging into the bark and I could hear it breathing.  Very slowly I raised my goggles up to my face and tilted my head back.  Now we were face to face.  My strategic positioning had suddenly put me at a major disadvantage.  Not knowing at all what to do next, I froze.  I was hoping these night vision goggles made things look closer than they were, but as I could smell its breath, I knew that was wrong.  One of us was going to have to do something.