Saving All Creatures Semi-Great and Small (or: Nature's Revenge?) ( Archived) (68)

I understand. My mom, for instance, refused to harm most living creatures, but she made an exception for snakes. "Blow them to kingdom come and let God sort 'em out!" she used to say. Well, not really those exact words, but that's the right sentiment.

Wouldn't recommend WD-40 for snakes, though. That just makes them slipperier so they can slither after you faster.

ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Where I live most people when hiking carry a side arm loaded with bird shot for the rattlers...........Diamond Back and Mohave Green.....

Best thing I ever used for ants is corn meal........

I'm beginning to suspect it would be best if I retired from yard work for awhile.

This morning, while dragging some chainsawed tree limbs toward a fire pit beyond my yard, I slipped on a half-buried old telephone pole. As I fell forward a 3/4 bolt protruding from the pole caught my abruptly undivided attention. I threw my arms out and managed to stop my fall, ending up in a push-up position - and the bolt punched into my chest just over my heart...fortunately only penetrating enough to bruise. If I hadn't stopped my fall, that bolt wouldn't pierced my heart, and...well...right now I'd be exploring some of the afterlife I'd been sending the lawn-creatures to (hopefully not the same afterlife...I'm not thinking I'd get a terribly friendly reception there! ).

Seconds later, as my life flashed retrospectively before my eyes, I gave a silent prayer of thanks to the exercise gods that commanded me to do bench presses and pushups over the years. Without them, I never would've been able to stop my fall.

Of course, one can turn that thought on its head, just as one can the typical religious person's "Thank God I didn't lose my legs AND my head in that awful accident!" (neglecting to account for God's lack of mercy in removing his legs), and acknowledge that if I wasn't physical I wouldn't have been dragging those tree limbs in the first place. Being confident in my strength has sometimes placed me in dangerous situations is what I'm saying...

Teleology is a funny thing.

Quite lucky there J, thank goodness you're ok...

But just on a side note....

If ever you find yourself sliding down a steep icy slope, maybe if you're out skiing and you want to arrest your fall. Turn over to face the slope and adopt that very same push up position and you will quickly come to a halt.

That saved me a lot of embarrassment once in the Scottish Highlands when I tried to traverse an extremely iced up run, lost it and hurtled uncontrollably towards a line of school children waiting for ski lift.

The push up position saved the day and could maybe sometime in the future save my life, as it sounds like it may have done for you...

That's interesting, G. Last time I found myself sliding down a snowy embankment I simply ran over the school kids.

Okay, seriously...rolling into a pushup position when your sliding - does it stop you because of the position of your feet or...? That's how I see it being better than sliding on your back anyhow.

Thanks for your good wishes, G.

Yes that's exactly it.

The natural reaction is to stay on your back and dig your heels in...not very effective. It takes quite a conscious effort to roll over and face the slope as this means you can't see where you're going and that's a bit unnerving, but it does work.
I was taught this many years ago and in fact had practiced it on a few occasions. Needles to say it was very satisfying when I first used the technique for real and it worked perfectly.

Hmmmm...well, I will keep that in mind when and if I find myself in that situation.

You know...on second thought, I think I just thought of a fairly common one - fooling around on one's roof. I can recall a time or two (and I'm about to do some roof repair as we speak) when I've lost my footing and slid on my back. I'm thinking the same principle might apply in that situation, no? Roll and face the shingles...and dig in?

Thanks for sharing that, G.

This reminds me of the time I went skiing once with friends way back in my poor student days. I thought I would be smart and save money on hiring the equipment and the all-in-one ski suit by wearing my motor cycle leathers instead ( black jacket and pants ). In addition to paying no heed to the ski fashions of the day I also neglected the fact that the principle of wearing leather is to reduce the friction between yourself and the road surface when coming off a motor cycle. Needless to say when I fell on the ski slope instead of gradually slowing to a halt I actually began accelerating, reaching speeds on my back with legs and skis akimbo, that I could never have achieved in my regular snow plough stance position. The only pain I remember was from my strained vocal chords from screaming out warnings to the slow coaches ahead of me.

I could have done with one of these horns .....



And J, I would recommend you also get a horn fitted to your lawnmower.
Horns save lives, it's a fact man.