Foxy

I was driving to meet a subcontractor yesterday and passed by a field located just on the edge of town. Right in the middle of the field, there were four fox kits playing like they hadn't a care in the world.

I nearly drove off the road. I have lived in this town for forty years, and spent a lot of time in the surrounding woods. I have never seen one fox. Today I see four, and they were babies. By the time I got the truck turned around and the camera out, they were gone, so you will have to take my word for it.

But it makes me wonder, were those kits out in the field by chance, or had the building boom crowded them out?

I am not one of the environmentalist zealots, per se. We all have to have a place to live. But I ask myself every day, "do we really need another subdivision of cookie cutter houses?" Really, how many lawyers, doctors and engineers are there? I live in a blue collar community. The number of $250k house that are being put up daily baffles me. Maybe these people buy these houses, and go without furniture. I dunno. I miss the rural flavor that this community had not that many years ago. When I was a boy, "going out in the country" meant getting in the car and driving 10 minutes. Now, in 10 minutes I can be on the interstate connector, or have my choice of 2 Walmarts, a Lowes, Home Depot, Meijers, 3 Kroger, 3 McDonalds, 2 Burger King, @ Applebees, and at least 22 chain drug store outlets. There is one intersection that has a drugstore on 3 of the four corners, the other corner is a BP.

This is not progress.

When I was in high school, I was in the running to be named a person that would live in my hometown my whole life. That may change.

Peace