Some Days Are Special

We all have bad days on the job.

My most recent bad day started with a fender bender on a muddy road. Well, actually, it started when I said I would work patrol for another officer so he could take his wife to a medical appointment. It got worse when a passing car declined to slow down while passing my accident scene, and proceeded to decorate my clean uniform with mud.

As this type of day tends to go, mine went downhill from there. I never got a chance to change my uniform, so I did the best I could throughout the day to flake the mud off as it dried.

My last call of the day had me back standing along the side of the road interviewing a victim of alleged criminal damage. The damage appeared to have been the result of a rock flying up from a passing car and placing a nice hole in his windshield. The “victim,” though, didn’t seem to appreciate me using my detective skills to his disadvantage and I quickly realized his day was going about as well as mine.

While I was writing down the required information for my report, several birds swept down and flew very close to where we were standing. One small young bird landed on the toe of my muddy boot and stayed.

I looked down. The man looked down. The bird looked up. After the bird was satisfied that it had a safe perch, it continued to look around at the scenery and enjoy a short rest. As quiet and steadily as I could, I reached for my cell phone and snapped a picture.

The bird looked up one more time and then flew away.

After the bird left, the man decided he didn’t want to file a report after all. He agreed with my interpretation of events. He asked me if I would forward the picture of the bird to his cell phone.

As I walked away, I decided some days are just special. And this was one of those days!

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