Only in East Tennessee Part 2

My world is falling apart. I can’t go anywhere without being struck with the lunacy that is my current situation. First was the tractor. I suppose that the number of tractors in the area might eventually lead to the incident described yesterday. But what happened to me next has no explanation.

I was driving to meet Carrie at school before a Disc Golfing tee time. Shadow and Elijah were in the car. We were leisurely driving along, when I cam around a curve and a chicken jumped out in front of my car. Yes, you read correctly—a chicken. Not wanting to add to the already mounting numbers of road kill consisting of possum, squirrel, muskrat, etc., I locked my car up. I can’t remember the last time I heard the squeal of tires followed by the smell of burnt rubber that comes from slamming on the brakes. But I did anyway. Shadow ended up in the passenger seat. Shaken, but okay. The car barely missed this stupid chicken as it just fluttered on to the other side of the road.

I was forced to pull over to side of the road for a minute to compose myself. I was enraged. I couldn’t be mad at the chicken, after all it doesn’t know that a car traveling at 50 mph will destroy it. But I was still mad. Who is to blame? Hillbilly Jim who decides that he wants to have chickens but doesn’t want to go through the work of making a coup to keep his chickens penned up. How much does chicken wire cost you lazy redneck?

You may think this is an isolated incident, but it happens regularly down here. There seems to be little concept of civility, as people just do what is easy and expect everyone to understand. Maybe it isn’t only in East Tennessee. But I feel like my world is collapsing. If we can’t even keep our chickens from terrorizing the neighborhood what hope do we have for a redeemed society.