Schrodinger's Zebra
And a dandelion dies in the wind
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2018
- Messages
- 2,998
Several days ago Mr Zebra and I were driving home from a trip out with ZebraPup. It was evening, about maybe 6:45, 7pm and sunny with clouds. Mr Zebra was driving, and I was gazing about at the sky (as I tend to do). All of a sudden, through the windscreen, I saw something very fast move from about mid-windscreen across to the left. I glanced through the side window, expecting to see it (there were no trees or buildings in the way) but there was no sign of it.
My immediate thought (you know, the sort of thought you have in a split second, before you rationalise things) was that it was one of those 'rods' that purportedly would fly about in the air. I can only describe it as cylindrical, perhaps 1 inch or so in length (as viewed, obviously much longer than this in actuality) and a sort of milky / pale brown / transparent sort of colour.
Now, it definitely wasn't a bird. I mentioned it to Mr Zebra (he hadn't seen it) and proceeded to look at the birds flying around to see if I'd just been mistaken, but none of them looked anything like this thing, and perhaps most importantly, none of them were anywhere near as fast. (In fact, as I watched the birds immediately afterwards, I was struck by just how slow they seemed, compared to this thing). It wasn't a bat (probably too early in the evening anyway, and didn't have that jerky sort of movement that bats have. It also wasn't an insect or a reflection of any kind.
It was very fast. It took less than a second to clear the half of the windscreen that I saw it go across (I don't know where it came from or where it went). It was just there for a split second, moving right to left, in a straight horizontal line. I'm not good at estimating distances but I think it was sort of just above tree height. (tall conifer forest trees). If it makes any difference, we were driving roughly East at the time.
It has me stumped.
My immediate thought (you know, the sort of thought you have in a split second, before you rationalise things) was that it was one of those 'rods' that purportedly would fly about in the air. I can only describe it as cylindrical, perhaps 1 inch or so in length (as viewed, obviously much longer than this in actuality) and a sort of milky / pale brown / transparent sort of colour.
Now, it definitely wasn't a bird. I mentioned it to Mr Zebra (he hadn't seen it) and proceeded to look at the birds flying around to see if I'd just been mistaken, but none of them looked anything like this thing, and perhaps most importantly, none of them were anywhere near as fast. (In fact, as I watched the birds immediately afterwards, I was struck by just how slow they seemed, compared to this thing). It wasn't a bat (probably too early in the evening anyway, and didn't have that jerky sort of movement that bats have. It also wasn't an insect or a reflection of any kind.
It was very fast. It took less than a second to clear the half of the windscreen that I saw it go across (I don't know where it came from or where it went). It was just there for a split second, moving right to left, in a straight horizontal line. I'm not good at estimating distances but I think it was sort of just above tree height. (tall conifer forest trees). If it makes any difference, we were driving roughly East at the time.
It has me stumped.