Home Obituaries Mine Creek Revelations by Louie Graves: Drowned Bunny

Mine Creek Revelations by Louie Graves: Drowned Bunny

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A CITIZEN’S THANKS TO the Nashville Public Works Department for putting out the U.S. flags which the Rotary Club purchased. Thanks to organizers of the traditional Memorial Day salute to our county’s war casualties on the courthouse lawn. The event this year had a possibly smaller turnout of veterans, but there was a big crowd of family and friends in lawnchairs under the shade trees.

Zack Williams has played ‘Taps’ for courthouse lawn events since he was an eighth-grader. Now he’s a high school honor grad and is headed off to nursing school.

And don’t forget Saturday evening’s annual Relay for Life. This year it will move to the county fairgrounds.

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AN UPDATE ON ‘Pyramid City’ which was a part of this column last week. My mother remembers walking through the abandoned, larger ‘City Hall’ pyramid. She recalls that among the items just left by the cult were objects representing many religions or denominations. She recalls a Christian cross, a Jewish Menorah, a Catholic crucifix. There were other items but she’s not real sure what they were, except some were exotic.

I suggested that there might have been a Baptist casserole dish, but she just raised her eyebrows and gave me that look that told me I wasn’t far from getting a whipping. Some of you may be familiar with that look. It wasn’t limited to Catholic mothers. Jewish moms have been doing it since Old Testament days.

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ANIMAL CRACKERS. I’ve been remiss in mentioning the return of the Mississippi kites to the rising warm air currents over my neighborhood. They’re there. The updrafts AND the kites.

And I have steadfastly resisted the urge to open and peer into the top of the patio bluebird box. Mom and dad bluebird arrive often with something clenched in their beaks, and I am assuming those are tasty morsels for some chicks. But, I’ve been firmly cautioned about interfering with the raising of those chicks (if, indeed, there are some there).

While I relish watching the bluebirds fly in and out — I think of it as a feathered Berlin Airlift — I dread the day the chicks jump out of the bird box. Too many times they frantically head straight for the pool. And bluebird chicks don’t swim.

This past weekend I fished a drowned baby rabbit out of the pool. Just a day earlier I had watched it hopping around munching on landscape plants. I was disappointed that it did not eat the abundant poison ivy.

So, here’s what I’ve fished out of my pool over the years: Moles, a rat, mice, lizards of many kinds, several species of birds, a turtle and one dead water snake that apparently had spent the winter on its back under some leaves in the bottom of the deep end.

But why mention Baby Bunny? Well, the way I got it out of the pool was with the long-handled dip net. I scooped up Poor Little Bunny and slung him/her over the patio fence and into my side yard.

In a minute I’ll go get my shovel and respectfully bury the little critter, I told myself.

It was actually about 5 minutes. I grabbed my trusty shovel and went into the side yard to find Poor Little Drowned Bunny.

But it was gone.

I walked over every square foot of that yard and Poor Little Drowned Bunny wasn’t anywhere.

That leaves me with two possibilities.

(1) Some passing hungry critter made off with a damp meal; or

(2) Poor Little Drowned Bunny wasn’t completely dead when he/she got scooped out of the pool. The dizzying flight over the patio fence and the sudden crash landing might’ve cleared it’s precious little rabbit lungs and jarred its heart back into action. The thusly rejuvenated aforesaid Poor Little Drowned Bunny could have hopped into the protection of the bushes; or

(3) Something else.          

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ONE OF THE MANY features of my swell buggy is a tailgate camera which shows me what I’ve just backed over. I had finally gotten to the point that I trusted watching the tv screen instead of twisting my neck and looking over my shoulder through the rear window to see what I had just backed over.

Then something unfortunate happened. Truly unfortunate. I was backing up on a narrow rural road when suddenly a tv commercial interrupted the view. It was some lawyer firm that wanted to represent me in some kind of medical matter. There may be a significant financial settlement in your future if you have this disease, the lawyer said.

I looked incredulously at the tv screen to see if I was hearing correctly. And I felt a thump as my rear wheels backed over something.

It was the lawyer who was standing behind my truck.

I hope he doesn’t sue.

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THINGS I LEARNED from opening email: Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

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WORD GAMES. The twins: Old and Worn. Time for a replacement.

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HE SAID: “Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.” Buddha, philosopher

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SHE SAID: “Most people in archeology find their specialties in strange and unique ways. I always wanted to do archaeology, and then the time came for me to actually be in the field, and it was excruciatingly boring. Excavation is really, really boring.” Gail Carriger, author and archaeologist

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SWEET DREAMS, Baby

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