the birds and the cows

having lived 20 some odd years in dallas i naturally became acclimated to the ways of the city: chinese delivery in the middle of the night, offensive driving, avoiding making eye contact with strange men and the homeless, brunch as a religion, patios as shelters, shoes as accessories, weekly publications to guide you in going out, locking your car door even if your leaning on it pumping gas, and the constant array of night life sounds. so normally, having moved to the sparse populated region of south oregon, i'm going through quasi-culture shock. this became more than apparent this morning when i was outside in the pasture chatting with my landlord, marion, as he burned heaps of trash; the cows across the street had, and still are, mooing incessantly all night long and all morning long-they had not only prevented me from dozing off to sleep effortlessly but they had also woke me up a hour and a half before i naturally do. being hallows eve and being in a slightly backwards town i assumed some bored tricker treaters were out there harassing the bovine. but that hypothesis went flying out the window when i woke up. so there i was in the pasture with marion, an elderly retired minister, expressing my dismay with the cows gibber gabber when marion pointed out i really was from the city and that the cows were making all that fuss because they are getting it on. it's cow mating season round here, folks.