Smart Money's On "Over"

I wonder how many more times I’m going to fall for the fake geese on the side of the road

Three more times!  

I appreciate the optimism, as unfounded as it may be.   

So, we all have that moment of shock when we see an animal on the side of the road, particularly if it's a larger-sized animal.  Whether it be that you don't want to run over a helpless child of nature, or you just don't want to clean the mess off of your car, or it's a skunk, you become instantly alert to the animal and its movements.  It's a variation on the "fight or flight" response that has more to do with fear of hitting something with your car than with any danger to your actual person.  Of course, if it's a deer on the side of the road, both concerns can be entirely legitimate.  

Bottom line, people generally don't want to run over animals with their car...and this is a good thing. 

Somewhere along my commute to work, some people have decided that the regular nature-supplied wildlife in the Greater Jeremy Area is completely insufficient, so they put some geese in their front yard.  I don't know why they did this.  These are actually pretty solid replicas, too.  They're fully goose-sized and painted very intricately to look just like geese.  The kind of geese I don't want to run over on my morning commute to work.  So, every day, on my way to work, I see these stupid things and immediately go into battle mode, wanting to avoid instant Goose Pâté on the grill of my car.  Strangely enough, they've never run out into the road in front of me.  Equally strangely, I've never caught on to the fact that there are going to be fake geese in their yard every morning.  One of these days, I'll learn.