Anyway. I've run up and down our road numerous times and it's always nice. Along the sidewalk, I pass by several lakes. Really they're like ponds. They seem to small for lakes but too big for ponds. But you know what I mean... As I run past them I'm always imagining alligators coming out to attack me. There's not a lot to think about when I'm running, okay?
So, inside my head, these alligators come out of the water and attack me. This makes me run slightly faster as I eye the water suspiciously. Then I usually spot some sort of bird or duck in the water and it makes me feel better. If I were an alligator, I'd want to eat the convenient ducky before trying to attack something almost the same size as I am that's twenty feet away from the water. My run continues.
Well, I'll be honest about running. A lot of my run is spent jogging, or even *gasp* walking. Speed walking, though. I'm not terribly lazy. So I was power walking and listening to my music today, when I came across something far scarier than an alligator. Mainly because this animal was actually real and up close to me instead of a made up situation in my head. I heard something rustle a little in the bushes. And then saw something black slithering around. Snaaaake! A black, three foot long, scary, nasty, slithery, horrible, snake.
I didn't actually know that I was afraid of snakes. I've held snakes before and everything! But not this snake. The snake slithered away before I even had time to register how totally freaked out I was. In fact, I think the snake was as scared of me as I was of him! Immediately I ran. I mean I ran away from there as fast as my legs would take me after having already
The bad news is I never want to run again. What if that snake was poisonous? What if it had bitten me?
Okay, so I'll keep running. But next time I'm bringing my cell phone with me. Just in case.
3 comments:
Black snakes aren't poisonous. If you get bit, count the holes. If there are only two, you're toast.
First, carrying a cell phone with you is ALWAYS a good idea. Second, if the snake is stretched out, look at the head where it joins the body. If the head gets wide where it meets the neck, it's a deadly cottonmouth water moccasin. Cottonmouth moccasins are indeed poisonous, but they have the typical viper head that flares from the body at the back of the head. If the head is only as wide as the rest of the body at the neck, then it's a harmless black snake. Both of them are very shy and will skeedaddle if you give them a chance. If the snake is coiled up so that you can't see the neck, stay away, cottonmouth's always coil up when they are excited, scared, or irritated; black snakes generally don't, they try to run for cover. Do Google images searches on "cottonmouth" and "water moccasin", and "Black snake" to compare the two. But either way, you don't want to pick either of them up, or get too near either of them.
When I used to facilitate my resort's orientation, I had to walk the new hires from the cast services building over to the actual resort, which involved passing our big pond. I loved mentioning that we had snakes and gators and stuff, since some of them freaked out! I always thought "FLORIDA WILL EAT YOU!" was an appropriate "Welcome to Disney!" lesson.
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