Wild Animals and a Memento Moment

I had a series of strange run-ins with animals over the past week. Last week, I was up late working, when I heard a rustling on my balcony. I peeked outside and was surprised to see a racoon bustling about. I live on the top floor of a five story building, and there is nothing in the way of food up here. Nevertheless, there he was. I turned on the light and stared at him, and he stared at me back, completely unconcerned. Then he continued on his way, apparently practicing an anaerobic version of parkour on the various roof tops in the Outer Richmond.    (M8D)

A few days later, I was driving up to San Francisco from Mountain View, and I hit a heavier-than-usual patch of traffic on the 101. I assumed there was an accident, and sure enough, a few miles later, I noticed what seemed to be stalls in the two left lanes. However, I was surprised to see that neither car had their emergency blinkers on. As I drove nearer, I saw the culprits: A duck and two small ducklings, casually meandering around the fast lane of the 101 during rush hour.    (M8E)

Yesterday, towards the end of the day, I decided to take a walk on the Land’s End trail, which is a few blocks from where I live. On the trail, I passed a guy holding a chicken. That’s right, a chicken. I looked at the chicken, looked at the guy, shook my head, and moved on.    (M8F)

As I was walking back to my apartment, I thought about each of these amusing animal moments, and decided to blog about them. Then I looked to my right and noticed something unusual on the sidewalk. It was a dead, featherless chick, which had apparently fallen out of its nest. I thought to myself, “I think I’ll leave that out of my blog entry.” My other run-ins had amused me. This one bothered me, and I preferred to forget about it.    (M8G)

Then I wondered whether I would remember the dead chick anyway when I reread this entry, whether I mentioned it or not. It reminded me of the final scene in the movie, Memento. I was essentially trying to rewrite history by changing the artifact. However, artifacts have a strange way of triggering complex memories, whether you want them to or not. I guess I’ll never know for sure.    (M8H)

One reply to “Wild Animals and a Memento Moment”

  1. Four years later, I accidentally came across this post again, as it was listed as related to the one I wrote most recently about Tule elk. I remember the racoon on my roof. I have a vague memory of the duck on the freeway, and I have an even vaguer memory of the dead chick. I don't remember the guy with the chicken. If I had not mentioned the dead chick here, I probably would not have remembered it.

Leave a Reply to eekimCancel reply