Vehicular Homicide or something

Its been a questionable few weeks around here. Today was hopefully icing on the cake, and things will get better from here. I killed today. I didnt mean to. Never done it before, in many years of driving.

Little birdy flew right in front of my car. Came out of nowhere. They like to do that, swoop in and past in front of moving cars. But apparently this one didn't have his timing down cause there was a little thump. I was hoping it was a pine cone, but I didn't see him swoop away as I continued on, so I turned around at the end of the block to go back and check things out. One munched little birdy on the road. Fortunately completely dead, appeared to have gone fully under a tire, so not in pain. How bad of timing does a flying bird have to have to go actually under a tire of a moving vehicle?

In many years of driving, different states, all sorts of conditions, this is my first "roadkill" ever. And I don't feel good about it. I was proud of never having munched anything larger than a bug.

Or he was just the klutz of the birdy kingdom. Or he, like me, had ADD, saw something shiny, and got hit by a car.

I know his pain, except I was much larger, and went up and over the top, and then lived to tell about it. Or so I was told, I do not fully remember the experience. I do recall the ER later, where they cut off my favorite shirt. I fought them pretty good on that one. It was my favorite shirt, and the only pain was in my (cracked)leg and the cut on my forehead. They won. Ive never since had that great a shirt. Maybe someday a new shirt will come along and claim the title of greatest, but it would have to be a pretty darn awesome shirt.

and it was an accident. I would feel bad too, but there wasn't anything you could have done, in the space of time you had to changed what happened.

Don't beat your self up over this.

xo

Mary

Its just a bummer. I always figured if I ever hit anything it would be on some long distance trip or out in the woods where my family lives. Not a block from home, the first time I use a car in a week.

In the end, pragmatism rules. Birdy is the one that chose to swoop in front of the only car on the street. And there was nothing I could have done to save his life in the circumstance as it happened. Not my fault. Still sucks though.

:cry:

people in this world that would try to hit animals. I would not like to know those people. And despite my commitment to pacifism, I feel that those people would not like to know me.

I ran over a frog once on my bicycle - horrible crunch. I tried to miss him, and I still feel bad about it. Somehow being on the bicycle made it more "personal", ya know?

Angel

Bike wheels are even smaller that car, and going slower. Granted frogs dont have wings, but that still takes some great timing on the frogs part to get hit that way.

Ever since I became unemployed last week, we have been biking everywhere. This morning was basically the only time I used the car all week. And I kill a critter. I coulda biked where I was going, I just chose not to because I wanted to be fresh and ready when negotiating the issue at hand (post employment issues). But if I had biked, the birdy would still be alive.

Driving home, doing the speed limit, narrow road with on-coming traffic to the left and a deep ditch to the right and it ran right in front of me. I tried to stop but there simply was not enough time. A shame, I like cats.

They taste just like chicken". Someone gave it to me. I was far less enthralled with that button than my "a friend is something to eat when food is scarce" magnet, so I got rid of it. The magnet I plan to keep as long as I have the right to stick things to a refrigerator.

I'm pretty sure I have eaten cat. I once went to a Chinese restaurant. I ordered sweet and sour chicken. What I got was no chicken I have ever had. Nor beef, nor pork. And I am pretty much an obligate carnivore, so I know my meat. I did not go back to that restaurant despite its proximity to my parents house.

One evening my sister stopped to get dinner at a restaurant and a couple stopped her to tell her there was something caught in the grill of her car. It was a little bat, long since dead, but my sister was a little freaked out about it.

On the street or in the grill, its all the same. I turned around and went back because I suspected a glancing hit, and was prepared to end the little things misery. Glad not to have to, it must have been a damn quick end which is some consolation.

When I was a kid, I found a paralyzed snake. I'm pretty sure one of the neighborhood kids had run him over with a bike, its the only explanation I can think of. About 2/3rds down from his head, he crooked, and that tail bit was dead weight. I kept him for a while, and tried to nurse him back to health. I think I did pretty good, but it turns out that snakes need control of the tail bit to poo. We did our best to milk it out of him when he got backed up, but in the end it was not enough. It sure did love to wrap around a warm wrist or hand and just soak up heat though. Friendliest wild snake I ever met. It never even tried to bite.