- Joined
- Aug 8, 2005
- Messages
- 11,497
Najakeepers latest post has motivated me to once more display to the world how fabulous and perfect I am.
Riding my bicycle up a road beside a canal an O Hannah in the range of ~8 feet comes zooming across the road. Apparently it got peckish during hibernation and had been enjoying a tadpole buffet.
So I glomp on my rear brake, leaving 6 feet of skid mark on the road, and come to a stop with the front tire resting up against the side of the snake. Not crushing it but pinning it to the ground. I also came off the seat so I'm straddling the bike.
Well, as it was once said in the distant past, a number of thoughts immediately passed through Phineas's ruined brain. The first was 'gee. Big snake. Big strike zone too.' About 4 feet of the business end writhing wriggling and rather upset getting pinned down on the left, an equal amount to the right.
The next thing on the brain agenda was straddling the bike. As bike riders know once high seat bikes are straddled there's only two ways to get off: Get it going again and get back on the peddles to swing your leg over, or lay the bike on it's side and clamber off as best you can without plowing in on your face.
The major issue was the brainfart. The bike will not roll backwards because I've still got the brake lever in a death grip and hand-brain coordination has been interrupted by that brainfart.
So I did the only alternative, which in retrospect was probably the smartest thing to do. I just stood there going duhhhhhhhhhhh. If I had been on the ball and did some fancy footwork the snake might have taken note of my legs and expressed it's opinion of things.
It finally wriggled out from under the tire and did the zoom thing. As I rode on I reflected on my luck. Had that been a rattler or other similar given to having hissy fits, everything within it's strike zone would have been tagged several times. So I'm lucky it was only a cobra.
Riding my bicycle up a road beside a canal an O Hannah in the range of ~8 feet comes zooming across the road. Apparently it got peckish during hibernation and had been enjoying a tadpole buffet.
So I glomp on my rear brake, leaving 6 feet of skid mark on the road, and come to a stop with the front tire resting up against the side of the snake. Not crushing it but pinning it to the ground. I also came off the seat so I'm straddling the bike.
Well, as it was once said in the distant past, a number of thoughts immediately passed through Phineas's ruined brain. The first was 'gee. Big snake. Big strike zone too.' About 4 feet of the business end writhing wriggling and rather upset getting pinned down on the left, an equal amount to the right.
The next thing on the brain agenda was straddling the bike. As bike riders know once high seat bikes are straddled there's only two ways to get off: Get it going again and get back on the peddles to swing your leg over, or lay the bike on it's side and clamber off as best you can without plowing in on your face.
The major issue was the brainfart. The bike will not roll backwards because I've still got the brake lever in a death grip and hand-brain coordination has been interrupted by that brainfart.
So I did the only alternative, which in retrospect was probably the smartest thing to do. I just stood there going duhhhhhhhhhhh. If I had been on the ball and did some fancy footwork the snake might have taken note of my legs and expressed it's opinion of things.
It finally wriggled out from under the tire and did the zoom thing. As I rode on I reflected on my luck. Had that been a rattler or other similar given to having hissy fits, everything within it's strike zone would have been tagged several times. So I'm lucky it was only a cobra.
