Friday, June 1, 2007

Off with Their Heads!!

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Totally forgot to mention this yesterday. Halfway to work there is an abandoned business just beside the highway. It's been many things over the years: laundromat; convenience store; car lot, and probably a couple of other things I've forgotten. I'm driving to work yesterday morning, talking on the cell to Brian. As I get closer to the business I notice a guy standing in the parking lot, a few feet behind a battered and bondoed sedan. He appeared to be administering a field sobriety test to himself--walking along the seams in the concrete, trying to maintain a straight line, arms held out straight from his sides.

I feel it's important to note he was wearing a white button down shirt and black shorts with a white hibiscus pattern, he also had socks pulled halfway up his calves.

~*~
People are offering to buy tomatoes from me. I find this sort of crazy when there's a great farmer's market here.
~*~

Went out to work in the yard this afternoon and found another 3 foot long snake, crossing the patch. No clue what sort. Definitely not a black snake, although it is (errr was) a blackish-brownish color with a subtle diamond pattern. I fetched the machete and played Red Queen with it. Apparently there are a lot of snakes this summer...huzzah. I found myself wishing my grandfather was still alive--he'd have known what it was. I just hope I don't run across a copperhead. Oy god. I'll scream like a girl. Might even tinkle a little.

2 comments:

Pamela Johnson Parker said...

Do you have a creek nearby? If so it's probably a banded water snake, which look VERY MUCH like copperheads, except for the head shapes (copperheads have an arrow shaped head--or so I've been told). Banded water snakes will thrive on land, but they much prefer to be very close to a creek/pond. They might bite but aren't poisonous, and they will eat a ton of mosquitoes and other pest, which is well worth the frisson of fear that travels up to my brainstem whenever I see one within a few feet of my feet.

RJGibson said...

Pamela--I think you nailed it! The hideous neighbors have a couple of ponds very close to the property. I think there's also a "creek" that runs through the lower part of their field (it's really more of a glorified ditch but does fill up and run when there's rain.)

I feel bad now. No more killing those.