I'm making up for lost time, posting a bunch of older news in one big rush. I've been busy at work, of course.
I picked up the kids' lawn mower from Sears, and on the way home I found a lizard on my hood. I decided to name him Rex, but I kept referring to him as 'bro' for some odd reason.
I thought it was pretty cool, but trying to take a picture of him was a pain. I eventually stuck my Treo out the window at a traffic jam, thinking, "Oh, if I drop this..."
When traffic picked back up, I forgot all about him. Until I hit 45MPH and he lost his grip. He wound up on my windshield. Another perfect photo-op! If only my lens wasn't so dirty. I nearly ran off the road twice trying to clean it off. Eventually I got this picture, which is about as good as it gets.
Through experimentation, we found out that lizards reach the peak of adhesion around 38MPH. Rex would start closing his eyes, blinking real slowly, the closer I got. At 40 or so he would try to move, inevitably being pushed farther up my windshield.
At stoplights, he would refuse to move, no matter what. I couldn't tap him off the windshield, and I didn't want to hurt him with the wipers. I eventually took to the back streets so I could go slower.
I kept it below 40 the whole way, but he eventually blew off my windshield anyway. He just needed to look up, and the wind caught him under the chin and flipped him over.
I slowed to 35 and stayed there the rest of the way home. I unloaded the lawnmower and looked for Rex, but he was gone.
I hope he made it. None of the cars behind me acted like a lizard had just jumped on their windshields, anyway.