Worlds Collide
My wife Lisa and I are both working freelance and writing books. Lisa's book is a kid-friendly natural science piece on the forests of the Pacific Northwest. The book I'm finishing is full of stories like the anecdotes I put in this blog, but they're the stories that merit being in a book instead of whizzing out into the Internet.
The other night, hanging out in a bar telling stories after a victorious soccer game, Lisa and my areas of expertise sort-of-almost crossed over. We were talking about the soccer scene out in Port Angeles Washington, out near the rainforest, and I mentioned the ranger friend who had showed up to soccer one week with the passenger side of his Honda caved in, just barely drivable.
He was driving out on the highways near Forks when a deer flashed in front of his car. His eyes were following the deer off to the left so he didn't see the mountain lion pursuing the deer slam into the right side of his car. He felt it. The impact rocked him, he stayed in control and got his head around in time to see the mountain lion staggering into the underbrush. He pulled over. I don't know what you would do in this situation, but he was a ranger, so he went to take a look at the scene... and found the cat's intestines where it had spit them up beside the road.
In the bar, Woody said, "Man! Smashed the car? How much do mountain lions weigh?"
"Oh, about 140 or 150 pounds," said Lisa.
"No," I said, more like 200."
Lisa gave me that-look and said, "I'm writing this one...."
"Oh. Right. Sorry. Yeah, you'd know," I said. But what I was thinking was "Well, in D&D, mountain lions are MUCH heavier."
The other night, hanging out in a bar telling stories after a victorious soccer game, Lisa and my areas of expertise sort-of-almost crossed over. We were talking about the soccer scene out in Port Angeles Washington, out near the rainforest, and I mentioned the ranger friend who had showed up to soccer one week with the passenger side of his Honda caved in, just barely drivable.
He was driving out on the highways near Forks when a deer flashed in front of his car. His eyes were following the deer off to the left so he didn't see the mountain lion pursuing the deer slam into the right side of his car. He felt it. The impact rocked him, he stayed in control and got his head around in time to see the mountain lion staggering into the underbrush. He pulled over. I don't know what you would do in this situation, but he was a ranger, so he went to take a look at the scene... and found the cat's intestines where it had spit them up beside the road.
In the bar, Woody said, "Man! Smashed the car? How much do mountain lions weigh?"
"Oh, about 140 or 150 pounds," said Lisa.
"No," I said, more like 200."
Lisa gave me that-look and said, "I'm writing this one...."
"Oh. Right. Sorry. Yeah, you'd know," I said. But what I was thinking was "Well, in D&D, mountain lions are MUCH heavier."