Turtle Patrol

It feels like Friday but not quite yet. We'll have a reduced load tomorrow due to sending schools closing early, etc. That's what I love about the education field. Just when you think you are going to totally lose your mind, they give you a few days off. Monday is Memorial Day, then the slide through June to Liberation Day. It's HOT and GREEN here in CNY, and my new classroom has terrific air conditioning. The neighboring rooms are not nearly as cool, and how I got so lucky is beyond me. Some students came in and tried to open the windows to let the hot air in and I said NO, STOP what you are doing and nobody will get hurt!! Meeting after school then off to the New Berlin PO, then the little market, then to Pittsfield Veterinary to get more kitty medicine. On the way back, on a very busy two lane road, I saw a little turtle stretching it's neck, looking at traffic, waiting to cross. I couldn't put on the brakes so I found the first place to turn around and went back, with flashers on, real slow, ready to block traffic and get it across the road. It was gone!! No mashed turtle on the road, no little head peaking from the weeds as far as I could see. I turned around again and went real slow, a line of traffic forming behind me. I hope the little turtle changed his mind, or scurried across safely. I had to get home. I remembered an old friend who pulled his Land Rover broadside on busy Eisenhower Parkway in Paramus, New Jersey, to save a turtle trying to cross. A police cruiser pulled up and blocked the other two lanes on this four lane highway while the turtle marched across. It's a tough asphalt world for turtles. If they are not killed by pesticides, they are run over by cars. Last year this time I stopped, again on my way home from work (why me???) to help a snapping turtle cross in front of my neighbor farm. It must have come from the creek across the road to lay her eggs in the plowed field. She stopped to rest or take a sun bath, but I wanted her to get on off the road. All I had was a windshield brush, and I tried to push her along. She whirled and hissed and tried to bite me (which probably would have severed my whole hand!) and wouldn't move! A line was forming including Fed Ex and a couple of pick up trucks. I finally gave up and got back in my car and went home. I figured that old girl had lived a long time (she was as big as a garbage can lid!) and she was on her own. I sure hope Luke and Hannah don't step on her in the creek - or her friends!! I'm waiting to hear from AJ to find out when he's coming this weekend. I'm excited to see him.