I'm riding my bike to school the other day. Beautiful sunny morning, not a cloud in the sky, not a care in the world. OK, that's not entirely accurate but work with me here. I spot a squirrel about fifty feet away, in the middle of the road doing whatever it is squirrels do in the middle of the road. I'm immediately reminded of the Geico ad where a squirrel runs out into the path of an oncoming car causing it to crash and then we see the culprit high-fiving another squirrel by the side of the road in celebration.
I don't want that to happen to me, so I decide to keep an eye on this particular rodent. A very close eye. But there is no other traffic on the street, and so far he (or she?) seems oblivious to my presence. I'm now ten feet away and he hasn't budged. Five feet. Now I relax a little bit. Surely the danger has passed.
And then it happens. In a blur of fur, the dumb beast makes a mad dash for the sidewalk, right under my front wheel. I squeeze the brakes for all I'm worth and swerve hard left to avoid making squirrel pie. I barely manage it. The squirrel is unscathed and all I can do is laugh at the incident. And as I ride by, I glance back at the sidewalk, fully expecting to see a second squirrel congratulating his protégé on a superbly-timed and executed performance. I didn't see him, but I know he was there.
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