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The coolest thing you ever saw

Smallville

Smallville

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Driving home this evening I was stopped at a light and looked to my right just as a hawk swooped down, caught a squirrel and flew off with it.

Effing awesome to watch. I saw the hawk when it was about five feet from the soon to be a meal squirrel.
 
Generally, the laws of nature are pretty cool to see happen. I saw a bobcat catch and kill a squirrel last summer. And it is always cool to see a snake eat anything.
But to see a hawk get its prey? That is sweet!
 
In the middle of no where Wyoming on some isolated road I saw a bald eagle sitting on top of a dead deer snacking and protecting his meal. This bird was huge and was less than 20 feet from the car.
 
Several years ago I was sitting at an intersection. A truck comes through the intersection toward me, speeding very fast. From his right a very low to the ground sports car also entered the intersection. Truck and car collided in the middle of the intersection, with the truck being propelled up and over the hood of the sports car, spinning counter clockwise (like a bullet) as it flew through the air. In front of me was a large city bus. The truck continued flying forward and spinning until it collided with the upper driver side corner of the bus, which made it then spin like a helicopter blade, tail end chasing cab. The truck landed on the ground and rolled a few times Ricky Bobby style before coming to rest upside down. Gas was pouring out of the tank from the cap area. A few of us jumped out to help. The driver kicked out a window, crawled out of the cab and left the scene running, just ahead of the police who arrived with sirens blaring.

It was like seeing a Hollywood action movie being shot right in front of you, except you were in the scene.
 
Waterspout in the Gulf of Mexico when I was visiting Venice Beach, FL
 
The coolest thing you ever saw

Nature wise, I would say humpback whales lunge feeding or seeing a white shark from our boat.

Otherwise, seeing my family and I on CNN riding the emergency slide of an airliner.
 
I was watching an Israeli Soldier ground guide a 28 ton tracked vehicle into an area that was pretty congested at night using a cone flashlight. I watched him trip and hit the ground with the flashlight and promptly disappear under the vehicle and thought he was dead. A few seconds later, I see the flashlight pop up off the ground and run back in front of the vehicle. The Soldier had tripped, fallen and the driver did not see him and didn't stop. The tracked vehicle went right over top of him and only has about 18" of ground clearance in the center, which this guy was lucky enough to be in when he fell. So dude basically got run over by a tank and lived to tell the story. I thought I had watched someone die, but the Israeli guy wasn't phased a bit by it and went right back to his duty in front of the vehicle and driver that had just run him over.
 
Sitting on a tee box year before last I watched an alligator lunge out of the edge of the water and devour a small rabbit.....the commotion it created in the water was intense!
 
I saw someone hit a hole in one during the Morgan Cup.
 
In my early 20s I spent the batter part of the morning fishing at a local lake with no success, a lake I've fished 100+ times. The fish weren't biting and I was get board so I started to pack up. As I have my back to the lake, no one else around, I hear what sounds like someone threw a bowling ball into the lake. I turn around and see nothing but the water splashing up and rippling. A few seconds later I see an osprey come out of the water with the biggest damn trout I've ever seen come out of that lake. At least someone caught something that day!
 
Two come to mind:

In 1998 I worked the summer after high school as an emergency driver for the US Forest Service during a large forest fire in the national forest near my home. I knew the area and had a pickup truck - they hire those types when they hit the ground to make deliveries, pick up new firefighters from the airport, etc. One night I was delivering dinner to the fighters after the fire had jumped the line and it was every hand on deck to try to stop it. By the time we got out there with a couple hundred meals from Quincy's loaded in the back of my truck it was about 10pm and pitch black way out in the forest except for where the fire had been stopped - there were small licks of flame here and there on the ground and up into the pine trees all over, as far deep as you could see, the way stars disappear into the distance in the sky. Firefighters in all their reflective gear with the small lights on their headlamps poking around here and there. Just a surreal and very uncommon scene.

Second was one morning at our local zoo a few years ago, there's a Jaguar exhibit and there was a solid black jaguar in a section that has a pond that use to house some south american fish. Well, Salsa liked to hunt fish and would periodically catch one and eat it and it cost the zoo about $1,000 to get each fish imported, so they were not happy about it. One Saturday we were there early and just my wife and I were standing by the big glass where the pond is and Salsa decided to go fishing and dove into the pond in front of us and lunged for a group of fish - teeth bared, claws out, all muscle and speed and bubbles flying and a loud "swoosh!" sound as she more or less came right at us. She missed the fish and turned and went the other direction and soon gave up empty handed. I had no idea they could move so fast under water and were so powerful against the water resistance. It was like living a nature documentary. So cool and frightening at the same time. It is easy to forget sometimes only seeing the big cats in captivity that they are highly adapted killing machines and are very good at it.
 
My kids being born.
 
First ever Yankee game, Mariano Rivera's entrance. Chills.
 
On an Alaskan cruise we took a wildlife tour and saw bald eagles swooping down and pulling fish out of the water.

On that same cruise we went by glacier bay and I saw the side of a huge glacier fall off into the ocean. Seeing the power was impressive.
 
Not something I'd like to see, as I'd feel bad for the squirrel.

Either last winter or the one before, my wife saw a large owl take a rabbit in our yard in the middle of the night. When she saw it, the owl was on top of the rabbit with it's wings spread. She said she thought the owl was an alien (a 'gray,' or whatever). The owl took the rabbit up into a pine tree and finished it off there. Yuck, and definitely not cool....

Smallville said:
...a hawk swooped down, caught a squirrel and flew off with it.

Effing awesome to watch. I saw the hawk when it was about five feet from the soon to be a meal squirrel.
Click to expand...
 
Hawk laying up on a 90 yard par 3
 
Birth of my child.

It's always cool to watch a lightning storm out over the Great Lakes when you're standing on shore though.
 
An F14 breaking the sound barrier.
A 20' wave from underneath it.
I once caught a 22" walleye and a 47" Musky swiped it, and held on long enough for me to catch both fish.
Love weather phenomena also.
 
Big storms rolling in from the distance are really cool to see...well as long as you have shelter.
 
I was maybe 5 miles from a tornado as it went through a smaller town in Nebraska (Hallam, NE). It was incredible to see how powerful a storm like that can be. I felt horrible for the people living there, but it was still incredible to see.
 
The mirror.


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Besides the obvious - like my children being born...

When a young eagle and a hawk were fighting over a snake while I was playing golf at Compass Point and dropped it right behind me. Hearing them screeching and watching them duel, while heading for me, was awesome. Then you had the poor snake who was eventually dropped and squirming all around - headless.

Fishing as a young kid in the back bay at Ocean City, and while fighting a flounder, a sand shark just comes up and bites in in half.

Playing Pilgrims Oak with my wife, and watching this huge sheet of rain & lightning and hearing the thunder make its way across the course. Seemed like it came out of nowhere! We got soaked, but just made it to the club house before the storm hit.
 
JRod said:
Brutal....


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Click to expand...
I was waiting for Ashton Kutcher to run out with cameras and tell me I was being punked
 
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