save seymour’s dear deer

    But first a little bragging. About two months ago I mentioned that my grandson, a graduate of Seymour High School and now a student at Tennessee Technology Center in Knoxville was attending a state wide computer competition in Chattanooga; and he might get to go to a nationwide competition in Kansas city, MO.  All went well in Chattanooga, he took the gold so he went on to the national.  How did he do, he placed sixth in the nation, Sam Soto I am so proud of you I could burst.
Now let’s get on to the Seymour dear deer. One of my favorite things to do is drive the back roads when in and around Seymour.  I often see deer, early morning and early evening.  Sometime around high noon a day or two ago I was surprised to see two of this years fawns grazing along side the road.  
At a distance my wife and I thought some thoughtless kids had relocated some deer statues to the field or that they were practice targets.  When nearly beside them they raised their heads, twitched tails and bolted. What a beautiful sight seeing two of God’s creatures enjoying his bounty.
A few days ago a friend was driving in the early morning on US 411 South, towards Maryville. It was slightly misty as she rounded a curve a deer jumped in front of her.  The loss was one deer, and one nearly new car.  
I believe her when she said it happened so fast she couldn’t prevent it.  She is an animal lover and it broke her heart.  More about deer sightings later, why give it up all at once; you might keep reading my column just to see what I going to say; hey if you don’t read it why write it?
Serious stuff, real serious; another toddler drowned nearby, seventeen months old, just beginning life.
His life ended, it was barely started.  The ‘watcher’ said the child was only gone about five minutes.   Just enough time to wander to the neighbor’s pool.  What a shame a bonafide tragedy. Don’t let it happen in Seymour - Childproof your pool, please, fences, locks, vigilance; screen with a high fence or slats for an existing chain-link fence.
Don’t forget you. Protect yourself from the heat, stay cool when and where you can.  Stay hydrated drink plenty water, drink hydrating liquids like Gatorade which has electrolytes which you lose when you sweat, of course ladies don’t sweat but you need to stay hydrated too.
Heat can and does kill so don’t be an unnecessary victim, keep  drinking water even while in your car, sugared or diet drinks don’t help much.  In the sun and heat, drink about a pint of  water an hour.  If you get thirsty you have waited too long.
Speaking of drinking water, where does it come from?  Why, from a water tap, of course.  And so that’s it, right - wrong; and are we running out of water, nope!  Well some say we are, nope again!  What is right we still have every drop of water on this earth that God gave us when He formed the earth, ask a science teacher or a hydrologist.
One or two things though, where have we put and how have we made it unusable?  Well we pollute it in many ways, some so badly that without extensive and costly conditioning it is nearly useless.  
Well let’s start here in Seymour, ok.  We sometimes change our motor oil.  Some by parking over a ditch and letting the oil run right out into the ditch to drain into the ground, hey it came out of the ground anyway.  
Some have a set of ramps they pull up on and have a container to drain into so as not to make a mess on their grass or drive.  That’s pretty good but how to dispose of it.  
Well it’s some times used along a fence line to keep the grass and weeds down, hey not so good.  Ok pour it on the brush pile and it helps to burn the brush, that’s a no-no please.  That pollutes the air, ground and ground water.  Take it to a place where they are set up to receive waste oil, most any auto parts store will accommodate you.    
More about water later.  This is God’s earth and we use it as His guests.  Don’t dishonor Him by being uncaring, Love, thank and praise him He gave us life we need Him, respect him.