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Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

MungomanII said:
On one occasion, miles from anywhere we came across this old fella on a pushy, who had rigged a sail on his pushy and was trundling along quite nicely - I've never seen it since, but in this long flat land of ours, which has predictable winds, I could see how this sail thing could be a fairly good idea.
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It appears that the one I saw was bigger and significantly-different from the commercial version https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whike but, there's a key design fact within the wikipedia entry that, for me, makes the whole thing instantly safer, and I now understand how it works:

Activating the front brake releases the sail's spinlock, assuring there will be no more wind-propulsion.
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So, the instant you hit the brakes (disk all round, incidently), the sail ceases to push your trike, and simply spins above your head like a fan. This is a seriously-clever design, well done, these Dutch biker-chaps! In fact, in a line of moving 'Whikes' on the road, the sight of a spinning sail at the front of a moving column of wind-bikers would be like seeing brakelights ahead of you.

This Dutch version also has a handbrake. They all have a low centre of gravity, so inherently non-tippy, plus as rynner says, triangular ice yachts are stable...ish.

I'm now totally-sold on the idea, if not literally the actual product.

@Peripart .... the risk you mention would apply mainly if the biker was waltzing
 
I was visiting the friend today who had seen the light in her bedroom. She has a front door that is difficult to open and when I visit they have to hold their beagle who rushes to get out.
Anyway we were sitting chatting when we heard the handle of the front door and assumed her partner had gone outside and was coming in. The door was flung open but here was noone there and the dog, having raced in at the sound, sat down about a metre and a half from the door.
Her partner came out from the back room to see who it was but there was noone there. It wasn't windy either.
 
In a slow moving group of traffic. All slowing for a junction, and a large blue van immediately ahead of me....probably three vehicles back from the give-way.

And a cyclist overtakes me, and the blue van, then turns suddenly sharp left....in front of the van at right-angles, as if headed for the pavement.

Gone. Vanished. Never appeared on the other side of the van. Disappeared totally. Not enough space to join-in with the flow of traffic. Just disappeared....as if he'd been eaten by the blue van. We never went over the top of him, he never appeared to my/the van's left, he failed to mount the (solid, raised) kerb, and didn't ride onto the pavement/sidewalk.

Truly weird. No explanation at all......rather spooked (and it takes a lot to shake me)
 
I just saw something very odd - I looked out the front door and saw a group of crows (a murder of them, I guess?) on the lawn. Maybe 20. That in itself was unusual, but what happened next was stranger. A huge roadrunner, one of the biggest I'd ever seen, comes diving into the middle of the group, jumping and snapping at them. The crows would fly out of reach, but when they'd come back, the roadrunner would attack. It did this again and again until every crow was frightened away. Then the roadrunner jumped on top of some garden statuary and stayed there, watchful, to make sure they didn't come back.

I've never seen roadrunner behavior like this. They eat snakes and lizards, so they weren't competing for food. I've never seen them fight with other birds. It was as if the roadrunner had decided to be our personal scarecrow. ;) Very unusual!
 
Ulalume said:
I just saw something very odd - I looked out the front door and saw a group of crows (a murder of them, I guess?) on the lawn. Maybe 20. That in itself was unusual, but what happened next was stranger. A huge roadrunner, one of the biggest I'd ever seen, comes diving into the middle of the group, jumping and snapping at them. The crows would fly out of reach, but when they'd come back, the roadrunner would attack. It did this again and again until every crow was frightened away. Then the roadrunner jumped on top of some garden statuary and stayed there, watchful, to make sure they didn't come back.

I've never seen roadrunner behavior like this. They eat snakes and lizards, so they weren't competing for food. I've never seen them fight with other birds. It was as if the roadrunner had decided to be our personal scarecrow. ;) Very unusual!
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Maybe there are animal superstitions that may shed light on your garden visitors?

Construct a "SCARE COyote" and stick it in your garden.

Dont bother me though with any strange reports of dynamite going off, heavy rocks landing in your garden and billboards that look convincing like a tunnel or bridge....cos I wont believe you. :)
 
GeorgeP said:
Maybe there are animal superstitions that may shed light on your garden visitors?

Construct a "SCARE COyote" and stick it in your garden.

Dont bother me though with any strange reports of dynamite going off, heavy rocks landing in your garden and billboards that look convincing like a tunnel or bridge....cos I wont believe you. :)
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Ha. :D We do have coyotes in this neighborhood, but unfortunately I have not seen any amusing coyote/roadrunner hijinx. Perhaps the Acme company doesn't deliver to these parts. ;)

I did some research and found that roadrunners will sometimes eat smaller birds, but these crows were fairly big and fat. It didn't look like the roadrunner wanted to eat them, only harass them without mercy. I also found there is a native legend that roadrunners drive away evil spirits, which is a little spooky (if you were to imagine all those crows were evil spirits :eek:) but also kinda neat.

I will keep an eye on roadrunner behavior in the coming days. They are usually through here several times a day, as there is a pair nesting in the big stand of cactus acrosss the road and another couple out back. It might make an interesting nature study, at the very least.
 
JamesWhitehead said:
There is a real roadrunner? A gap in my education.

Now reassure me there are no mice in gloves! :)
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Yes, there are real roadrunners, but disappointingly, they are not blue, nor do they say "beep beep". (They do say "phut phut" and make a whizzing raspberry-blowing sound though. :) )

There are no mice in gloves. However, there are clowns in gloves, which is infintely worse.
 
Ulalume said:
Ha. :D We do have coyotes in this neighborhood, but unfortunately I have not seen any amusing coyote/roadrunner hijinx. Perhaps the Acme company doesn't deliver to these parts. ;)

I did some research and found that roadrunners will sometimes eat smaller birds, but these crows were fairly big and fat. It didn't look like the roadrunner wanted to eat them, only harass them without mercy. I also found there is a native legend that roadrunners drive away evil spirits, which is a little spooky (if you were to imagine all those crows were evil spirits :eek:) but also kinda neat.

I will keep an eye on roadrunner behavior in the coming days. They are usually through here several times a day, as there is a pair nesting in the big stand of cactus acrosss the road and another couple out back. It might make an interesting nature study, at the very least.
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Ulalume, takea few snaps next time it occurs and post them here. :)
 
Earlier today I was leaving ASDA when this elderly gentleman nearly knocked me flying with his impatient supermarket trolley. I dodged it and we both looked at each other with a look of "phew that was close". For some reason I said, "Orate Jim, that was close." He laughed as his wife joined him who then apologized to me and then said, "Jim, I cant take you anywhere, come on" :eek:
 
A momentary mind-meld made that happen! :cool:
 
GeorgeP said:
Ulalume, takea few snaps next time it occurs and post them here. :)
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I'll try, but the suckers are fast - hence the name.

ramonmercado said:
Especially of the clowns in gloves who hang around with the roadrunner.
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I'll need a special night-vision camera, since the clowns are nocturnal.

(Oh, man, I just managed to scare myself. :eek:)
 
GeorgeP said:
Earlier today I was leaving ASDA when this elderly gentleman nearly knocked me flying with his impatient supermarket trolley. I dodged it and we both looked at each other with a look of "phew that was close". For some reason I said, "Orate Jim, that was close." He laughed as his wife joined him who then apologized to me and then said, "Jim, I cant take you anywhere, come on" :eek:
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Having just called in at the nearest shop i dared myself to say it again to an old guy walking past with his dog. He smiled, nodded and replied with, "not bad yung-un"
wow.jpg
Maybe that name is an elderly clone of mate, buddy,pal etc? Or theres a mass army of men called Jim. :eek:
 
A common greeting here is Cornwall is simply "Awright?"

(Shorthand for "Is everything all right with you?")
 
Ulalume said:
I'll try, but the suckers are fast - hence the name.



I'll need a special night-vision camera, since the clowns are nocturnal.

(Oh, man, I just managed to scare myself. :eek:)
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Get yourself one of these puppets to keep it transfixed.

_301927_rod_hull_and_emu_300.jpg

Emu will help you Ulalume.
 
JamesWhitehead said:
In another odd coincidence, I came across this very odd clip this week - major strangeness:
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Wow, that's the first time I've ever seen Emu, live on TV, without Emu.

It be a clip from BBC TV's "Fist of Fun" from back in 19-hundred-and-95....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fist_of_Fun

"Rod Hull", a recurring character who claims to be the genuine Rod Hull but is in fact an obvious fraud. He has an obsession with jelly (possibly the reason for his attempted imitation is a belief that the real Rod Hull would receive gifts of jelly), and has a false arm. He persistently claims that the false arm is real despite the fact that he has an actual real arm tucked inside his shirt. Also played by Kevin Eldon.
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Did Rod Hull suffer from Alien Hand Syndrome?

What was the evil joke about flightless birds, immediately following his sad death?
 
escargot1 said:
I've never seen those!
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Not to worry - I was merely reassuring James Whitehead that while Mickey Mouse isn't real, scary clowns are. ;)


GeorgeP said:
Try placing some neat piles of seed in strategic places :)
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Metallic birdseed while I wait nearby with a large magnet? ;)
Actually they prefer to eat snakes, and I draw the line at putting piles of snakes anywhere. :p

In less amusing wildlife news, we've caught yet another scorpion. That makes 6 in the last two weeks. *shudder*
It's been dry for ages now, and I suppose that's why they are heading inside. It's happened before, but this is more than usual. Anyway, that's probably not very strange, What is strange is that I was sitting there, thinking how terrible it would be if a scorpion were to crawl up my leg, when I felt something crawling up my leg...:eek: You can guess what is was. I had to take a shower to make my skin stop creeping.

Ought to tempt the roadrunner inside the house, let him take care of the scorpion problem...
 
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