[MR2] O deer me

[felix at crowfix.com]

On Wed, May 16, 2012 at 09:44:26AM -0700, Scott L. Burson wrote:
> Good reflexes!  I don't know if my emergency driving skills would be equal
> to that situation.

It was quite exciting.  Over in a second or two.  I don't remember
thinking about anything, like what was next to me.  When I yanked the
steering back to straighten out, I remember a small wobble or jerk and
then tracking straight and true and thinking my pickup never could
have done that, looking in the mirror by instinct and seeing the truck
headlights, which must have been several hundred feet back at least by
then, but it did surprise me to see them.  I know I had seen the truck
while passing, always watch the front wheels to see if they drift out
of their lane, so I am guessing that as soon as I passed it, I cleared
it from my memory, and the shock of seeing the deer probably helped
evict the memory.  I hope I never have the opportunity to find out
what I would have done if still next to the truck.  The truck seemed
to be slowing down, but he was going slow up hill anyway, so I don't
know if he was really slowing down at all, let alone whether he hit
the deer or whether he instinctively slowed to avoid the deer and/or
me.

I only remember a few other times where reflexes and not having time
to think came into play.  A friend on a mountain bike and me on my
skinny tire road bike came around a corner and found a few hundred
feet of gravel in front of us -- he figured I was going down and moved
away, and somehow both my feet came out of the locking pedals and flew
out sideways, I balanced and maintained the vertical position and we
got back to pavement and I put my feet back in the pedals and went on
like nothing happened.  Another time, crossing a street on a bicycle
and aiming for the handicapped ramp, a woman stepped sideways into it
and I somehow jumped the curb, put my arms around a lamp post right to
my left, swung around a full 360, let go, kept on riding.  Guy in the
store there (where I was going) saw it, otherwise I might not have
believed it myself, and again, something I could never have attempted
if I had had time to think about it.  In a grocery store checkout
line, day dreaming while waiting, seeing a poorly balanced can start
to slip, caught it before it even cleared the belt on its way to the
floor and the cashier and customer stared at me.  Why my brain thought
that required fast action I do not know.  Other times, most of the
time, I am a relative klutz.

Life sure is weird sometimes.

-- 
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     Felix Finch: scarecrow repairman & rocket surgeon / felix at crowfix.com
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I've found a solution to Fermat's Last Theorem but I see I've run out of room o