The Noblesvillain

Arriving at work yesterday, Mother Goose was turning her eggs.  I got a good glimpse of the typical five to seven eggs, so my earlier recollection of just two eggs was probably flawed.  The nest had undergone an change.  Down had been added where the goose meets the ground.  Today it is raining and the goose has adopted a set which has her wings slightly spread to keep any moisture from entering the rim of the nest.

While building a nest in a parking lot doesn't seem to be an ideal approach, apparently there are a number of geese which nest on the top of our building.  This seemed like a more sound approach until one considers how the young will forage...  I don't think there is much in the way of vegetable matter up there.

I have been looking but have not seen a goose bar.

This is the view that greets me as I arrive at work each day.  Geese parade all over the industrial park as if they own the place.  Having a goose bar your way as you turn into a drive doesn't fit the regular way of things.  As I get out of my car, I get a HHHHHHkhHkhHKkkkkhkhkh (a sort of non-sibilant hissing) from this mother.  I haven't yet learned the proper meaning but I believe that it is a cautious morning greeting (bordering on rude).

Growing up geese were either food (during hunting season) or kept a proper distance. The memo describing the proper personal space didn't seem to make it to the avians this year. In the nest two large eggs sit (not the requisite three to five). My natural inclination is to teach this wayward waterfowl a proper fear of humans, but a vague memory describing the strength of a goose's wing being similar to a Louisville Slugger keeps me nice.

I'll post again if I get a glimpse of gosling's.  The incubation period is 28 days and I'd guess we're about a week into this time.

[Edit: checked spelling]

Noblesville needs additional space for city hall (prognosticators set 10-year potential population at 150,000 people).  Some Victorian homes sit upon the location of the expansion site causing historical societies to promote the movement of these homes rather than their demolition.  Today the home movers came and we watched the action.

Marv Sherrill holding a trophy brought back from the cultural exchange with Mexico. (Sioux Falls Argus Leader of March 25th, 2005 p. C1)

Also see the First Entry on this topic.

Following retirement in 2004, my dad, Marv Sherrill, has now been inducted into the South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame.  The article appears in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, "Sports - South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame biographies."

While Dad has never been one to shy from the spotlight, I did not learn until reading the above article that he was the most successful high school wrestling coach in the state (career 504-151-13 in dual meets), that his 'naked men wrestling' trophy was from coaching the first ever international wrestling exchange with Mexico, and that he never had a losing season in 35 years as a freshman football coach (even coaching the dunces I played ball with that didn't win a game in 7th or 8th grade).

What I know best is the dad who took his little boy with him across the state on bus trips, into restricted areas for coaches and referees at tournaments, across the county, state, or country for kids' local, state, and national wrestling tournaments, and into the basement to work out on the small square of discarded wrestling mat.  I appreciate all the encouragement, pushing, practice, and rules that came with growing up a coach's son.  I'm a better man today for all of it.  I wish we could still travel in the front two seats of the Greyhound bus, reading our paperback books by the dim overhead light, crossing the expanse of prairie on the return trip from a successful state tournament.

See an image in Part II of this topic.