Obstructions

On Jun 3, 1:13 am, wrote:
Some recent obstructions remind me not to complain too much about that
annoying traffic light on my daily ride. Most them expand in Explorer
if you click on the lower right. None of them are squirrels or dogs.

Absolutely limp, motionless, and hoping that it won't be noticed,
stretched across the path:http://i11.tinypic.com/52fvkno.jpg

Obviously, it _was_ noticed, but my first attempt at one-handed
photography is embarrassingly fuzzy:

http://i15.tinypic.com/4utq8mh.jpg

This unharmed idiot was sunbathing on the path a few days later. The
one-handed focus is better, but a more intelligent photographer would
have checked that his automatic shutter had opened all the way:

http://i15.tinypic.com/6ccz2iw.jpg

Another unharmed idiot, caught a few minutes later, also sunbathing on
the path:http://i10.tinypic.com/673ty4n.jpg

This poor foot-long devil was still alive, but couldn't rattle, coil,
crawl, or hiss, so I had to put it out of its misery. (Handling this
kind is foolish--most fatal bites in the U.S. involve the head or neck
and a bizarre religious belief that rattlers won't resent handling.)
At first I thought that a car had hit it, but it was almost undamaged.
The fatal wound, an ugly, unseen gash on the far side of its neck,
probably came from a beak:http://i13.tinypic.com/53rtreu.jpg

These two camera hogs were too big for one-handed photography. The
first is about three feet long, the second about four feet long:http://i6.tinypic.com/4ztygba.jpghtt...om/4xqogfs.jpg

This nitwit was playing why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road, as they
often do, and finally ran over my shoe. They have a disconcerting
habit of near-sightedly charging at you instead of fleeing:http://i16.tinypic.com/5z6l5y8.jpg

Here's his little brother, next to a bottle of bug repellant:http://i9.tinypic.com/4uxcfa1.jpg

These three adults just stood there, while the two recently born kids
ran happily back and forth past them. The second kid is just visible
between the middle and right hand adults:http://i13.tinypic.com/6g1xe1s.jpg

One kid has already zoomed past the left edge of the picture. The
other is following:http://i14.tinypic.com/5z20k09.jpg

If you look closely, you can see the other kid, now running back the
other way, its head just past its sibling's tail:http://i7.tinypic.com/4muhbbl.jpg

And now it's raced back the other way, past all three adults:http://i7.tinypic.com/4yhvh42.jpg

These two versions of four horns have already been posted, but you
might as well see them again if you've browsed this far:http://i8.tinypic.com/4yjyjvn.jpghtt...om/4y7cbgx.jpg

Finally, here's about ten pounds of expectant mother, a bit bigger
than a bike helmet. Inflamed by a thunderstorm, she foolishly dug a
nest this afternoon at the edge of a sandy but poorly drained two-rut
road, fifteen feet from her marsh:http://i12.tinypic.com/6gxpi1g.jpg

Tails are often broken or truncated, but this tail is pristine, ready
for the show ring. (Yes, I once kept them as pets, but no, there are
no formal best-of-show competitions.)http://i13.tinypic.com/4zvf9nb.jpg

Excellent shell, little moss, no leeches, no holes:http://i17.tinypic.com/6434ia9.jpg

The tail has been moved to one side to show to advantage, while the
eye catches the camera flash:http://i8.tinypic.com/5y9huds.jpg

Cheers,

CarlFogel

The crowd today was sparse and betrayed little enthusiasm, but at
least stayed at the edge of the course:

http://i16.tinypic.com/4m7j6te.jpg

http://i14.tinypic.com/4mv6gpy.jpg

A glove dropped nearby for scale caused the crowd to hop into the
brush.

Later, a thinner spectator was seized and warned not to wriggle across
the course in front of the peloton:

http://i19.tinypic.com/4kee9hl.jpg

Left-handed photography is awkard, so things are fuzzy. Even in focus,
the picture would be deceptive, since thumbs are rarely as thick as
wrists.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:15:27 -0700, wrote:

[snip]

A real obstruction, blown down by fierce winds:

http://i14.tinypic.com/642i3oj.jpg

But the wind had some help:

http://i12.tinypic.com/4y79i52.jpg

Here's the lumberjack's late relative:

http://i15.tinypic.com/54og1vo.jpg

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

On Wed, 18 Jul 2007 20:40:45 -0600, wrote:

On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:15:27 -0700, wrote:

[snip]

A real obstruction, blown down by fierce winds:

http://i14.tinypic.com/642i3oj.jpg

Those were some fierce winds to blow your bike upside down like that.

Ron

On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:15:27 -0700, wrote:

[snip]

A flash flood left some large puddles and even larger mounds of mud
and gravel near my daily ride, along with a handsome gimme-cap.

Here's what I first thought might be a small bullfrog when I noticed
it out of the corner of my eye, darting away in a big puddle:

http://i14.tinypic.com/4pnkokm.jpg

As you can see, the claws have as usual grown faster than the body:

http://i8.tinypic.com/4lxktht.jpg

Here it holds the cap in the air at arm level:

http://i7.tinypic.com/662zzbc.jpg

I'm _almost_ sure that the claw tip wouldn't penetrate a 700c tire,
even if you ran over it at an awkward angle.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:15:27 -0700, wrote:

On Jun 3, 1:13 am, wrote:
Some recent obstructions remind me not to complain too much about that
annoying traffic light on my daily ride. Most them expand in Explorer
if you click on the lower right. None of them are squirrels or dogs.

Absolutely limp, motionless, and hoping that it won't be noticed,
stretched across the path:
http://i11.tinypic.com/52fvkno.jpg

Obviously, it _was_ noticed, but my first attempt at one-handed
photography is embarrassingly fuzzy:

http://i15.tinypic.com/4utq8mh.jpg

This unharmed idiot was sunbathing on the path a few days later. The
one-handed focus is better, but a more intelligent photographer would
have checked that his automatic shutter had opened all the way:

http://i15.tinypic.com/6ccz2iw.jpg

Another unharmed idiot, caught a few minutes later, also sunbathing on
the path:
http://i10.tinypic.com/673ty4n.jpg

This poor foot-long devil was still alive, but couldn't rattle, coil,
crawl, or hiss, so I had to put it out of its misery. (Handling this
kind is foolish--most fatal bites in the U.S. involve the head or neck
and a bizarre religious belief that rattlers won't resent handling.)
At first I thought that a car had hit it, but it was almost undamaged.
The fatal wound, an ugly, unseen gash on the far side of its neck,
probably came from a beak:
http://i13.tinypic.com/53rtreu.jpg

These two camera hogs were too big for one-handed photography. The
first is about three feet long, the second about four feet long:
http://i6.tinypic.com/4ztygba.jpghtt...om/4xqogfs.jpg

This nitwit was playing why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road, as they
often do, and finally ran over my shoe. They have a disconcerting
habit of near-sightedly charging at you instead of fleeing:
http://i16.tinypic.com/5z6l5y8.jpg

Here's his little brother, next to a bottle of bug repellant:
http://i9.tinypic.com/4uxcfa1.jpg

These three adults just stood there, while the two recently born kids
ran happily back and forth past them. The second kid is just visible
between the middle and right hand adults:
http://i13.tinypic.com/6g1xe1s.jpg

One kid has already zoomed past the left edge of the picture. The
other is following:
http://i14.tinypic.com/5z20k09.jpg

If you look closely, you can see the other kid, now running back the
other way, its head just past its sibling's tail:
http://i7.tinypic.com/4muhbbl.jpg

And now it's raced back the other way, past all three adults:
http://i7.tinypic.com/4yhvh42.jpg

These two versions of four horns have already been posted, but you
might as well see them again if you've browsed this far:
http://i8.tinypic.com/4yjyjvn.jpghtt...om/4y7cbgx.jpg

Finally, here's about ten pounds of expectant mother, a bit bigger
than a bike helmet. Inflamed by a thunderstorm, she foolishly dug a
nest this afternoon at the edge of a sandy but poorly drained two-rut
road, fifteen feet from her marsh:
http://i12.tinypic.com/6gxpi1g.jpg

Tails are often broken or truncated, but this tail is pristine, ready
for the show ring. (Yes, I once kept them as pets, but no, there are
no formal best-of-show competitions.)
http://i13.tinypic.com/4zvf9nb.jpg

Excellent shell, little moss, no leeches, no holes:
http://i17.tinypic.com/6434ia9.jpg

The tail has been moved to one side to show to advantage, while the
eye catches the camera flash:
http://i8.tinypic.com/5y9huds.jpg

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

The obstruction in this post had foolishly wandered a mile up from the
reservoir after a recent thunderstorm and found itself stranded in a
bare, dry shale gully.

Not knowing what else to do, it wedged itself head-first into a rocky
hole the size of a 5-gallon bucket, where there was still some water,
and wondered where all the water had gone.

Since a new thunderstorm was soaking me and threatening to bury the
obstruction alive under the debris of a gully-washer, I took no
pictures at the scene.

Instead, I pulled and tugged until the obstruction reluctantly let go
of its ill-chosen refuge, carried it home, and kept it overnight.

Here it is in a 25 X 19 mortar tub with an 18-inch ruler:

http://i13.tinypic.com/53sdipy.jpg

This shows the well-healed edge of the shell to the right of the tail,
where the normal saw-tooth pattern is gone:

http://i17.tinypic.com/68bgg47.jpg

Here's a coy three-quarter profile, showing the camouflaged eye, tiny
nostrils, and absurdly small beak-hook:

http://i14.tinypic.com/61w9qmw.jpg

As these clips show, the obstruction reacts to being placed in the
comfort of shallow water like Eddie Merckx being placed on a trainer:

http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=4qyfr6x

http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=4uvpjex

The obstruction is ten inches wide at the hips, fond of crayfish, and
now living the large pond filling an abandoned gravel pit.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:15:27 -0700, wrote:

[snip]

The lone spectator at the daily Tour de Pueblo seems unimpressed
moments after I swerved around it:

http://i12.tinypic.com/53r9nv9.jpg

Moments after the next picture, the spectator leapt over the seated
photographer's right leg, leaving liquid evidence of what frightened
amphibians do to reduce non-rotating weight:

http://i16.tinypic.com/4ujthn8.jpg

Earlier on the weekend, this familiar obstruction lay motionless in
the brush, exercising its first line of defense and hoping that its
feeble imitation of a hognose snake would let it escape my notice:

http://i9.tinypic.com/6gtbg5s.jpg

Its reluctance to wriggle away let me walk around it, take off my
gloves, and grab its tail, about four feet from the head. It switched
to its second line of defense, hissing and striking and vibrating its
tail in my hand in a furious imitation of a rattlesnake:

http://i17.tinypic.com/5yvdi6v.jpg

It calmed down after I trapped its head gently under one shoe, grabbed
it by the neck with my other hand, and gave it something to coil
around:

http://i16.tinypic.com/6cptwef.jpg

Having posed, it was released and fell back on its third set of
tactics, slithering off under the nearest juniper:

http://i16.tinypic.com/5yhlzqe.jpg

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:15:27 -0700, wrote:

[snip]

Next to the road today, a red-tailed obstruction was perched on one of
the stern signs posted to keep terrorists off the dam at the Pueblo
Reservoir:

http://i10.tinypic.com/4t903tv.jpg

The foothills rising to the left turn into Pikes Peak.

The obstruction let me approach with my head down, so the next picture
looking upward while sitting next to the road includes some of the
roadside weeds:

http://i16.tinypic.com/6azj37s.jpg

When I crept closer, a sunflower crept into the frame:

http://i19.tinypic.com/5xxzdlc.jpg

Alas, an even closer shot auto-focussed on the damned weeds, with the
sunflower up in one corner:

http://i18.tinypic.com/5z5c506.jpg

Here's one of the items on the obstruction's menu, a checkered
whiptail:

http://i15.tinypic.com/4l5bo8k.jpg

Whiptails skitter off the bike path so fast that it's hard to get a
picture of them.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:15:27 -0700, wrote:

[snip]

The daily 10% chance of afternoon or evening thunderstorms caught and
soaked me on the bike path.

It also caught Lord Nelson, below, who I hope will serve as breeder
stock for the toad herd at Fogel Labs:

http://i11.tinypic.com/4l60yms.jpg

Why he was sitting on the bike path in the rain with his left hand
missing is a mystery.

Unlike Hardy, I declined to kiss him; unlike his namesake, he lost his
left arm, not his right; and unlike Trafalgar, it all ended happily,
with him released in the garden, where his missing limb will be a
minor nuisance.

Should Lady Hamilton find his honorable wound irresistible (she lives
in the corner by the car-port), the back yard may soon swarm with tiny
Horatias.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

On Wed, 15 Aug 2007 21:12:50 -0600, wrote:

On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:15:27 -0700, wrote:

[snip]

The daily 10% chance of afternoon or evening thunderstorms caught and
soaked me on the bike path.

It also caught Lord Nelson, below, who I hope will serve as breeder
stock for the toad herd at Fogel Labs:

http://i11.tinypic.com/4l60yms.jpg

Why he was sitting on the bike path in the rain with his left hand
missing is a mystery.

Unlike Hardy, I declined to kiss him; unlike his namesake, he lost his
left arm, not his right; and unlike Trafalgar, it all ended happily,
with him released in the garden, where his missing limb will be a
minor nuisance.

Should Lady Hamilton find his honorable wound irresistible (she lives
in the corner by the car-port), the back yard may soon swarm with tiny
Horatias.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

By coincidence, today's obstruction is a distant relative of Lord
Nelson, judging by his missing two legs. Luckily, he can afford to
lose two legs more easily than most creatures, and eventually crept
off the highway into the grass.

Here's a view from the bottom, after a wind gust upended him:

http://i17.tinypic.com/4ka9q1z.jpg

A more normal view from the top:

http://i12.tinypic.com/61tgsaw.jpg

For anyone wondering if the obstruction's eight-armed mother was
involved in a sordid affair with a ten-armed squid, the two small
"legs" in the front are not really legs--those are a tarantula's
impressive pedipalps.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:15:27 -0700, wrote:

[snip]

This evening, I was toiling up the road next to the dam at the Pueblo
Reservoir about an hour before sunset with no traffic.

Half-way to the top of the dam, a large, dark butterfly began pacing
me, flying next to me on the other side of the center stripe, a foot
or two higher than my head.

It was quite large for a butterfly, its flight was a bit heavier than
a butterfly's normal airy fluttering, and it was rather dark for a
butterfly.

After a few moments, I realized that this obstruction was no butterfly
and that I hadn't the ghost of a chance of stopping, getting my camera
out, and taking a picture.

So I just kept pedalling up the road and enjoyed the show until the
slowly fluttering predator crossed in front of me, flapped up the
slope of the dam, and disappeared into the setting sun.

Here's what it looks like when it poses for other people:

http://www.azgfd.gov/w_c/edits/images/pipihesp.jpg

It looks much darker when it flies because its bare wings are black
and much bigger than the blondish body when unfolded.

My neck of the woods is the extreme northern edge of the range of
Pipistrellus hesperus. It's fond of dams, probably because the
shoreline provides a belt of tasty insects, and often flies before
dusk.

Years ago, I trotted back and forth along the flagstone-lined bank of
a much smaller dam, up in the mountains at San Isabel, chasing the
same creature. That I could keep up with it on foot tells you just how
slowly it flies. That one grew tired and landed several times on the
rocks and even let me gently poke at its incredibly tiny hind claws
with a twig before it flew off again.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel