Day One

Day one in Charlotte isn't over. In fact, it's hardly begun, but with a bit of time on my hands this afternoon I wanted to share the cutest/saddest (is there a word for cutely-sad?) story:

Butner, Kristen, and I were driving back from the movie Ironman (very entertaining, Robert Downey Jr. is fantastic) when traffic across this massive road comes screeching to a halt. There, in front of us, is a duck herding her two ducklings across this seven lane road. On the other side are three more ducklings waiting for mom and their brothers/sisters to arrive safely. Kristen announced, "I'm just going to wait here." So we did. We witnessed the final leg of a safe crossing.

It reminds me how animals have adapted to so much human intervention. We were in a neighborhood that ten years ago didn't exist. Today, thanks to suburban sprawl, the place is under tons of concrete and steel. While most of the plants, animals, and other little critters that once inhabited that land are gone, these ducks are pressing on, even reproducing new little ones.