Read something that reminded me of something that happened in 1977 in Live Oak, Florida. I was living in a little 3 room shack by the railroad tracks. Sitting on the toilet, I could see the ground through the slats making up the bathroom floor. A rattlesnake was under there! I went to the kitchen and got my 22 rifle, shot the snake through the floor, then pulled it out from under the house with a rake. It was 6 and a half feet long! Watched for more snakes, didn't see any more, but never forgot that day!
i remember the day i saw two cats work together to kill one. after they did, they of course had to drag it inside to show off their prize and offer it as a gift. the one would get it to try and strike, skipping just out of its reach, while the other, just a fraction later, leapt in and bit the head off just behind the neck. personally i have not more against snakes then any other living thing. just something to avoid getting too close to. snakes are pretty helpless after they strike, until they can coil back up again. on a warm day they can be pretty quick. on a cooler day not as much. still think people who wear tenny-runners on a walk in the woods are crazy. need to wear dead cows that come up past the ankle at least.
Most definitely. Last rattlesnake I saw was in a quarry I was camping near in 1992. We have them in New England but they are seldom seen. About 10 years ago I saw a piece on the news about the town I lived in down in Live Oak, Florida. There was a flood, and the town's Main Street was crawling with rattlers! This was where I lived when I shot one through my bathroom floor. It was amazing! Live Oak had cobblestone streets and wooden sidewalks on both sides. I guess the snakes lived under those boardwalks, living on mice and such from the local chicken feed mill at one end of town. It made the New England cable news, anyway.
Our bathroom window looks into our backyard, and today as I was sitting on the toilet looking out, I noticed that we now have a real nut tree out there. I didn't know what sort of tree it was until I noticed the green cases meaning walnuts hanging on the tree. I could count about a dozen nuts, but when Bob went out to check the tree (I couldn't see much of it), he said it looks as though we've got a little harvest coming. I can only imagine that one of the nuts we brought home a dozen years ago or so fell in the high grass and managed to germinate! Quite a surprise. Here's a picture. See any nuts?
Sat outside to cool off last night; a couple nights ago we saw a flying squirrel in the big old maple tree out front. Well, he was there again tonight,, and this time he had his friends or family along. There were SEVEN of them! Three nights ago, one flying squirrel; the next night, four-- last night, SEVEN! They enjoyed peanut butter spread on the tree trunk with sunflower seeds pressed into it, and some peanut butter sandwich cookies broken into pieces scattered around the base of the tree. This old tree is tapped in the fall for homemade maple syrup. They also are most likely in that hickory in the backyard, but there's no light out there so I don't know for sure. Pictures later today!
Two dates I remember well. Nov. 1963 grade school. No phone local farmer stopped by with news of President Kennedy being shot. Learned later he died. 9-11 working listening to radio, when heard about twin towers attack. Personal achievement will have a harder time putting time and date. I do remember 1969 being a great year to be 18 years old.
When Kennedy was shot, I was with my 5th grade class, walking from Hartford High School, which had a pool where we took swimming lessons, back to our grammar school, Thomas J McDonough. Traffic came to a stop and the teacher asked someone what was wrong. All the adults started to cry, so we all did too. It seemed like the end of the world. 9/11: I was in bed, listening to Howard Stern on the radio. At first I thought it was a joke, but it quickly became clear that he was serious.
on 9-11 my wife and i had just watched a movie about how hitler had made his excuse to invade poland. the kennidy thing, i was in my first year of high school i think it was, and all the classes stopped and they set up a tv in one of the common spaces, where everybody could watch, what had been national educational network, which then and there change its name and format to that of the now familiar public broadcasting system. this was only a few minuets after it happened and it was still a mystery who and why had done this, the kept saying that and playing the mcgruder tape and everyone was all shook up about it. teachers, students, admin, just everybody, it was a small high school, i thing there were no more then 80 in my graduating class three years later in 66. while i don't believe most of the conspiracy theories, i'm not convinced the waren commission got it entirely right. oswald WAS navel intelligence . (all three of them) and there are other discrepancies. and i think his being shot before anyone might have gotten to hear his perspective, may have had a lot to do with conspiracy theories becoming as popular as they have since. i have my own ideas as to how it may have went down, and it may not even have been intentional. at any rate there are still dozzens of conflicting possibilities.
Like the secret service 'oops' firing off a round with their finger on the trigger when they hit the brakes ? Kodak had a spook division at their Hawkeye plant in Rochester - they did the doctoring of the Zapruder film - high tech for the time, but kind of looks like Southpark animation today. I've read opinions on how LBJ had JFK's head redone, preventing a national tragedy of mistrust and scandal if a forward shot was suspected. Ha...he was such a shitbag. On 9/11 I was hosting some folks from Japan for a meeting with a local tech company. When I got them back to the airport, which was grounded, they got the very very last car on the lot...a Lincoln.....or as they said "Rinkon"..... and drove to their HQ...
First Crater Festival in Honolulu- 1968: Buddy Todd and me on acid watching crew cut guys in suits taking pictures of us hippies as fast as they could. Oh, they had plans for us. Fuck ém.
1970: Traveling across Canada with 3 hippy girls and a hippy guy. Thousands of hippies from all over the world on the road hitchhiking. Met so many great people--wonder where they are now.
Lived in an old house on the side of the semi steep hill down where the coffee is grown . It was below Captain Cook on the big Island of Hawaii. Interesting that most of the hippies that lived in the jungle here and there , were naked most of the time--the interesting part being that one soon didn't even notice whether the person you were interacting with was naked or otherwise. Just didn't seem to matter one way or the other, which is very different than the way society views nakedness. I suppose if most everyone went naked everywhere, the novelty would soon wear off.
Stopped to take a leak at a tree on the way the Cherry Point, NC, lost my little piece of aluminum foil containing a few hits of fourway. 500 miles later on the return trip stopped to take a leak at a tree and found my little piece of foil on the ground...and the rest of trip was fine.
That was the same year that Jane took a flight from Ireland to visit me in London. When she started to panic, the stewardess called the captain, who took her to the flight deck to get her out of the way of other passengers. She was mesmerised by the views and stayed there for the rest of the flight. When I met her at Heathrow, her first comment was, "I never knew that airline captains were women and the other pilot makes us the tea". She never bothers about flying now.
many more have happened since those mentioned. i wonder which will be longer remembered. which will have the most lasting effects on ordinary people and how we live. i had hoped to see boots on mars in my life time. at 75 now, and looking at current schedules, it seem likely i will just miss it. there's that thing happening IN russia now, and russia invading ukraine. oh and of course don panoccio facing the law and testing whether no one really is above the law or not. its not that we haven't ever had wanna be tyrants in the oval office, but in other ways then making it their whole agenda to destroy the country and calling their idea of greatness to do so.