Porn video discs on the side of the road in Cape Cod, MA.
A dead bald eagle on the side of the road during, no kidding, Eagleman.
Same race, an escaped pitbull cornered by police/animal control with weapons drawn under a car - yelling “shoot it now! shoot it now!” The dog had apparently launched on some poor unsuspecting bicyclist about three miles out of T1.
Was attacked not once, but twice, by red-winged blackbirds on a ride in the country. Happened about 2-3 miles apart and both times the bird dive bombed me and pecked at my helmet. I mean, I know these are territorial birds, but I really mean no harm. . .
That happens to a lot of riders on the IM WI bike course, especially in May and June. They often signal their presence with a couple loud calls, so you come to dread hearing that whistle. Apparently the local humans aren’t the only ones who dislike triathletes.
I’ve also had them dive-bomb me while running. It’s not a good feeling to see a bird inches from your eyes when you don’t wear sunglasses.
I do bricks out in the country and get attacked at least once a week. My hypothesis is that it is strategy to get food, their attack will cause me to panic and drop treats as I make a hasty retreat.
This may be my favorite slowtwitch thread of all time. I will throw in some wildlife stories
Riding in western WI, which is big climbs in and out of the Mississippi river valley, with lots of huge bluffs. As I am going up a big climb, a snake falls out of the sky right in front of me. An eagle had been flying with it in its talons and dropped it. Very freaky.
Same route in the spring. There are a shitload of eagles in that area. In the spring the babies are learning to fly. I rode 60 miles with a gaggle of baby eagles following me high above the entire way, their shadow in front of me on the pavement.
In WI on either the IM or HHH course. Cresting a hill, I came up on an enormous hawk eating a cat. He watched me as I rode by. I googled it and believe it was a ferruginous hawk.
Buffalo Springs tri 2010. There were a handful of guys in front of me on the bike and on one of the decents I see each one abruptly get out of aero position and stand up. As I passed the same spot, there was an enormous rattlesnake sunning itself in the middle of the road. I almost crashed as I attempted to dodge.
Just this morning had a Pigmy Rabbit fall from the sky and land about 3 feet in front of me.
Heard some rustling in a tree as I passed by and looked over to see a Hawk take off, he dropped his breakfest. The Hawk circled around and picked Bugs backup and flew directly over my head and down the road with meal in talons.
I saw a bike fight once while along the Hudson waterfront. Like, people using their expensive road bikes like longswords in Braveheart to try to kill each other. Thankfully some bystanders were successful in defusing the situation.
Was attacked not once, but twice, by red-winged blackbirds on a ride in the country. Happened about 2-3 miles apart and both times the bird dive bombed me and pecked at my helmet. I mean, I know these are territorial birds, but I really mean no harm. . .
That happens to a lot of riders on the IM WI bike course, especially in May and June. They often signal their presence with a couple loud calls, so you come to dread hearing that whistle. Apparently the local humans aren’t the only ones who dislike triathletes.
I’ve also had them dive-bomb me while running. It’s not a good feeling to see a bird inches from your eyes when you don’t wear sunglasses.
This happened regularly when I lived in Michigan. Red W BB must have a different psychology about them because once I moved out west, it never happened again.
Now the oddest thing I recall seeing is a coyote eating a bag of McD’s with fries & burger…roadside junk someone tossed, at about 8200 feet. Just ate & ate while I biked by, not scared at all. I wonder if he had a McFlurry for desert in that bag…
I saw a bike fight once while along the Hudson waterfront. Like, people using their expensive road bikes like longswords in Braveheart to try to kill each other. Thankfully some bystanders were successful in defusing the situation.
The sprinklers were on at the Little League field this morning, but one of them wasn’t working quite right. I suspect a little lack of pressure, as it was a not spraying very far at all
However, from the angle that the groundskeeper was kneeling on the grass as he tried to fix it, the stream arced so it looked like he was taking a wicked piss with all the fire-house force he could muster
On my run this morning I saw something truly unique: An honestly attractive school bus driver …
If I see her again two Fridays from now , I’ll try to give a more detailed report
As it happened, I missed her that following fortnight, and again today so with school being out for the Summer next week, it looks like I’ll not be seeing her for a while … or ever again, for that matter, if she gets another job, or even another route
Now I kinda know how The Prince felt after Cinderella ran out of the Ball
Stay strong brother. Sexy school bus lady will be back for you in no time!!
Well, school is back in, and it happens that she DID come back, and on the same route!!!
Things have been getting pretty dim on the Damn Patrol lately, with sunrise not happening until just after I’ve gotten home now
That being said, when you see someone with bright yellow hair, it kinda gets your attention. Not blonde mind you, but Safety Lemon
Contrasting the bright hair was a black shirt, with a red & white image on the front. I couldn’t make it out at first, since my specs were a little fogged, but I picked up fairly quickly that the red was the ***** used by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, with their name around it
As I passed, I noticed that the yellow-haired pedestrian was, in fact, a woman, who appeared to be in her 70s. On top of that, the black shirt had a B&W band pic on the back, indicating to me that this wasn’t just a random Hot Topic or Target purchase, but legit RHCP merch
OK, if *could *have bee a flea market or thrift store find, but either way, rock on grandmom!!!
Saw a most excellent dresser on the curb the other day
Drawers were intact, slid out well, hardware seemed secure, no obvious scratches or dings, and nothing to say it wasn’t just free to take
Of course, by the time I got home & brought the car around, it was gone
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I saw a dude wearing a Southern Tier t-shirt on the Promenade yesterday
I asked him, in a friendly beer-geeky way “Have you gotten this year’s Warlock yet?”
“What’s that?” he answered, quite puzzled
I felt like punching him in the face and relieving him of his shirt, the fucking poseur
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Several months ago I was out for a Sunday morning run along a rural road. I glanced down and saw a $20 bill on the side of the road. Sweet, I thought, and picked it up. I proceeded to find 4 more! $100 cash just laying in a ditch on the side of a back road. I was PSYCHED!
Saw a most excellent dresser on the curb the other day
Drawers were intact, slid out well, hardware seemed secure, no obvious scratches or dings, and nothing to say it wasn’t just free to take
Of course, by the time I got home & brought the car around, it was gone
This post confused me. I was expecting to hear about a man wearing a tuxedo or an ascot or something. Then I realized it was a piece of furniture.
A squirrel fell out of a tree right in front of me on a ride a few weeks ago…made a weird “pop” sound when he landed–but he scampered away. Squirrel Dive Bombs?
Wow I must live in a boring area…
But none the less here’s my two stories. Once I was riding and I saw someone pull off to the side of the rode. Seeing it was a young lady I wanted to be a gentleman and ask if she needed help of any kind or at least offer them my phone. When I got close I saw she was breastfeeding you young kid. Good thing for my reflective glasses or she would have seem my eyes get as wide as saucers, I politely road away.
Another one, and this is I guess this isn’t as weird as it is puzzling… But I once saw a man stranded with a mechanical issue on the side of the road. I ride up to him and he’s on a no-name cheap steel round tube frame, baseball hat no helmet, polo-shirt, khaki short, toe clips, Wal-Mart glasses, but with a full Ultegra group set. His rear derailuer had come loose and destroyed his back wheel. He wanted to know if he could fix it on the road. I told him unlikely he’d be well served to call a friend and head home for the day. Now I’m not trying to be judgmental but how in holy hell did all that Ultegra stuff get on his bike?
A squirrel fell out of a tree right in front of me on a ride a few weeks ago…made a weird “pop” sound when he landed–but he scampered away. Squirrel Dive Bombs?
Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - I was running down the street one fall morning when I heard a rustling of leaves high up in an oak tree about a hundred yards ahead of me. The shaking was followed by a loud wooden *clunk! *… a pause … another clunk! and another; each sounding lower in the tree as I ran toward it. The clunks came steadily until finally silence as I ran beneath the tall tree
… And I got beaned right on top of the head!!!
A malicious and dangerously clever squirrel must’ve been in the tallest branches of the tree, shaking acorns out in such a way that they fell, bouncing off branches on their journey, in perfect time for one to plunk me right on the noggin
This past weekend I saw where Whole Foods shoppers get their cars fixed…
I was on a ride last year when I came up on a guy on what I thought was a very tall bike. As I got closer it was a clown on what I’m guessing was a 6’ tall unicycle playing the air drums. It was more than I could take in. He was just pounding away on his imaginary drums. This was on a back highway in Indiana where there isn’t much traffic with the nearest town probably 8 miles away. I wish I had a camera because my wife still doesn’t believe me, and to this day when I picture it in my head I can understand why.
Speaking of … I’ve seen a bunch of these around lately
A few years ago I was coasting along on my bike enjoying an easy fall day ride…
…when a crow flew directly in to my drivetrain and got mauled up between the chain and crankset. There was wings flapping, feathers everywhere, mad cawing, etc for around 15 seconds. I’m not sure how but it got free and either hopped or flew away and I was left there dazed wondering wtf had just happened.