Saturday, August 09, 2008

Car-nivore.

I ran over a turtle.

It was a couple of days ago, and a big storm had passed through that morning, leaving branches and other landscape debris scattered across the roads. A fun little obstacle course if you don’t mind getting good use out of your steering wheel. As I drove down Plainfield, I noticed a huge rock right in the middle of the street. I wondered how the storm could have managed to blow a rock that big into the road when I noticed that the rock had a head. By then, it was too late. Under my car it went.

Luckily for the little guy, I swerved enough to have it go between my tires instead of under them.

I stopped my car to go pick him up so some semi wouldn’t smear it all over its mud flaps, but the guy in the car behind me got out before I did and helped the turtle get to the other side.

A happy ending for little Leonardo. I wish it could have gone as well for the other creatures I’ve driven over in my days.

The most recent victim was an itty bitty sparrow. I was turning off a road to head onto the highway when the bird flew down and landed right in front of me in the middle of the on-ramp. I pulled the same maneuver I did for the turtle and made sure to steer so it went between my tires. Unfortunately, it didn’t fare as well for the bird. As you know, when cars are heading towards them, they tend to fly up. And as I drove over him, he flew up - right into the underside of my car. I continued down the exit to see from my rear-view mirror his little body rolling across the pavement. The most depressing cartwheels ever.

The only other animal I’ve hit was a raccoon. My first kill. I was blazing down the highway one night at 70mph. He ran out of nowhere. No chance to do the between-the-tires thing for him. Right under the Goodyears.

So far, I’ve driven over a reptile, a bird and a mammal. It seems my driving is making it’s way through the entire animal kingdom. I just need to hit an amphibian and a fish and I’ll have myself a full set.

Maybe I should try some beach driving sometime. I’ve always been a completist, after all.