Rides, ramblings and rants on a motorcycle.
- We are scientists, too!
8.21.2007,7:45 AM
Froggy Morning
Did it rain frogs last night?
Opening the front door this morning to warm up the bike, there, square in the middle of the top step was ........ a large frog. I froze in mid-step and looked down at him, he up at me, unmoving.
"What do you want?"
No sooner did the last word leave my mouth and Mr. Frog leaped over the sill and into the house.
"Hey!!! What are you doing? I didn't invite you in!" The screen door slammed shut as I turned and started forward to catch Mr. Frog and return him to his own playground. He leaped again as I came near and what commenced was a jump and leap frog around the living room by both of us. A decaffeinated brain was slowly trying to comprehend and keep up with the faster moving bipedal body jumping after a leaping frog on the carpeted floor. A mixture of cussing and giggling emitted from my mouth as I followed it zigzagging around the room until I finally threw myself forward with one hand bracing my fall and the other outstretched and cupped to cover Mr. Frog before he could leap again.
Now cussing and sweaty in my gear and boots, Mr. Frog was cradled in both my hands and somehow with feet and elbows, I managed to open the door and step outside without it hitting me in the face. I set Mr. Frog down in the grass at the bottom of the steps and gave him a verbal scolding with a hearty laugh, then walked over to start the engine humming in the darkness.
After donning the remainder of my gear and packing the day's carried paraphernalia in the side bags, I settled myself on the wool-covered saddle and prepared to take off. Always performing a quick reconnaissance before take off, I noticed a rather oddly colored rock in front of the bike's wheel.
That wasn't a rock; it was a frog. And it was right in my front wheel's rolling path. A muffled voice in my helmet spoke, "No.... it can't be....."
The different shades of green and black, which could be discerned in the headlight glow, distinguished it from the former visitor (or shall we say 'intruder'?). Again, he or she looked up at me with little slitty black eyes as if it was either dumbfounded, blinded by the light, or trying to tell me something. I shook my helmeted head thinking I probably look like a giant alien from some weird waterless world. Or I'm seeing things. But I didn't want to run over it.
Honking my airhorns would have woken my neighbors and the dead within a mile, so that option was discarded. Get off the bike? No. My loud encouragements from the plastic round can over my head accomplished nothing. So I tried to back the bike on the gravel.
The bike now positioned at an angle to Mr. Frog No. 2 ("I'm not a number!!"), I slowly let the clutch out and inched forward and to the side of it. Just as the front wheel was about five inches from the frog, it leaped into the darkness and disappeared.
I giggled all the way out on gravel to the road to find sparse pockets of fog hovering over the roads until I wheeled into town eight miles away from home.
It was a froggy morning, indeed.
Rivet.....
Opening the front door this morning to warm up the bike, there, square in the middle of the top step was ........ a large frog. I froze in mid-step and looked down at him, he up at me, unmoving.
"What do you want?"
No sooner did the last word leave my mouth and Mr. Frog leaped over the sill and into the house.
"Hey!!! What are you doing? I didn't invite you in!" The screen door slammed shut as I turned and started forward to catch Mr. Frog and return him to his own playground. He leaped again as I came near and what commenced was a jump and leap frog around the living room by both of us. A decaffeinated brain was slowly trying to comprehend and keep up with the faster moving bipedal body jumping after a leaping frog on the carpeted floor. A mixture of cussing and giggling emitted from my mouth as I followed it zigzagging around the room until I finally threw myself forward with one hand bracing my fall and the other outstretched and cupped to cover Mr. Frog before he could leap again.
Now cussing and sweaty in my gear and boots, Mr. Frog was cradled in both my hands and somehow with feet and elbows, I managed to open the door and step outside without it hitting me in the face. I set Mr. Frog down in the grass at the bottom of the steps and gave him a verbal scolding with a hearty laugh, then walked over to start the engine humming in the darkness.
After donning the remainder of my gear and packing the day's carried paraphernalia in the side bags, I settled myself on the wool-covered saddle and prepared to take off. Always performing a quick reconnaissance before take off, I noticed a rather oddly colored rock in front of the bike's wheel.
That wasn't a rock; it was a frog. And it was right in my front wheel's rolling path. A muffled voice in my helmet spoke, "No.... it can't be....."
The different shades of green and black, which could be discerned in the headlight glow, distinguished it from the former visitor (or shall we say 'intruder'?). Again, he or she looked up at me with little slitty black eyes as if it was either dumbfounded, blinded by the light, or trying to tell me something. I shook my helmeted head thinking I probably look like a giant alien from some weird waterless world. Or I'm seeing things. But I didn't want to run over it.
Honking my airhorns would have woken my neighbors and the dead within a mile, so that option was discarded. Get off the bike? No. My loud encouragements from the plastic round can over my head accomplished nothing. So I tried to back the bike on the gravel.
The bike now positioned at an angle to Mr. Frog No. 2 ("I'm not a number!!"), I slowly let the clutch out and inched forward and to the side of it. Just as the front wheel was about five inches from the frog, it leaped into the darkness and disappeared.
I giggled all the way out on gravel to the road to find sparse pockets of fog hovering over the roads until I wheeled into town eight miles away from home.
It was a froggy morning, indeed.
Rivet.....
Labels: meanderings
