I biked yesterday, a little further than I have since rib injuries Nos. 2 and 3. On my commuter bike and I think it was the most comfortable and strong I’ve felt on the damn thing yet.
On the ride, we passed 2 dead whole (as in not squashed-run over) squirrels overlapping berm and road. I almost ran over the first one, but Hubby, who was riding in front of me, gave me a heads up. Still, my reaction was quite slow and I almost, almost ran the soft fresh body of it over, right down its mammalian middle. I swerved slightly to the left and I think I clipped its little toenails.
This has been a banner year for road-kill squirrels. Every year it seems there are more than the last. When squirrels startle, you will note, they take to an erratic pattern because if another animal were giving chase, this would [theoretically] foil the predator into exhaustion from running in a zig-zag. Or did I just make that up? I don’t get it though. How does the prey not tire more quickly as well? I guess they run up trees faster than something large and large. And big and large.
Then there is the curve of pursuit, a diagram of which my kids had to draw into their Main Lesson books in 6th Grade when they were at their Waldorf school. I like the play on words pursuit of curves and I think about poeming that. Pursuit of curves, pursuit of curves….
I do not understand the curve of pursuit, as you might have guessed, considering my small brain capacity (probably like an Eastern gray squirrel’s) in spite of my appropriately curvy hip-to-waist ratio.
You can make all sorts of patterns out of pursuit curves. This is the humble triangle. When you are older, you might be ready for a pentagram. But not this day!
The very horrifying road kill of the day, to which I refer in the title of this post, had to do with gasp! several smashed red velvet cupcakes. So beautiful, so huge, so red, so smooshed flat inside of their frilly cupcake cups. They smelled good, too, a whiff of sugary love as I rode past, careful not to re-run them over as with the squirrel. I saw at least 4, a whole fancy-dinner-ful of them. What do you suppose the people did for dessert without their cupcakes? Now, my dear pets, you should look away if you are faint of heart, for here I post a photo of a smashed red velvet cupcake:
♥
I myself have only tasted red velvet cupcakes twice. I am not a fan of cupcakes except for the ones Annie made for her 14th Birthday party last month. OH MY those were fine. Vanilla with vanilla buttercream. Out of this world!
We do take cupcakes quite seriously around here due to the aforementioned offspring’s passion for cupcake baking. Though that post featured some flower cupcakes, look at these:
They are meant to mimic lo mein or fried rice or something Chinese take-out-y. They did not taste too good, if I recall correctly. All of those toppings were made with candy, what kind I don’t remember, but gross stuff that no adults would ever normally eat. You can see the Rice Krispies, too. A clever design, I must admit.
When I was searching for an image of a gray squirrel, I found a stupid video of a squirrel and a penguin playing Dueling Banjos and it reminded me of a post a couple years back that Erin O’Brien did about that very song and the men in the movie Deliverance.
Without further ado (boy did this post end up in a different place than I had imagined it would!)
twinklysparkles 
JUST read a Facebook status about the seeming increase in roadkill this year/fall and commented (I said something about having to avert my eyes too many times while driving). Do you slow down when a squirrel runs in front of your car? I do. I don’t understand when people just keep barreling on…I once saw a truck run over a squirrel…..it’s not a memory that I can get out of my head, and not something I hope to experience myself. Poor little dudes.
I do slow down. I’ve become a bit neurotic about avoiding hitting animals and I drive pretty slow on most roads around here at night. There are known squirrel and fox and crow “alleys:” roads (Station Rd., Southeast St., etc) where the animals tend to congregate and need to cross. Of course not all animal-vehicle accidents are avoidable, I get that.
I killed a cat once, back on Rte 261 in Ravenna, Ohio–I kept its blue collar on my rear view mirror for a long time as a reminder. Morbid? Maybe, but I felt it was the least I could do. I also hit a couple of birds way back when I drove out west. Highway, often there’s nothing you can do.
We have lost 2 cats to our stupid busy corner. You should see how fast people drive on my street–25 mph limit. And it’s not just college students. Sometimes moms and dads in mini-vans are the worst offenders.
Can you tell I feel strongly about this?????? YIKES!
Never have I seen so many suicidal squirrels.
No. They are not suicidal. Cars are now part of nature. The squirrels are confused and trying to stay alive.
Whew–that was quite a trip! Thanks for the link love, twinks.
Any time! You inspire me more than you know, EOB!