<h1><B>An encounter with the family Cervidae.</B></h1>

One tried to attack me in the woods while I was jogging. I got away without a scratch. Another time, two of them jumped out of the bushes, side by side, at the level of my head. I tell you, another step, and I would have been road kill. Both incidents rattled me, but didn't stop me running in the forest. Parkinson's took care of that.

I am talking about deer.

I live in a city of close to 650,000 people, in an older part of town as opposed to the suburbs. On my morning walk, I travel about 5 kilometers using my trekking poles. I can really get moving using the poles in a nordic fashion. This morning, 5AM, I was "speeding" along whenI became aware of a feeling of falling forward. I needed a rest so I slowed to a standstill. Within a nanosecond of my stop, a large stag dashed in front of me, crossed a main artery (4 lanes), somehow missing the cars going in each direction, stopped, looked back with disdain, snapped his head and disappeared into the darkness.

If I hadn't stopped, I would have.....well, you know. Apparently, somebody is watching over me because that is now 3 times I have had a rendezvous with death at the hands of a 4 pronged hoodlum.

I think the deer are in cahoots with PD. They seem certain one of them will get me at some point. I think or rather, know, I am up to the battle, ergo, I don't worry about the future and I am sure my "insuciance is a nuiciance"* to them as they plan my demise.

Much is happening in the field of Parkinson's research so that condition, while somewhat irksome, is not overwhelming me. A cure is on its way. Sooner, not later. If not a cure,then good new drugs, now being tested, will slow the pace of deterioration in my brain.

Now if I could only do something about those deer.

• I would live all my life in nonchalance and insouciance, Were it not for making a living, which is rather a nouciance.

Ogden Nash