an unexpected visitor ...

I got up early so I could plant a few things in the garden before I settled down to some writing this afternoon. I was on my way out the door, returned to my room to get my socks and noticed something long and black on the floor near my bed. Then I realize the thing was alive and flicking it's tongue at me:

Interesting start to a Sunday morning: a 3 foot long black snake on my bedroom floor. The same bedroom where I'd been sleeping less than 30 minutes ago. I checked the nose: it was flat so that improved the situation somewhat. Now I needed to figure out what to do with it.

Shortly after I moved to Georgia, I found a tiny little snake in my camellia beds which I planned to show to my daughter, then 5, who was one of those odd little girls that did like spiders and snakes. Fortunately, it was gone when we got back because I found another one later that day and a neighbor explained that they were baby copperheads. We lived near a lake then and baby copperhead season was something I learned to pay attention to. One of my daughter's favorite childhood stories involves me cutting the head off of a small copperhead on our back deck with a kitchen knife while 5 little Girl Scouts screamed the morning after a slumber party. So yes, I know to check for triangular noses before messing with a snake and if they have a pointed nose, it will soon be separated from the rest of them.

Back to the non-venomous, black snake. I've heard stories of people putting a snake in a pillow case to move it, so I started with that method. The snake was not impressed with my blue striped Matine pillow case from Pottery Barn. In fact, trying to push him toward the pillow case resulted in him disappearing under my bed - not the desired result at all. I found him again, nudged him with a hanger and he slithered out the other side:

So I decide that perhaps the pillow case is too small for my not-so-small friend. Next weapon of choice is a larger drawstring bag of sturdier fabric - the bag that came with my shiny black patent Hobo purse. (Yes, male readers, good women's purses come with bags to keep them in. Bags within bags ... ) This time, I pull the bag over my hand and try to pull the snake into it. The snake does not like the Hobo bag either and wiggles fiercely to avoid it.

At this point, the snake is near a corner between my bed and my dresser, both of which offer him hiding places I'd prefer he not find. In this same corner, I have two more bags, my Gold's Gym bag and a Miracle body bag, both of which I keep nearby as I use the gym bag often and I never know when I might need to dispose of a body. After two failed attempts, I'm ready to get serious about getting the snake out of my room so I pick him up bare handed and toss him into the bag on top (Gold's). It was a decent shot and he's in - and he's out again before I can get the bag zipped. Not good.

So I try again and this time, I toss him into the Miracle bag which is much bigger and doesn't contain my Rebok's. My little friend decides he likes the Miracle bag and settles down in the corner, probably because it's the newest of the bags he's encountered and it is not scented like the human that is repeatedly tossing him through the air. I don't even have to zip the bag, just picked it up and carried him outside.

Now there's a new problem: how to get him out as he seems far too content and happy in the body bag. Seems like a decent opportunity get another picture of him, but as soon as I pull the bag open and he sees daylight, he's gone. (he was an amazing fast snake) He was last seen disappearing under this Japanese maple which unfortunately is still rather close to the door where he probably slipped in to start with.

I looked up snakes on google: based on his markings and behavior, he was most likely a Northern Black Racer. He could have been a Southern Black Racer, but I'm not quite that far south. (Seriously ... the snake's name basically depends on the county he's found in. Maybe that could be a new use for Oracle Spatial. I'll bell all the Black Racer snakes in Georgia and track them across cross county lines to test the validity of this naming convention. But I digress.) Very glad I didn't read the page before I got him out of the room. They are not venomous but will bite repeatedly when picked up. Now that would have ruined my morning.

As it is, I think my flower planting will wait for another day since I have no idea where that little sucker went. This will make Jonathan Gennick extremely happy as gardening is my favorite procrastination technique when I'm supposed to write, or for that matter, work on something new and complicated. I don't really do it to avoid work or writing, I do it because it's a physical activity that produces tangible, visible results when so much of the work we do in IT is mental and can take forever to show progress. I'm not good at sitting still and I think better when moving, especially if it's something like hiking or rowing or walking the dog - anything that involves movement that doesn't require concentration. Then, after thinking through a problem while physically doing something completely unrelated, I can organize my thoughts better and actually do something with them.

This is something I've been curious about lately - how do others learn and how do we determine how to teach them effectively? Each of us can have different ways of thinking and solving problems, and while computing tends to draw people with good analytical and spatial thinking skills, there are still differences among us geeks. Is there a certain kind of analytical thinking that helps someone troubleshoot well, and if so, how do you teach someone to troubleshoot better? There will probably be more on this topic someday, but right now, I'm going to have a cup of tea, and take one last look outside for my speedy little friend.