Fish from above...

[fajrdrako]

I was walking home today along Col. By Drive, and I'd just passed the corner of Concord and Echo, when a fish fell out of the sky and landed in the road beside me with such a loud WHAP that it made me jump.

I looked around, but there were no cars anyone could have thrown it from. None of the condos were close enough to the street for anyone to have thrown it from a window. And it had come straight down from above - with nothing above me except sky.

Before I could start considering strange Fortean phenomena, a gull started to squawk hysterically above me and I realized what must had happened. This gull must have been lucky enough to nab a fish from the canal for supper. Flying off in triumph, it accidentally dropped it, splat, onto the street beside me.

Don't you hate it when that happens?

Worse for the dead fish than the hungry bird, I guess.

Comments

[acampbell.livejournal.com]

I feel bad for the fish, but your entry still cracked me up. Good thing it didn't smack you on the head!

[jkluge.livejournal.com]

LOL Fortean? Sounds more like "Pythonesque" (as in "Monty") to me. ;-) Hee! (So very glad it landed *beside* you and not on you.)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was very Monty Pythonesque, and I am certainly glad it didn't land on me. Life is full enough of perils, I don't need fish falling on my head without warning! You don't expect walking home from work to be quite so surreal.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It came close enough - lucky thing the bird had bad aim! I suppose it landed about two or three feet from me. It's just not what you expect - fish dropping out of the sky in the middle of the city - makes me want to walk with an umbrella whether it's raining or not!

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

That was just ... weird.

Glad it wasn't too close & that you figured out the cause.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

If I hadn't figured out the cause - just think what a great mystery it would have been? But the gull gave the game away by throwing a fit.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

That was my first reaction, too. Or -- [whistles Twilight Zone theme].

[jkluge.livejournal.com]

A little Michael Palin mixed with Rod Serling. <g> Now there's surreality for ya.

[jkluge.livejournal.com]

Life is full enough of perils, I don't need fish falling on my head without warning!

Delightfully understated. ;-)

[jkluge.livejournal.com]

I wonder why it didn't just come get the fish.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

Don't you hate it when that happens?
This happens to you a lot? You regularly drop aquatic wildlife from a great height? Or do you just regularly have it dropped on you? Is it like a magnetic thing, or do you think it's personal? ;)

Damn your town sounds more exciting than mine...

[duncanmac.livejournal.com]

Which only goes to show: one should not be *gulled* (which the Forteans probably were and are). :-)

Methinks it's a *fishy* co-incidence ... but I'm still glad it missed you. :-)

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

That's truly bizarre! Poor bird, losing its meal!

Wasn't there an Ancient Greek playwright who was killed when an eagle dropped a tortoise on his head? (Not deliberately, I presume. But one can never tell…)

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

Heh, I started reading this and thought, "Maybe it's one of those lj things that the cool kids know about, where you, say, invent a surreal experience and post about it, and I was only finding out about it now because I've been offline since pretty much Saturday?"

Glad the fish missed you. And couldn't the gull come down and pick it up again? No need for it to lose its supper! Unless you'd nabbed the fish for your supper. ;)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

You regularly drop aquatic wildlife from a great height?

No; my flying skills are limited.

do you think it's personal?

Well, that depends. If my budgies are acquainted with that gull, they might have put him up to it. Hmm....

Damn your town sounds more exciting than mine...

Just a quiet government town, really. Sort of. Well, kind of wacky, maybe.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I wonder why it didn't just come get the fish.

Maybe it did. The fish was gone when I walked by that spot this morning.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Add that to the long list of things to worry about: heart attack, global warning, falling fish....

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Sounds about right.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

If my budgies are acquainted with that gull, they might have put him up to it. Hmm....
Oooh, conspiracy theory! Have you done anything to upset them recently? What would the avian equivalent of the grapevine be? Passing things down the pecking order? Do gulls come above or below budgies?

I live in a town where people can wander round in full academic dress and covered in champagne, flowers, eggs and glitter while carrying a large, helium balloon shaped like Scooby Doo and no-one bats an eyelid. It's great :)

Rereading this post, it's entirely possible that I am a little hyperactive today...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Aeschylus. I didn't actually know that story, or if I knew, I'd forgotten; I just looked it up in Wikipedia. I always liked Aeschylus. Maybe the eagle was a theatre critic.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It just goes to show - surreal experiences don't always need to be invented!

I passed on the fish for my supper, since it was a canal fish, and the canal water is generally muddy and unappetizing-looking. The fish in it always have, to my eyes, an unhealthy silvery anaemic glow about them. It would probably be radioactive or something. Although I fairly often see people fishing in the canal (not just gulls!) so presumably they think it is worthwhile, and I've yet to hear of anyone who died from canal-poisoning.

The gull might have come back for his fish, once he got over his temper tantrum. It was gone when I walked by this morning.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Have you done anything to upset them recently?

Only the usual - not enough millet, not enough pampering....

Do gulls come above or below budgies?

According to my little guys, everything is below budgies, including humans and Tolkienesque giant eagles.

no-one bats an eyelid. It's great

It sounds wonderful!

There's nothing wrong with a little hyperactivity on a Wednesday.

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

Your anecdote reminds me of my grandfather, working on a farm in Scotland, waking up to find a kipper on his pillow (I *think* the story had it that it was a kipper). He always thought that a rat in a hurry had abandoned it, but I never knew if he cooked it or not (times were very hard).

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

My goodness - it's bad enough seeing a fish landing in the road, seeing it land on my pillow would have been really disconcerting!

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Works for me...