I never dreamed slowly cruising on my motorcycle through a residential
neighborhood could be so incredibly dangerous! Little did I suspect. I was
on Brice Street - a very nice neighborhood with perfect lawns and slow
traffic. As I passed an oncoming car, a brown furry missile shot out from
under it and tumbled to a stop immediately in front of me.

It was a squirrel, and must have been trying to run across the road when it
encountered the car. I really was not going very fast, but there was no time
to brake or avoid it -- it was that close.

I hate to run over animals, and I really hate it on a motorcycle, but a
squirrel should pose no danger to me. I barely had time to brace for
the impact. Animal lovers, never fear. Squirrels, I discovered, can take
care of themselves!

Inches before impact, the squirrel flipped to his feet. He was standing on
his hind legs and facing my oncoming Valkyrie with steadfast resolve in his
beady little eyes. His mouth opened, and at the last possible second, he
screamed and leapt!

I am pretty sure the scream was squirrel for, "Bonzai!" or maybe, "Die you
gravy-sucking, heathen scum!" The leap was nothing short of spectacular ...
as he shot straight up, flew over my windshield, and impacted me squarely
in the chest.

Instantly, he set upon me. If I did not know better, I would have sworn he
brought 20 of his little buddies along for the attack. Snarling, hissing,and
tearing at my clothes, he was a frenzy of activity. As I was dressed only
in a light T-shirt, summer riding gloves, and jeans this was a bit of a cause
for concern. This furry little tornado was doing some damage!

Picture a large man on a huge black and chrome cruiser, dressed in jeans,
a T-shirt, and leather gloves, puttering at maybe 25 mph down a quiet
residential street, and in the fight of his life with a squirrel.

And losing...

I grabbed for him with my left hand. After a few misses, I finally managed
to snag his tail. With all my strength, I flung the evil rodent off to the left
of the bike, almost running into the right curb as I recoiled
from the throw.

That should have done it. The matter should have ended right there. It
really should have. The squirrel could have sailed into one of the prist-
inely kept yards and gone on about his business, and I could have
headed home. No one would have been the wiser.

But this was no ordinary squirrel. This was not even an ordinary
angry
squirrel. This was an EVIL MUTANT ATTACK SQUIRREL OF DEATH!
Somehow he caught my gloved finger with one of his little hands and,
with the force of the throw, swung around and with a resounding thump
and an amazing impact,he landed squarely on my BACK and resumed
his rather antisocial and extremely distracting activities. He also
managed to take my left glove with him!

The situation was not improved. Not improved at all. His attacks were
continuing, and now I could not reach him. I was startled, to say the least.
The combination of the force of the throw, only having one hand (the
throttle hand) on the handlebars, and my jerking back unfortunately put a
healthy twist through my right hand and into the throttle.

A healthy twist on the throttle of a Valkyrie can only have one result.Torque.
This is what the Valkyrie is made for, and she is very, very good at it. The
engine roared and the front wheel left the pavement. The squirrel screamed
in anger. The Valkyrie screamed in ecstasy. I screamed in .. well . I just plain screamed.

Now picture a large man on a huge black and chrome cruiser, dressed in
jeans, a slightly squirrel-torn t-shirt, wearing only one leather glove, and
roaring at maybe 50 mph and rapidly accelerating down a quiet residential
street on one wheel, with a demonic squirrel of death on his back.
The man and the squirrel are both screaming bloody murder.

With the sudden acceleration I was forced to put my other hand back on
the handlebars and try to get control of the bike. This was leaving the
mutant squirrel to his own devices, but I really did not want to crash into
somebody's tree, house, or parked car. Also, I had not yet figured out how
to release the throttle... my brain was just simply overloaded. I did manage
to mash the back brake, but it had little effect against the massive power
of the big cruiser.

About this time the squirrel decided that I was not paying sufficient attention
to this very serious battle (maybe he was an evil mutant NAZI attack squirrel
of death), and he came around my neck and got INSIDE my full-face hlmet
with me. As the faceplate closed part way, he began hissing in my face.

I am quite sure my screaming changed intensity. It had little effect on the
squirrel, however. The RPMs on the Dragon maxed out (since I was not
bothering with shifting at the moment), so her front end started to drop.
Now picture a large man on a huge black and chrome cruiser, dressed in
jeans, a very raggedly torn T-shirt, wearing only one leather glove, roaring
at probably 80 mph, still on one wheel, with a large puffy squirrel's tail
sticking out of the mostly closed full-face helmet. By now the screams are
probably getting a little hoarse.

Finally I got the upper hand ... I managed to grab his tail again, pulled him
out of my helmet, and slung him to the left as hard as I could. This time it
worked ... sort-of.

Spectacularly sort-of ...so to speak. Picture a new scene. You are a cop.
You and your partner have pulled off on a quiet residential street and
parked with your windows down to do some paperwork. Suddenly a large
man on a huge black and chrome cruiser, dressed in jeans, a torn T-shirt
flapping in the breeze, and wearing only one leather glove, moving at
probably 80 mph on one wheel, and screaming bloody murder roars by,
and with all his strength, throws a live squirrel grenade directly into your
police car.

I heard screams.

They weren't mine...

I managed to get the big motorcycle under control and dropped the front
wheel to the ground. I then used maximum braking and skidded to a stop in
a cloud of tire smoke at the stop sign of a busy cross street. I would have
returned to 'fess up (and to get my glove back). I really would have.
Really... Except for two things.

First, the cops did not seem interested or the slightest bit concerned about
me at the moment. When I looked back, the doors on both sides of the
patrol car were flung wide open. The cop from the passenger side was on
his back,doing a crab walk into somebody's front yard, quickly moving away
from the car. The cop who had been in the driver's seat was standing in the
street,aiming a riot shotgun at his own police car. So, the cops were not
interested in me. They often insist to "let the professionals handle it"
anyway.

That was one thing. The other? Well, I could clearly see shredded and
flying pieces of foam and upholstery from the back seat. But I could also
swear I saw the squirrel in the back window, shaking his little fist at me.
That is one dangerous squirrel. And now he has a patrol car. A somewhat
shredded patrol car ... but it was all his.

I took a deep breath, turned on my turn-signal, made a gentle right turn off
of Brice Street, and sedately left the neighborhood. I decided it was best
to just buy myself a new pair of gloves. And a whole lot of Bandaids.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Gripe Comments"After every flight, pilots fill out a form (called a "gripe sheet," at some airlines) which tells mechanics about problems with the aircraft. The mechanics correct the problems, document their repairs on the form, and then pilots review the gripe sheets before the next flight. Never let it be said that ground crews lack a sense of humor. Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted (marked with a P) and the solutions recorded (marked with an S) by maintenance engineers.