Apparently I'm Dead in the Road

I never seem to stop having unusual experiences.

I attract perverts and strange encounters like a moth to a flame.

I've been trying to post at least three photos per day on G+ (morning/afternoon/evening).  Some days it doesn't happen, but it's my current goal since I have a chunk of new photography-enthused followers.

(Unrelated aside:  If you follow me on G+ please let me know you're there so I can follow you back.  I often miss people in my notifications, but if you let me know you're there I'll make sure to follow you back!)

I've recently had a lot of technical problems and sometimes, if I'm rushing, I don't have a lot of time to pull out my external hard drives and find the photo I want.

So - I've been taking a lot of new shots.  (That's my excuse anyway!)

The other day I decided to take a walk with my camera in my neighborhood.  

Remember, I live in a canyon - lots of unexpected critters to come across, etc. 

Prickly pear cacti

I noticed the cacti were bearing fruit.  They looked so pretty in a cactus sorta way.  I was on a little back road in the canyon and it was eerily silent.

Kind of creepy really.

I expected a mountain lion to suddenly appear and eat me.  (It has happened before here - not that far from my house.)  

I was having a silent tug-of-war in my mind:

Internal Voice #1:  Take your time, take lots of photos.

Internal Voice #2:  OMG - get out of here fast! THERE'S NO ONE AROUND.  You will get eaten by a mountain lion and no one will ever know where you went or what happened to you.  

Do you ever have conversations about mountain lions eating you inside your head?

No?

Anyway, it was right about then I noticed some pretty yellow flowers along the road.

I had a wide angle lens on my camera and I just couldn't get a good shot of them -

So I layed down in the middle of the eerily quiet, totally deserted, road.

I was there for awhile.  

I was concentrating very hard, because I was having a difficult time getting the angle I wanted.

And then,

Out of nowhere,

There was a truck behind me and a group of Hispanic men talking frantically and the word "muerto" (or something like that) kept being said.

My immediate thought was, "I'm about to be run over by a truck."

I scrambled to get up, and out of the way, as fast as possible.

As I was doing so, I realized the truck had actually just stopped a few feet behind me.

When I jumped up, the men inside it looked startled and frightened.

That's when the word "muerto" sunk the rest of the way into my brain.

In Spanish, muerto means dead.

Apparently the men inside the truck thought they had come across a dead woman in the middle of the street.

A dead woman, in the middle of a deserted street, clutching a camera in her dead hands.

After their initial shock, the men seemed relieved they didn't have to deal with a dead body.

I was a little flustered by the encounter myself ...

First, thinking I was about to be run over by a truck -

And then hearing I was actually dead in the middle of the street.

© Twenty Four At Heart 

Comments

[yvonne nc]

Funny! At least your weren't nude sunbathing and opened your eyes to buzzards circling you. You know your looking good when that happens. Not that it's ever happened to me or anything.

[Di]

It's a good thing to know a few important Spanish words or phrases. So glad they stopped in time or this post could have turned out much differently... we really don't want to hear that you now have bionic legs!!

[Linda P]

You do live the exciting, adventurous life don't you?! LOL! You must have been concentrating very hard if you didn't hear a truck pull up behind you. Be careful out there!

[Missy]

This is such a Suzanne incident! Love the cactus photo. I did see it on G+ yesterday when you posted the link on Facebook.

[ShaBean]

So how do you say "I'm following you" without sounding like a major creepster? on Google+ that is! Love this shot, btw!

[karen]

Never a dull moment with you, is there :)

[Jan]

I spent the latter half of this post wondering who was more traumatized - you or the guys in the truck. :P

[Jan]

OH - and I LOVE the cactus photo.

[Jack @ TheJackB]

It could be worse. You could be naked in the house and suddenly realize that the workers in the yard can see you through the window....

[Jane]

You should write a book about your "encounters." "Encounters of the [email protected]" Thank god you weren't "Muerte!"