Squirrels are evil......

graigdavis · Aug 20, 2004

Im not really that up in arms about all this. I just like debaiting things.

Not like I speed up to hit things. Unless its a cat... (JUST KIDDING!)

photogoddess · Aug 20, 2004

Me either. I just hate generalizations.

terri · Aug 20, 2004

Goddess, you're absolutely right. I should not have implied all SUV drivers are irresponsible. You're the exact type of consumer these models are built for - you have a need for business as well as family and these vehicles fill that need.

But god, you should see the I75-85 connector at rush hour, full of one-occupant SUVs, (and I mean Hummers are popular here too!) creeping along and angrily blowing their horns. And when traffic flows these same vehicles tear by you, hauling ass. I've lived in that traffic and just read an article about the SUV being the most popular vehicle in this state. So yeah, I admit to having a problem with roadkill and I blame these types of drivers less than I do what they're driving. :wink:

I was typing fast like I typically do on a Terri-rant and didn't choose my words that carefully. Sorry baby! :love:

Corry · Aug 20, 2004

What??? Me??? Evil?????

MDowdey · Aug 20, 2004

core_17 said:
What??? Me??? Evil?????

run!!! the photo forum has rats!!!

md

Sharkbait · Aug 20, 2004

terri said:
Jesus....who'd run over a squirrel on a damn BIKE? That is not funny that is sick.

It's one thing to have a small creature with no concept of a car dart out into the road when it's an unavoidable miss. But too often no one even attempts to brake.

I have a problem seeing the roadkill around here - squirrels, foxes, raccoons, etc. I have little doubt most of them could have been avoided if the pedal-to-the-metal mentality of the SUV drivers I see could be eased off a bit.

Give the remaining wildlife in its 13% allowable greenspace a chance - slow the hell down in our tiny wooded areas!!!!! :x

While I see your point and agree with the idea of slowing down, I could not disagree more with the idea of trying to avoid a squirrel or something. My driver's ed teacher many years ago said something that I'm sure will stick with me to my dying day. "No animal, whether it is the last do-do bird on the face of the earth, is worth risking the lives of you, your passengers, or the other people on the road. If that last do-do bird walks out in front of your car, and you cannot reasonably avoid it without drastic measures, run the little sumbitch down and never think twice about it."

Earlier this summer I saw the perfect end result of not following that motto. I was leaving soccer practice and came upon a scene that I was pretty easily able to reconstruct: Older woman is driving on a rural state highway with a 55mph speed limit. Two cars behind her, one car oncoming. Dog runs out in front of her. She slams on the brakes and swerves, completely heedless of anything else around her. The two cars behind her pile up, one ends up upside down in the cornfield. She swerves into the oncoming car, initiating a mostly head-on collision, spinning her car and the minivan she hit across the rest of the road. The wreckage managed to clip the dog anyway. When I came upon this happy little scene, they were pulling a young lady out of the upside down car, blood all over her face, and were loading two pre-teen children from the minivan into an ambulance on backboards. That dumbass could very well have destroyed half a dozen human lives and affected dozens more, all because she didn't want to hit Fido, who ended up nailed in the ditch anyway. :evil:

The only animals I will try to avoid are deer, cows, and elephants--in other words stuff that could injure the people in my car. Anything else is going snout-first into my grillwork, be it an ugly opossum or my best friend's AKC golden retriever.

:soapbox:

photogoddess · Aug 20, 2004

terri said:
Goddess, you're absolutely right. I should not have implied all SUV drivers are irresponsible. You're the exact type of consumer these models are built for - you have a need for business as well as family and these vehicles fill that need.

But god, you should see the I75-85 connector at rush hour, full of one-occupant SUVs, (and I mean Hummers are popular here too!) creeping along and angrily blowing their horns. And when traffic flows these same vehicles tear by you, hauling ass. I've lived in that traffic and just read an article about the SUV being the most popular vehicle in this state. So yeah, I admit to having a problem with roadkill and I blame these types of drivers less than I do what they're driving. I was typing fast like I typically do on a Terri-rant and didn't choose my words that carefully. Sorry baby! :love:

No worries girlie! Love back at ya! :love: I know that I'm the exception. I see huge vehicles with one person in them and truck beds that have never had anything put in them all of the time too. Drives me nuts... What a waste!

graigdavis · Aug 20, 2004

All the stuff I haul around I dont know if Id ever be able to get by with a car. Once the Jeep is payed off I do plan on buying a car as my daily driver. As much as I love the Jeep, it does hurt at the gas pump.

Karalee · Aug 20, 2004

I own a Jeep too, when you need them theyre really good - but man do they like their gas :roll: I think we get 16 or 17 mpg.

graigdavis · Aug 20, 2004

Same here. 20 on the highway with the wind.

I upgraded my air intake. Next is a high flow exhaust. It will be better with that combo.

molested_cow · Aug 20, 2004

I JUST HATE THE IDEA OF HAVING THAT THING STUCK ON MY TIRES!!!!!

I go jogging on that same road everyday and I have to run by those squashed ones often.... I avoid when possible. Some of them are just suicidal. They wait till just before your car approaches them and they dash across the road. I think that's how the squirrel ended up in the rim of the mt bike. The squirrel probably jumped out when the bike went by and got stuck between the spokes.

terri · Aug 20, 2004

John: just to re-state, what I am advocating here is s-l-o-w-i-n-g d-o-w-n, in the name of fuel conservation as well as respect for the wildlife - not recklessly jerking the wheel to spin myself out in a ditch, risking taking out passing cyclists (even those with bloody squirrels stuck in their spokes), for pete's sake. My rant is against reckless speeding down these 2-lane blacktops and taking out critters because of it. You slam into a deer doing 50 mph in a 25 mph zone and we'll see how fast you cartwheel into a ditch. Or trying to make that sharp curve on a rainy night. I'm quite certain you appreciate that was my point.

Don't get me started on flinging your garbage out the window at high speeds, either. We'll be here all day, and I'm trying to do some Polaroid work! Mercy!

Sharkbait · Aug 20, 2004

LOL, I hear ya terri. I figured that's what you were getting at, and I agree with you! I kind of went off on my own little tangent I guess. ;-)

Let me pose this question to you then... My Murano actually gets better mileage at 75-80mph than it does at 65. I've tested this numerous times, and due mostly to the continuously variable transmission, I get around 21mpg at 65 and around 23.5mpg at 80. Would you (you in the generic sense...not just Terri) advocate me slowing down on an empty stretch of highway? (The Indy-to-Evansville run to visit the in-laws is 3.5hrs of usually dead-empty I65)

terri · Aug 20, 2004

I would advocate, in the name of saving fuel, that you not visit your in-laws, period. I believe they would understand.

What's a Murano??? :scratch:

Seriously, is that true? I would think that logistically not possible, if for no other reason the drag factor. But then I don't know how boxy a vehicle this is. How fast you comfortably go is your call, of course. What is the visibility like on that stretch of road? Flat and clear? Or dense with a treeline right up to the side of the highway? I think your risk factor is much higher if you basically have a blind area (being a dense treeline) coming within several feet of your speeding vehicle. What is the terrain and the associated likelihood of anything coming out onto the highway? Let that be your guide.