Nope, James. Not clicking on that one either. It might be lovely pastels of unicorns, but I don't care. I am irrationally afraid of snakes. I know very little trivia about subjects beginning with "S" because I wouldn't open that volume of the encyclopedia when I was a child.
I hated the thick glossy photo pages with picture of snakes. It wasn't just the "S" volume... but I was taking no chances.
I wonder how much of what was in that early 60s encyclopedia is still relevant today. History articles might hold up, but I bet the science articles do not.
With my husband, it was spiders. We had a deal -- I dealt with spiders, he dealt with snakes. It worked out well, until a snake crawled into our laundry room early one morning. By the time I woke snakeman up, the snake had disappeared. He honestly expected me to believe that the snake had gone back outside (no, I didn't bother closing the door). He did move the washer, dryer, and cabinets that could be moved and there was no sign of the snake.
This was traumatic enough for me that my doc called in a prescription for valium for me. I stood in our driveway turning in circles looking for snakes for some time before I was able to go back in the house. It was at least 6 months before I went into the laundry room. During that time, my dear husband ruined a lot of clothes because he thought hot water and bleach were always called for.
They couldn't just bite the bullet and call it Snake Pit State Park? Snakes-in-a-Park?
Myself, I quite like both snakes and spiders. I make exceptions for venomous snakes less than 10 feet away, and venomous or unreasonably large spiders less than 2 feet away unless they're safely in a web minding their own business. I still don't feel the least urge to harm either one, only to create more distance while encouraging them to be somewhere else.
I am content to identify snakes from the post-mortem.
I lucked out. I still remember a soft give under my foot, and looking down and seeing a mamba coiled squarely under my foot. I guess it either was full, or else I'd caught it crosswise and it couldn't move. My gym teacher would have approved of my track time. Some nearby men with shovels made dinner out of it.
I'm not clicking on that link.
ReplyDeleteNope, James. Not clicking on that one either. It might be lovely pastels of unicorns, but I don't care. I am irrationally afraid of snakes. I know very little trivia about subjects beginning with "S" because I wouldn't open that volume of the encyclopedia when I was a child.
ReplyDeleteI hated the thick glossy photo pages with picture of snakes. It wasn't just the "S" volume... but I was taking no chances.
I wonder how much of what was in that early 60s encyclopedia is still relevant today. History articles might hold up, but I bet the science articles do not.
With my brother, it's spiders.
ReplyDeleteThere are no pictures of snakes at the link, but I haven't clicked on all the internal links there.
As for the encyclopedia, you just inspired a post.
With my husband, it was spiders. We had a deal -- I dealt with spiders, he dealt with snakes. It worked out well, until a snake crawled into our laundry room early one morning. By the time I woke snakeman up, the snake had disappeared. He honestly expected me to believe that the snake had gone back outside (no, I didn't bother closing the door). He did move the washer, dryer, and cabinets that could be moved and there was no sign of the snake.
ReplyDeleteThis was traumatic enough for me that my doc called in a prescription for valium for me. I stood in our driveway turning in circles looking for snakes for some time before I was able to go back in the house. It was at least 6 months before I went into the laundry room. During that time, my dear husband ruined a lot of clothes because he thought hot water and bleach were always called for.
It was probably a king snake.
They couldn't just bite the bullet and call it Snake Pit State Park? Snakes-in-a-Park?
ReplyDeleteMyself, I quite like both snakes and spiders. I make exceptions for venomous snakes less than 10 feet away, and venomous or unreasonably large spiders less than 2 feet away unless they're safely in a web minding their own business. I still don't feel the least urge to harm either one, only to create more distance while encouraging them to be somewhere else.
When I was a Boy Scout, I was in the Cobra patrol. Cobras were not native to our region.
ReplyDeleteI am content to identify snakes from the post-mortem.
ReplyDeleteI lucked out. I still remember a soft give under my foot, and looking down and seeing a mamba coiled squarely under my foot. I guess it either was full, or else I'd caught it crosswise and it couldn't move. My gym teacher would have approved of my track time. Some nearby men with shovels made dinner out of it.