Monday 6 June 2016

Oh Deer!

Continuing in the risk management theme, I have accumulated a few more risks:
  • first, the 'Cascadia Subduction' - it seems that 'Pacific' is an entirely inappropriate title.  Coming from the Latin Pax, Pacis meaning 'peace', the reason this title in inappropriate is very simple: the north Pacific Coast is at risk of a tectonic plate shift (due to the 'Cascadia Subduction', similar to the much better known 'San Andreas fault').  The last big earthquake caused by this occurred in 1700 - resulting in a 50' tsunami off the coast of Oregon.  My pal David reassured me that I'd have time to hear about any such event on the news and to move on the 'Tsunami route' to higher ground.  Except I don't listen to local radio when I 'm cycling. . .
  • Coronal Mass Ejection - in 1859, the so-called Carrington Event recorded a massive Coronal Mass Ejection (basically, a huge expulsion of material from the surface of the sun).  This caused a massive geomagnetic storm (the most visible effect of which was the appearance of the Aurora Borealis not just at very northern latitudes but over a hugely increased area.
    More recently, a similar event took out the entire power grid in Eastern Canada.  The practical impact of one of these in today's highly electronic-dependent world has been speculated to be massively disruptive (losing, as we would, satellites, GPS, cellular communications, power supplies and more).  I never did mind about the little things. . . ?
  • and then, the simple deer.  Today, as I careered down a sharp descent at over 40mnph, a little grey squirrel darted out across the road in front of me.  I thought "Keep going sunshine - I don't want to hit you!".  Whereupon he obviously sensed the rapid descent of BigBadBob and immediately retraced his steps towards the ditch.  Uh-oh!  Hitting even a little critter like a squirrel at over 40mph and I could find myself in the ditch.  Somehow, he managed to avoid my wheels and I careered on, oblivious.
    Except that a deer would have been entirely different.  In fact, a conversation at a coffee stop the day before revealed the case of a motorcyclist who hit a deer - killed it, completely wrecked his motorbike and landed him in a coma for 3 days.  Oh dear, indeed.
  • . . . and just to 'up the ante', I told my squirrel/deer story to a waiter at a lunch stop and he looked at me, gravely serious, and said "yeah, another of you cyclers, an English guy, came across that trail you just did - last month - and met a bear".  Having clarified that I was Irish, not English (let's deal with the important stuff first) I enquired if that was typical.  "Oh yeah, you meet lots of animals on that trail - the trickier one is a mountain lion".
    Think I'll stick to the main road in future?

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