Afternoon Commute

Last night after work I ran a few errands and spent a few minutes at the gym. I wanted to get home before dark so I could check on my chickens without a flashlight. I was trying to relax and get out of work mode. I have a million options on which route to take home. I can take the highway or the back roads. Every way home has advantages and disadvantages. I know the roads are busy. I know I will wait for something. I can wait for kids to get off a school bus. I can wait for a 120 box car train to roll by. I can avoid waiting for the train by taking another road but then I will wait for traffic. One obstacle I face every work day is the Rum River. I have to cross the Rum unless I go the long way and cross the Mississippi twice. Last night I idled in my car above the Rum River for many minutes. I doubt it was five minutes I was in one place on Bunker Lake Boulevard but it felt like five minutes.  My mind wandered. I glanced to my right. Exploring the western bank of the Rum River were Mr. and Mrs. Trumpeter Swan with their cygnet offspring. As they paddled upstream they clung close to shore and stuck their heads in the water here and there. The trio of beautiful white swans reminded me of angels. I wondered what they were talking about for surely they were communicating to each other. Maybe they were debating whether to stay in Minnesota for the winter or migrate south. Maybe they were trying to decide what to have for supper. Maybe the parents were giving the cygnet life lessons about the dangers of human beings. Traffic moved forward and so did I. I rolled ahead 20 feet and came to a stop again. I was still above the Rum River. Now I was above a backwater area of the  Rum that is part of a park in the city of Ramsey. I thought I saw three plastic bags in the backwater close to the cattails. Then I thought how strange it was that there were three very large plastic bags in the same spot.One of the plastic bags moved and a swan neck emerged. Then I realized here were three more Trumpeter swans having a snack. I was looking at the south end of three Trumpeters who were facing north with their heads under water.  Again it was a pair of adults with a cygnet. Wow. How lucky am I that I get to see six angelic Trumpeter swans! These are the largest birds in North America. I must have done something good today to deserve this sighting of six Trumpeter swans on this day on this bridge at this moment in time. Traffic moved ahead.  I drove home.  All thoughts of work had left my mind.