WARNING: The last few pictures in this post are of snakes! (That warning is for you, Carrie!)
Today is Idul Fitri, the celebration at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. In a while, our family will begin to make the rounds, visiting our Muslim neighbors and friends and eating a TON of food at each house, as is the custom. The past couple of days the markets and stores around town have been buzzing as every vendor is slashing prices and running specials to attract buyers in the "holiday" mood. On Tuesday night, Karl, (one of our Maintenance Specialists,) and I took a stroll through one of the evening markets. Here's a few shots from that evening.
And now for the snakes. Yesterday morning Britton found a baby reticulated python sitting on our laundry basket out back. This made him very, very happy! Joy on the other hand was very, very, NOT happy! This is simply not the type of place that one would stumble across a python (since we're mostly surrounded by concrete in town), so we figured it was a once and done deal.
Think again! This morning the neighbors found an identical python in their back concrete yard area. Keep in mind that fresh baby reticulated pythons are about 2 1/2 feet long or so! Well, where there are two babies, there must be more. So we grabbed a flashlight and began looking in their drainage pipes that come out of the stone retaining wall behind their house (and ours). And guess what we found?
Yep, more pythons. Lots more! In fact, several pipes were hiding two or even three pythons. The boys of course were having the time of their lives trying to catch these slithery serpents. But they're quite strong and slippery, so most of them escaped back behind the wall...which means that there are still at least 15 or so baby pythons yet to be captured. Oh, and of course these babies didn't just come out of nowhere. Somewhere there must be a mommy...and a daddy!
Seriously, all joking aside, you could be praying for Joy. While Britton would classify this as probably one of the coolest things that has ever happened in his life, Joy would undoubtedly rate it as one of the worst. She is very much afraid of snakes, and it's quite disturbing to her to have so many, so close. On a positive note, we're thankful that they're not cobras!
7 comments:
Makes the mice I'm dealing with seem like nothing. Joy, I'm praying for you!
Jen
It's too bad that poor Joy has such a rough time with these snakes, but you sure have some sweet pics. Now you are making me covet your new lens! Nice ones!!!
Dave, you're getting so much better about those warnings. :-) And you should be proud, I looked at each of the pictures, but Joy has my total sympathy and prayers. If it were me, our only option would be to move. And by the way, isn't that the same kind of snake you have as a "pet"? Could it be the mama (or daddy)?
Those snakes make me think of sin: you let a couple slip in, and then you have a whole nest of little ones. (I'm sure Joy would agree with that analogy.)
Nice pictures, Dave! I too have quite a fear of snakes, but I'm slowly getting over it. Those baby snakes wouldn't bother me too much. I am like you in that I despise spiders! Good post, as usual!
I hate snakes too, but I learned to deal with the non poison one like python and the rat snake. Anyway, when I was living at M-3 I found and killed 2 baby cobras. At that time the hill up behind M-3 was still full of tree and bushy.
Would you inform us if you catch more????? we have lots of food here (Mouse on the ceiling).
I really like hwo those girls accesorized their veils! ---I'm hopelessly feminine and I tend to notice that over the snakes, though they were great shots!
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