Saturday, October 18, 2008

8 second whistle

We didn't make the 8 second buzzer.

First things first. We're both okay!

It was a beautiful day, and we were more than ready to head on home. We made it to within 60 miles of the house and ka-PING! * whap *...!@#$%^!
Not good. Oh. Crap. This is going to hurt....
Still not sure just what happened. Whether the tire blew first, then the primary belt got full of mud and broke...or?

Anyway, Gus did a great job of getting Spot headed off of the asphalt, and into a grassy ditch. That's the first choice, always. Road rash hurts like hell, and hard pack can do some major damage, or death in a
hurry.

And it bucked. And it slid. Colleen hooked her heels to the pegs, balled up, and got ready to rock and roll. Instead, the first bump stood her up, the second flipped her into the air, then the sissy bar smacked her in the butt, and flipped her end over end. Which possibly is the best thing to have happen, as she then landed sideways in some mud and soft grass.

Gus got to ride the bronc to the bitter end, which was within 1 foot of a culvert. Going any faster, and the front wheel would probably have smacked it, then sent him and the bike flying.
He did get his left leg trapped under the bike, but made sure to turn it off before trying to escape.

Are you okay?Yeah. Are you? Yeah.

Look at this...stuff all over, mud on us and all the bags,...dammit.

Sittin in the ditch.
Sittin in the ditch some more.

Colleen walked down the road to the nearest house to see about getting a way for the bike and people home. It's Sunday.

Nobody working to call, unless we have a wrecker come down.
In the meantime, some kids on crotch rockets stop by, and one of their friends with his 4 wheeler in the back of his truck.

They all manage to get Spot out of the ditch, and Gus has a ride to our house in the truck. He knows better about hooking up the trailer to our truck, and bringing it back. Colleen opts to stay and guard Spot. Not a bad duty overall, if it weren't for the friendly ticks.

Three hours. She cleaned out her purse, killed ticks, ate a muffin and some chocolate, killed ticks, nabbed some wild and wary iris plants from up the road. Talked to some people who stopped, waved others on, got up and walked once in awhile to make sure no muscles froze up. Really was wishing for a paperback book...

Meanwhile Gus is rushing to get back, (after a Hello Kitty to the animals. They weren't impressed), and his knee is getting more and more creaky. Not one drop of blood shed during the entire operation. Spot got a trailer ride, we
stopped at Wally World for pain meds, then a trip through the car wash to take a layer of ditch off. Tomorrow is soon enough to look closer, and try to figure out what happened.

We'll probably have some new sore places, and colorful bruises by then.

Our guardian crew was working overtime today.
Just wasn't our turn, and we're grateful.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Owl in the Night

Rain, dark and curvy road, no traffic to the front or rear. High beams on and watching for deer. Running 50 in a 55.

I did not wobble much. Of course not, not even a mongoose could have reacted to what happened, it was quick.

Also old habits indicated that when loud and scary noises that break the machine happen, ya don’t wanna be jerking her round Captain as you might break it worse ya know.

What I saw that, covered about 1/10th of a second, White object that was very fast and compact looking was descending from high right in a counter clockwise arc/spiral as viewed by me and impacted the lower right side of the windshield at almost the perpendicular to its slant and just disappeared with a "Wham".

By the time Lady Dragon had raised up and said, "Wha.....", I guess that my mind had noted that I did not see shards of ice so the great ice blob from the sky was not the culprit, the descending arc was somehow controlled, ( if the truck had not been real, the object would have come in the lower right side of the windshield and exited the lower rear corner of the right hand door after going through precious parts of Lady Dragon and the seat judging by the noted trajectory) and since it was white looking, buzzards, hawks and such were ruled out. I did not think that escaped chickens and / or turkeys would be dive bombing at anytime of day or night (never thought of those encounters of the third kind) and so it was probably an owl.

Now I have heard that hawks can achieve 180 MPH + when tucked in a dive but the controlled arc said that it had some small wing deployment for control but had to be really moving along to do that kind of damage.

The lack of feathers and blood was why I was really unsure of what we had hit. I have hit all kids of stuff with ground based vehicles and those that do not stay on the ground and when that much damage occurs, there is "BLOOD & GUTS". Maybe in the morning when I’ll take a few pictures I might find a few but.......

When I picked it up from the road centerline ( must have bounced right over the truck) it was a very limp owl. Must be jelly inside, but no blood and guts apparent tonight.
I figure that there must have been a combined impact speed of at least 150 MPH to do the damage done. It is a small and light owl. Picture the effect of a sorta soft bowling ball swung a hard as you could without actually going through the windshield.

It had fixated on a target beside the road? Was trying to beat me to it? Thought I was gonna get it first? Was just stubborn? Why was it not afraid of the truck. Owls are shy, right? Not this dude.

I have had owls come past me in the dark but never through lights. Why did the sudden lights not cause him to lose sight of his prey?

Mmmmm Lady Dragon is really delectable......... but come on......... she was covered by a blankie