geese of confusion

this morning we had to go to the hardware store. now, i don't always feel comfortable at this particular hardware store. it's one that caters primarily to large construction projects and the tone of folks in the store can seem, well, sometimes snooty. but because they cater to professional hardware types, they always have what we need. and they have several large, friendly dogs who can pretty much offset any amount of snootiness you might feel if you can find one or two of them. so we hopped in the car and headed out behind one of those huge orange and white trucks like our tree-guy neighbor drives.

some bit down the highway (yes, it's still just a two lane road) the giant orange truck braked for what seemed to be no reason at all. and then, the truck and the person in it just sat there in the middle of the highway all giant and orange and ridiculously stopped. but off to the left there's a pretty big pond and four very self-important geese were strolling in a string-straight line out onto the road and toward the truck. they walked right in front of the truck. right in front. they stood there in front of the truck a minute or two conducting some sort of business meeting, huddled up together, one of them eying the driver every once in a while, i imagine. and then they turned themselves around. by this time, traffic the other direction had stopped as well and the four geese, doing little to nothing to acknowledge the strangeness of their trip out onto the highway, strutted right back the way they came.