Viper Madness

A couple things.

First, Shawn sent me this note this morning from Thailand.

Phew! Bit of a close call today! While I was checking charts at my desk, my housekeeper just yelled for me from the kitchen…went to see what was up and found her standing on the countertop. She had heard a noise behind the curtain under the sink and when we looked we saw a 160 cm, (5'2") very thick King Cobra hooded up and ready to strike! 🐍

I’ve seen more than my fair share of them over the years, both at home and in the nursery, but this one looked like the angriest one yet! His/her hood was easily larger than my fully spread palm. Outside I just shoo them away, or more often they just scram on their own… but in the house, particularly in a constricted space, it was unfortunately ‘curtains’ for this one.

Ahhhh, Life in the tropics! 😂 Might have a hard time falling asleep tonight! 🤙

Well, let me tell you. First time I see a king cobra arching its neck is the last time. The next shot is me running to the airport having booked my ticket out of there.

I wrote him back and asked him exactly how the snake was dispatched.

Stout stick to the head. Didn't want to, but he was pretty aggressive and my kitchen is a tiny, very confined space. He was 'dinner' tonight!

I'm not really sure what he means by the last sentence. Did he really eat the viper? I killed and ate a rattlesnake once and it almost killed me, having got a bone stuck in my throat. 

Hmmm.

I will be eating no more snakes of any kind until I leave this mortal coil. 

In any case I wondered how many blows to the head it would take to kill it and he said multiple.

Now I have killed my share of rattlers in my time and I would never use a stick, a round end shovel is my weapon of choice but different strokes for different folks.

Egads.

Postscript from Ricardo: 

Here is a picture of another kind of Snake that Shawn might come face-to-face with or more likely already has. This is a Burmese python underneath my pick up truck. I’m taking a picture from the driver’s seat and my passenger is telling me the tail is sticking out on the other side of the truck. And that was a thin one for it’s length.

Regarding Shawn‘s tale, his desk is only 20 to 25 feet away from that kitchen counter. Also, his housekeeper is from a part of Thailand where they do a lot of foraging and eat just about everything. My own two impressions from brief encounters with cobras is that one that  they are so fast and athletic. They make a rattlesnake look like a pudgy suburbanite compared to an Olympian. And two, when I found a 12 inch long baby king cobra outside my rental the Snake Rescue guy told me that it was already capable of killing me with one bite.

Jerry Hall just sent me this message and king snake photograph.

I saw this snake in a Temecula parking lot last week. Two crows were trying to make a meal of it, but it wasn't having it. It kept striking at the crows when they got close. It moved fast and made its escape into some bushes.

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I am getting ready for the Utah run and I took my ProMaster to Pro-Tire to make sure everything was copacetic before I embarked. They are such great people over there, top to bottom, they perform this task for me gratis every time I have a major roadie.

Good thing we stopped. 

I would never have made it to Salt Lake City, my coolant reservoir was cracked. Two hours and a bunch of money but we are now good to go.

Thank you Gary, Joey, Ted, Evan, Walker and all the rest of the fine mechanics down there for always taking care of me.

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I stuck a post on NextDoor that is getting a lot of attention. My wife Leslie came upon a single car accident at Willow Glen and Willow Heights the day before yesterday, you might have heard the sirens in the afternoon.

A young guy in a Prius had rolled over on its side. The engine was on, car smoking, tires moving. Leslie forced the door open and pulled the guy out of the car.

I was talking to her when it happened and heard her yell at the guy for crawling through broken glass to shut the car off. He was hyperventilating and she calmed him down and gave him water.

With the other hand she dialed 911 and waited until emergency vehicles were on scene before directing traffic around the acccident.

What a woman! I'm very proud of her.

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I got a bit scared reading about the newly proposed SDGE Golden Pacific Powerlink. These are some big ass towers. They couldn't be going near my home, could they?

I will cross my fingers and hope for the best. The maps I see point to a more east west configuration and the river is a little more north south where I live but I could be wrong.

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I haven't been posting pictures of the hawk's nest for a reason. Two of the three babies are gone. Last one stands on the nest looking so lonely. I believe that they were killed by a great horned owl. An owl killed a red tailed on my property, Leslie found the feathers. They will take over a red tailed nest. I hope the young surviving fledgeling is not traumatized for life for what it has witnessed. I know all about childhood trauma, sticks with you like hot glue.