tim & lisa cocking

Thought I’d post one picture from a show with The OaKs last week.

There is a somewhat interesting article on Orlando this month in National Geographic. It’s really not as bad to live here as the article makes it seem !

http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0703/feature4/index.html

There is this one picture from the article that is from a development about a mile away from our home.

These lights turn on every evening and light up our otherwise dark sky. Why the builder didn’t use directional ‘dark sky’ lighting is beyond me. The poor people who live here eventually will have horrible, bright orange light shining in their houses. On the second floor as well. There will be no escape. Big thumbs down to Trans Eastern builders! At least once it’s done the buildings will keep the glare contained from the surrounding area. Unfortunately even then it will send loads of light pollution upwards.

I was having a lovely ride this morning, the smell from the orange grove was almost overpowering. They smell somewhat ‘orangey’ but not like oranges. It’s very perfumey and very Florida (or California I suppose, but I always associate it with being here). Breathing it in, minding my own business a little before 6:30. It’s still pretty dark and I’m on a two lane unlit road. There is a car approaching doing 45-50. It’s about 10 yards in front of me and from my right is a very sudden noise and motion that leaps nearly over me and never lands, but floats right down into the front of the car. The deer is instantaneously sent spinning through the air with tremendous force now just a few feet from me. Fortunately its own momentum allows it to spin up and away from me. The carcass hurtles about 40-50 feet until it crashes into a fence and falls several feet to the ground. I stop, the car stops. The driver gets out to find half of the front end has been collapsed. He’s very shaken. I make sure he’s OK and then the freakiest part begins. The deer GETS UP! It is totally wild, injured and disoriented and immediately starts leaping hard into the fence, over and over. Mind you I’ve circled back to where the car came to rest and the deer is just a few feet away. I felt pretty unprotected standing with my bike! Eventually it ran across the street and ran into another fence. It just kept leaping several feet into the air trying to get through the fence until its momentum carried it down to a gate and it ran off. I don’t suppose it lived very long. Given the extensive damage to the car it must of had some pretty severe internal injuries.