Sunday, March 12, 2006
Owls in the news
My friend Carol K sent me an interesting link yesterday, about a ghost print left by an owl that banged into a glass door in England.
This reminded me of a story (as nearly everything does). I rummaged around in my ancient files, and found my account of the incident from 2002.
***
Well, I had a unique experience the other night I could have gone a LONG time without!
I've been exploring different ideas about exercising, trying to get back into it kind of slow and easy in my current state of remission from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I wanted to try out one of those stretchy deals, kind of like a rubber band on steroids and/or Human Growth Hormone. Not only did it sound like a good general tool, I thought I could add on a little extra in my free time, like by using it while watching DVDs. Because "to think is to do" with me (kinda sorta sometimes), when I noticed a basic model at Wal-mart, I grabbed one.
So there I was, sitting on the floor with my long stretchy band, which is sort of a circular tube with foam handles. I started the DVD and began to experiment a little while I watched Harrison Ford sailing through his busy important movie life role without a clue something awful and horrible was about to happen to him.
I had the band on the bottom of my feet, moving them up and down, which seemed to be working my lower legs to a small degree. But my arms were getting more of a workout than my feet because of holding the band in a hard stretch. So I had the brilliant idea of putting the end of the loop behind my neck. Worked great. Right up until the point where I got too interested in the movie.
Without any warning, something smacked hard into my glasses. HARD! I'm not sure how to get the point across that I got hit really really HARD here. But I did. I had let the rubber band roll backwards off my feet and it snapped straight back. In the way rubber band type things do.
It has been a long time since anything on or in my body hurt that much. I couldn't even think for a second. My brain was literally a total blank--I mean, NO reaction, brain and body stunned motionless. And then I said something like, "Damn, THAT hurt," which was totally inadequate to the situation. For the first time I can recall, I'd run into something words could not even come close to expressing.
Harrison was still yammering away about some hostage situation or other as I sat there with my eyes shut and streaming tears. I finally collected myself well enough to get up and head to the bathroom for a cold washcloth. Once I was sponged down, I checked my glasses to see if I had damaged them (I only just GOT this pair in January!).
Happily, I had not. But I saw something REALLY unusual, and kind of gross. On the lenses were two roundish blobby marks, and each was surrounded top and bottom by a row of eyelash prints. The whole thing happened so fast I literally didn't have time to blink, and those were my EYEBALL prints I was looking at!
My eBay friends have been teasing me for not taking a picture of the prints and selling them. I feel ashamed to have been so lax (or gob-smacked) as to miss such a once-in-a-lifetime chance!
Happily I only got a bruised nose from the impact of the little pads that hold up my glasses, and a few days of looking like I had the hangover of the century. Oh, and Harrison Ford came out okay in the end too.
This reminded me of a story (as nearly everything does). I rummaged around in my ancient files, and found my account of the incident from 2002.
***
Well, I had a unique experience the other night I could have gone a LONG time without!
I've been exploring different ideas about exercising, trying to get back into it kind of slow and easy in my current state of remission from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I wanted to try out one of those stretchy deals, kind of like a rubber band on steroids and/or Human Growth Hormone. Not only did it sound like a good general tool, I thought I could add on a little extra in my free time, like by using it while watching DVDs. Because "to think is to do" with me (kinda sorta sometimes), when I noticed a basic model at Wal-mart, I grabbed one.
So there I was, sitting on the floor with my long stretchy band, which is sort of a circular tube with foam handles. I started the DVD and began to experiment a little while I watched Harrison Ford sailing through his busy important movie life role without a clue something awful and horrible was about to happen to him.
I had the band on the bottom of my feet, moving them up and down, which seemed to be working my lower legs to a small degree. But my arms were getting more of a workout than my feet because of holding the band in a hard stretch. So I had the brilliant idea of putting the end of the loop behind my neck. Worked great. Right up until the point where I got too interested in the movie.
Without any warning, something smacked hard into my glasses. HARD! I'm not sure how to get the point across that I got hit really really HARD here. But I did. I had let the rubber band roll backwards off my feet and it snapped straight back. In the way rubber band type things do.
It has been a long time since anything on or in my body hurt that much. I couldn't even think for a second. My brain was literally a total blank--I mean, NO reaction, brain and body stunned motionless. And then I said something like, "Damn, THAT hurt," which was totally inadequate to the situation. For the first time I can recall, I'd run into something words could not even come close to expressing.
Harrison was still yammering away about some hostage situation or other as I sat there with my eyes shut and streaming tears. I finally collected myself well enough to get up and head to the bathroom for a cold washcloth. Once I was sponged down, I checked my glasses to see if I had damaged them (I only just GOT this pair in January!).
Happily, I had not. But I saw something REALLY unusual, and kind of gross. On the lenses were two roundish blobby marks, and each was surrounded top and bottom by a row of eyelash prints. The whole thing happened so fast I literally didn't have time to blink, and those were my EYEBALL prints I was looking at!
My eBay friends have been teasing me for not taking a picture of the prints and selling them. I feel ashamed to have been so lax (or gob-smacked) as to miss such a once-in-a-lifetime chance!
Happily I only got a bruised nose from the impact of the little pads that hold up my glasses, and a few days of looking like I had the hangover of the century. Oh, and Harrison Ford came out okay in the end too.
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