Little known fact about Gerald: I like snakes. :)

When I was growing up back in North Carolina, one of my favorite things to do was run around with my brothers in the woods behind my house catching any kind of living creature we could find. I think my favorite thing to catch was always snakes.

I remember very vividly one Sunday morning when I was about five years old… I was all dressed for church and waiting outside for the rest of the family to get ready. I noticed the dog out in the street barking at the pavement, so I went to check it out. The dog was actually barking at a snake in the street, which I immediately recognized as a copperhead (They’re poisonous). I quickly found a stick that was at least 10 inches long, pinned the snake’s head and picked it up. I walked back to the house and saw my brother at the front door so I told him to go get a jar. Unfortunately he just turned around and called for mom! She was pretty shocked to see what I had in my hand, and of course she came out and yelled, telling me to get rid of it. She wasn’t very specific with her instructions though, so I just turned around and dropped it in the bush beside the front door!

A few weeks later, my mom made me sit down with a Park Ranger for a little one on one talk about leaving snakes alone. I told him that it was OK, because I know how to pick them up safely, because I had seen it done on TV many times. God bless the Discovery Channel!
By the time I was 13 I had started my first business selling the snakes I caught around my house to local pet stores, which I am pretty sure is illegal. Nevertheless, it was a pretty sweet gig as far as I was concerned, because I got to do what I loved and make a little money at the same time. Granted, I probably only made enough to cover the gas it took to drive around and deliver the things, but it was totally worth it!

In any case, I share all this because Airika and I are in Kansas this week for a wedding, and I happened to catch a very large black rat snake yesterday. As you can see, he wasn’t as happy to see me as I was to see him! They don’t have snakes like this in Seattle, at least not that I have seen, so it was pretty exciting.

*edit:
Apparently, the picture of the snake that I posted is a little scary, so now if you want to see it, you have to follow the link...
Click here to see the snake!

It was also cool to see some strong thunderstorms as well. Again, we don’t get these very often in Seattle, so this was a special treat. I’m really hoping we get to see at least one more of these before we head home on Sunday!

Have a great weekend!

Gerald