The Internet seems to thrive on trivia. I have learned all sorts of things that have little or no practical application by surfing the web. I don’t spend a lot of time using my computer to look at other web sites, but enough that I occasionally run across stories that I might not otherwise read. Because I use my computer as a primary news source, I look at the web sites of prominent newspapers. But because links are so easy to follow from one story to another, I often find myself reading about topics I might otherwise miss. Here are a few stories that have caught my attention recently:

When I was growing up, we never had a deer come inside our school building. Since I now live in a place where we have deer in our yard every day, it did catch my attention when I read of a large whitetail buck that crashed through a plate glass window into a classroom at an Ohio junior high school on Wednesday. There was a teacher and two students in the room at the time. They quickly exited. The buck, injured by his crash through the window, wandered around the room until another teacher, Dustin Goldie, who happens to be a deer farmer, got his tranquilizer gun and succeeded in shooting the deer with a nonlethal tranquilizer dart so it could be removed from the classroom. It made great video for the school video team. The video appeared on YouTube and clips from it made it to CNN News.

We know the bucks get crazy at this time of the year. We’ve watched them ignoring cars on the road, people in the yard, and lots of other potential distractions in their quest to find mates. And we know of stories of others who have had deer inside buildings. The stories usually involve large windows. Patio doors seem to get broken as well. The general theory around here is that the buck sees its reflection in the glass and then lunges at it as if it were a rival. I also read of an 83-year-old woman in Pittsburgh who had a deer break through her window. The woman triggered her lifeline and help soon arrived to usher the deer out the front door. There was a bit of a mess to clean up.

There is no indication that the deer was any more educated as a result of its trip to school, however.

At Sugarbush Ski Resort in Vermont, the critter was even bigger. Skiers have occasionally seen moose around the resort – it is a beloved sight. Naturalists theorize that the moose occasionally wander onto the groomed ski trails simply because the snow is packed and the going a bit easier there than on other parts of the mountain. But a couple of days ago, a large bull moose took after Jeff Palmer. And someone caught the whole scene on video as Palmer released his skis and ran away on foot. The Moose veered up the trail and Palmer was not injured.

There are so many video cameras around ski resorts these days that it probably isn’t surprising that someone caught the scene on video. The Internet means that a lot of us who are far away from Vermont got to see the video within a few days of the incident. Actually, it doesn’t look all that scary. I think Palmer might have done just as well to ski away down the hill. It won’t keep me from going skiing. Actually, I like to see moose. I don’t get the opportunity too often. The one time we did have a moose step on to the road in front of our car when driving in Canada, it did startle us and get our attention right away. Even from the seat of the pickup – those are very large animals.

Another story of a threatening animal has prompted several calls to emergency authorities recently. In Virginia Beach, Virginia, several people have seen what they took to be a small lion walking on the streets not far from the zoo. Several 911 calls have reported seeing the lion. Upon investigation, the beast turned out to be Daniel Painter’s dog, “Charles the Monarch,” a labradoodle with an unusual trim. Painter is a big fan of Old Dominion University and he had his dog shaved to resemble Big Blue the lion mascot of the university. Since Painter lives near the zoo, many people have seen him walking his dog in the area. Never fear. The zoo’s lions are present and accounted for in their enclosures. The Virginia Beach police have released tapes of the 911 calls. Fortunately the callers weren’t identified. It might be a bit embarrassing to be the one who made the mistaken identification. Again, with the Internet, video of the dog is readily available.

Back here at home, I’m sort of wishing for a day that is more calm when the deer remain outside, no moose take to chasing me and I spot no lions running lose on the streets. A little snow will be welcome as we crawl into bed this evening and I hope I wake to a good old-fashioned (thought short-lived) Dakota winter blizzard. We’ve got plenty of food in the pantry, extra firewood stacked near the back door, good books to read and the promise of a day off tomorrow as we prepare for worship on Sunday. Life is good and we could use the precipitation. The weather service has downgraded their predictions about the amount of snow, so we probably won’t get buried, but a few inches of new snow will cover up the unfinished yard work and make the world beautiful when viewed from inside our warm home. We are expecting that we won’t need to travel and if we do need to make a run to town to visit someone, we have reliable vehicles.

So stay indoors, keep warm, and watch out for dangerous animals. I think you can easily have a safe weekend.

Copyright © 2013 by Ted Huffman. I wrote this. If you want to copy it, please ask for permission. There is a contact me button at the bottom of this page. If you want to share my blog a friend, please direct your friend to my web site.