The Wild

When we lived in Chicago, Kevin had a 30 mile commute to work. (Which took almost 2 hours if traffic was bad.) In New York, he had a 70 mile commute--3 hours in a car, every day. It was brutal. Here in Norway, we live about a mile from his job. He doesn't drive, instead he treks down a steep, rocky, twisty, muddy trail. In rainy weather, it's more of a creek than a trail. He has all kinds of special gear for his commute--a backpack briefcase, water proof hiking boots, gaiters, waterproof pants and a huge parka. The one thing he didn't take into consideration is the fact that as winter approaches and daylight wanes, his commute is now in the dark, both coming and going. He needs to get a miner's helmet or something, as he needs his hands free for balancing, especially now that the trail is covered in snow and ice. Unfortunately, he hasn't yet found a head lamp and a couple of days ago, he really needed one! He was hiking along in the pre-dawn darkness, and suddenly he smelled something...something that smelled like an animal. Kind of like musk and wet fur, definitely an animal. But it was dark and poor Kevin had no idea of what kind of animal he was smelling, and even worse, where the animal was. Not wanting to run smack into a moose, he stood very still and listened. After a while (a very long while, as he was standing in mud and slush in the dark fervently hoping not to be headbutted into Sweden by an angry moose) he heard twigs snapping, and the smell dissipated. Kevin continued on to work and apparently promptly forgot the whole experience, as he still hasn't bothered to look for a head lamp.
As I write this, Kevin is somewhere in the air on his way to Shanghai. Hopefully he'll have a good trip, and hopefully he won't have a moonlight encounter with any pandas!