Just about three weeks ago the department of transportation completed a road project not far from our house. A tricky three-way intersection that operated as a two-way stop was converted into a traffic circle with three entrances, a bike path, signage and streetlights. The motivation for this change was, as people have been saying, a number of accidents that occurred there over time. We never witnessed one but broken-down fences on the neighboring property and bend-over traffic signs that seem to happen regularly, provide some evidence. The online neighborhood forum had quite a mixed set of opinions about this construction – including complaints about the cost that possibly could have been avoided by converting the intersection into a three-way stop; to concerns about the streetlights impacting the dark sky stargazing. But here it is and personally I feel it has been well built and the construction did not significantly disrupt the traffic flow while it was ongoing. Being in a rural area the design is simple. While in the adjacent town of Sunriver some new traffic circles have elaborate landscaping around their center mound, our circle was simply covered with beige-brown medium size gravel, a color that fits into the color scheme of the desert landscape surrounding it. But it was not to stay that boring – soon after the circle opened a “deer” crafted from logs and branches appeared on top. One has to know that our area is full of wildlife – deer, elk and other creatures roam around freely and are often subject of art projects – for example in Bend or at the High Desert Museum. The deer fit well into the landscape, and it soon was to have a brother, and a sister and another sibling shortly thereafter. They all look kind of nice and silly at the same time – but that may be the point. Rumor has it that they are even being given names. So far, I learned the names of the first two are Hun and Ton. (Note: the traffic circle sits on Huntington Road). So, one can guess what the next name could be, but I am not so sure about the name for the fourth beast. I have also heard rumors that ODOT (Oregon department of transportation) intents to remove the deer from the circle. That has not happened yet. I do take the deer placed there by neighbors as a sign, that the neighborhood has embraced our new traffic circle after all. I can foresee that if they were removed we would be in for a long stand-off between the neighbors and ODOT which I would bet, ODOT will lose, since the materials for crafting new deer is near endless here, and I tend to believe the gasoline budget for ODOT is not.