Friday, October 23, 2009

Freaky Friday.....

Coach planned a 30-45 minute ride so I rode 3 hours....hey no IM in the future right. Okay here is the rational....1- It's Friday 2- It is a stunningly beautiful day 3- I lost all desire to be productive at work by 11am. So....what better to do than ride. I took off thinking I would do my usual 1 hour loop but when I hit Rancho Sante Fe, Elfin Forest was calling me.....I purposefully rode without my power tap or any electronics, just enjoying the day.

1st incident- Del Dios, where there is a wide shoulder and a bike lane. McDonalds Truck honks, no blares his horn repeatedly, scares me to death, slows down and waves and in the process veers over towards me and I am now in the gravel. Nice....did not see a "How is my driving?" sticker on his truck.

2nd - on La Costa Avenue and the Geek Squad Van abruptly pulls in the bike lane and dies....the ran out of gas and decided to hit the breaks and stop. I slam on my breaks and nearly smash into them.

3rd - pit stop at Exxon on La Costa and a Monster Java since I was there. I come out and there is a big gulp on my saddle and a guy is smoking. Oh I see, the bike was like a cocktail table. Hello?

4th- heading to the coast and it is stunningly beautiful, warm but not hot and crystal clear skies. Head south on the 101 and suddenly ride into a complete fog bank- so foggy I cannot see the ocean and I am right above it. Surreal.... entire coast was like that, 1/4 mile East on Carmel Valley Road- crystal clear again!

5th and last - I have a phobia of snakes and when I see anything resembling a snake (rope, twig, wire etc) I always assume it is a snake in the bike lane and then I have a huge fear of it lunging into my wheel and flying up and onto my back. Yup, I know.....so today I see what looks like 2 snakes on San Dieguino Rd, but I talk myself out of this by the time I come upon them. As I give them/it a wide berth I realize yes it is 2 snakes and it looks like they are holding tails. Very odd....if I wasn't so afraid they may lunge at me I would have taken a picture. So then I began to wonder, what the heck....so thanks to google you to know know the rest of the story

When a female snake is ready to mate, she begins to release a special scent (pheromones) from skin glands on her back. As she goes about her daily routine, she leaves an odor trail as she pushes off resistance points on the ground (See Getting Around). If a sexually mature male catches her scent, he will follow her trail until he finds her. The male snake begins to court the female by bumping his chin on the back of her head and crawling over her. When she is willing, she raises her tail. At that point, he wraps his tail around hers so the bottoms of their tails meet at the cloaca -- the exit point for waste and reproductive fluid. The male inserts his two sex organs, the hemipenes, which then extend and release sperm. Snake sex usually takes under an hour, but it can last as long as a whole day.

The whole day????? Really????

2 comments:

  1. I see your recovery is well under way!

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  2. So I'm not wise like your coach who prescribed a 1 hour ride. I am probably trouble...but despite all the near misses I am so glad to hear you rode for three hours simply because you felt like it. I am glad Del Dios called to you. Sorry about the crap incidents on the ride though.

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