Under the Flattened Fona FIle...
This week in Central Illinois has brought a high number of Young Raccoons and Adult Skunks.
--=- The Racoons are the ones that were born late in the winter and have just been sent out on their own by their Mama. They are still to young to know how to cross the road without getting hit.
-----The Skunks --- I think it is Skunk mating season, so they are acting stupid.

Who keeps dropping these heavy things? There’s no semi traffic on my route…

In NE IL, I lived in a neighborhood that had a TON of skunks. Just marking everywhere for weeks at a time, a couple times per year.
I started picking them off with my air rifle in my back yard when I caught them under the feeders. Lung shots only, as head shots = full dump of the stink juice tank. I figured if I pop them, there's a 50% chance they'll spray before I double back them and throw them out. If not, it's 100%, repeating every week. I wound up getting about 4 or 5 per year.

I lived in NJ for many years, and there, it seemed that February was dead skunk on the road month.

Yesterday was something I'd never seen before, or at least not in the flesh. Again I took a pic; not messy but definitely dead. Someone's pet ferret must've got out and got hit; poor thing. I hope it was found before it was squished; at least it was partly in the bike lane. Beautiful, too; cinnamon on top and gold underneath and on the toes.

I saw this guy last week. Stopped for the pic because I didn’t recognize the markings. Turns out the juvenile Eastern rat snake looks quite different than the adult. I think that’s what this one is. I shoo’d it out of the road and rode on.

Not exactly on the ground..

There's a nature preserve north of Chicago ("The Grove") with an interpretive center that has an opossum which was among a litter that survived their mother being killed by a car. Someone from the center saw the dead mother and recognized her as such, stopped and recovered 6 babies. All but one survived.
Also: "fauna". :-)

This is scary; it means someone’s driving around without brakes.

But only on one wheel.

only one one SIDE of one wheel!

From the looks of that pad, they were driving around without brakes before that fell off.

I've replaced far too many hydro pads that were worn that bad or worse. Since they don't need adjusting like cables,folks ignore them until they feel funny or start making noise. I've seen them worn down so far the return spring was worn away.

Another squooshed rat, this time freshly squooshed. In the bike lane? A bike could not have flattened it so some other vehicle was rolling through. "Paint (on a bike lane) is not protection."

This morning two high-vis yellow safety vests in the bike lane, about 20ft apart, probably fell off a work truck.

Google Photos gave me a preview of some photos I took years ago. It presented this one to me. I shot it on the Hudson River Greenway, my usual commute route.



A single cycling shoe with sunglasses in it.

What might be the story here?

Might've been a bike accident there and they got left on the scene. Rider in the hospital, so he couldn't pick it up and didn't know it was missing yet.

That, or it fell out of a trunk bag when the rider decided to ride flat shoes home that day. (I think they make pedals that are SPD on one side and flat on the other...)

Sorry, not as mysterious as the single clown shoe I found. The street it was on was in between places, so no reason for it to be there.

Here's an interesting pile of BS concerning the meaning of the 3 of Clubs: It signifies steady progress, practical growth, and the tangible results of hard work. It signifies a phase of development where you are moving forward, step by step, toward your goals. While the progress may be gradual, it is consistent and grounded in practicality.

Actually, you could reword it as, you were rolling forward one rotation at a time towards your goal...

Hey rekmeyata
Thanks for the card iconography lesson!
I think I will rubber band a 3-Clubs card on my handlebars for my next ride,

Started to pull it out. Rode 19 mi to home.


Good thing I left it in. Forgot to put a spare tube in my bag.

That is my card. You are a true magician.

Obviously lost on a club ride.

I'll see your nail, and raise you a bit of wire. Both picked up on my ride in this morning.