Loudoun County where I live is still one of the fastest growing areas in the nation. We are building as fast as we can (blech) even during this recession. There are two Harris-Teeters within 5 miles of my house on the dirt road now. There are new schools opening every time we turn around, and they’re filling up fast. Community services are hard-pressed to keep up with everything.
With this we have dump trucks, loaders and other William A. Hazel related vehicles ALL KINDA EVERYWHERE on the back road I take from my house to summer school. These fellas don’t appear to know that this is a PUBLIC ROAD NOT YOUR CONSTRUCTION EASEMENT!!! I could rant on about THAT for quite some time, but I’m trying my best not to counteract the effects of my blood pressure medication. From the dirt road I bounce along, I see curbs poured for not-yet-existant houses. This land development has always made me angry/nauseous. I get more angry/nauseous the closer it makes it to my own home, which is way too damn close. I was even more bothered when the Drake worked for a company that did the same site developing Hazel does…ripping down the trees and making way for the building of more little boxes made out of ticky-tacky, and yes they all do look just the same. Hard to reconcile the roof over my head being paid for by that.
That being said, I am still smiling about the saga that began day two of me working summer school (July 6). I’m bumping along in my usual way to summer school, dodging dump trucks, watching for any sudden moves by loaders, and have to come to a pretty quick halt. No dozers, no construction workers – two Black Angus and a Jersey or Swiss Brown (I think). Standing in the road, crowded up against the wire fencing (not being chickens, they know enough to move out of the way of oncoming traffic). Two adults and a calf. After they move, I call 911 so we can move the road hazard… I get rerouted to Loudoun Dispatch (apparently I am so far south in Loudoun that cell call pinged into the Prince William County 911 area). I tell them what’s up, they don’t laugh or sound irritated and say they will send someone along. On my merry way I go, late for school.
Three or four days later, there they are again without the calf. I call 911 again, ask to be rerouted to Loudoun, they put me through to the Sheriff’s department who tells me they have someone enroute already…and that the cows are out sightseeing. Gotta love Deputies with a sense of humor.
Bombing along the road for a few more days, I’ve gone back to my normal routine of dodge-the-dumptruck. Then over on the side of the road in the middle of a large cleared area are three cows. Two of them have become very familiar to me and the LCSD, and this time they brought Black Angus Adult number two with them. They are lined up facing the road in a nice, neat little row. The deputy is on one side, and the farmer is on the other. I swear the cows looked like they had just filed in for a lineup. I kept waiting for someone to ask them to turn right for the profile view!! I rolled down the window as I pulled to a stop, and hollered “Again?” out the window. Farmer is laughing, female deputy says “They transferred me down here on the fourth and they’ve been out every day since!!” also laughing. The farmer tells me to tell them goodbye since I won’t see them any more (I hope they are just moving them or getting better fencing up). I holler back to please not turn them into hamburger. They were beautiful cows, and their image is still making me smile. They wanted to see what all that grading and noise was about too, so I guess they got their chance!!! Nature vs. progress. In the end, we all know Nature will win, even if we are not here to listen to it mooing.
