Why Wednesdays? – Why I Run, Reason #2: Crows and Tortillas

A Note About This Feature:  Why Wednesdays is a Move Eat Create weekly feature determined to turn the mid-week doldrums upside down and celebrate things I love to do and blog about.  Currently, the focus is on running.

 

A few weeks back I was on my long, Saturday morning run (my favorite run of the week) when I came across something adorably, amusingly odd.  I’ve made my turn around and am running the second half of my route, taking in the refreshing morning air, enjoying the sounds of the birds in the trees, and I see a crow in the road.  This is not unusual.  Crows are everywhere in Portland, especially during the early morning hours.  It’s pretty much their city then and they let us share it.  It’s quite kind of them, actually.

Well, this particular crow was in the middle of the road, as crows often are, but what was unusual was that he (I’ve decided it was a male) had a full-burrito-sized flour tortilla hanging from its beak.  The crow, on his short crow legs, was dwarfed by the tortilla.  It hung out of his beak and piled up on the asphalt under him because it was, quite frankly, larger than he was.

The crow looked at me, nodding stoically (he did, I swear), and proceeded to waddle off across the street, tortilla dragging along.  I assume he had been up all night and was taking it home to whip up a burrito that would feed his post-all night crow party cravings.

While there are a lot of odd, wonderful things to see in this city, I am more observant and open to seeing them when I’m running, rather than rushing to and fro.  It is the only time in my life I have ever seen a crow schlepping a tortilla across the road, and I find that to be reason enough to run.