Sunday, October 12, 2008
My 22nd Birthday Weekend at Mission Beach
I believe this post is relatively self explanatory, just scroll on down. If a picture's worth a thousand, then here's 27,000 more words about 14,000 feet up. Surprise!
Monday, October 6, 2008
A Python Cheered Me Up
So today was not a good day for the brain. I spent a whole lot of time being quite upset at my lack of self-discipline and actual progress with regards to the work I want to be doing - i.e. summing up summer data, applying to graduate schools, writing blog posts to describe the adventures I had a month ago... (still coming!!!) Just ask Laura. She got a really weird e-mail because of my zaniness; a bunch of heuristic questions with no answers. And to top it all off, I was hungry.
See, I was in the library reading (pleasure books, nothing for any of my imminent assignments) and typing strange e-mails to girlfriend. With grumbling stomach I waited for a calm dining session; dining hall dinner hours are from 6 - 7 PM and 6:00 PM is a social nuthouse which I try to avoid. The line is killer, too. Why wait in line when you could, say, write one more e-mail?
So 6:35 rolls around and I head out of the library to get food (I mention the word 'food' so often as I'm still hungry now at 8:00 PM while writing this because I missed dinner). While my feet dragged on the pavement between the library and the student center and the melancholic Charlie Brown melody in my head droned on, I casually cast glances around the darkened outdoors. Motion caught my eye.
See, in an upcoming post I'll tell you about how a friend of mine here, Shannon (a great future land biologist to be sure), and I often go on "nature excursions." He, being a terrestrially-focusesd man, is very reptile oriented. This is good, for I know I have a human reference to consult regarding some of the unfamiliar Australian land vertebrates. Because of this, I've been much more aware of my surroundings - eager to find and learn about new land animals...
With or without this newly heightened sense of awareness, I quickly noted that the eye-catching motion belonged to a five foot long python (boa constrictor). He was climbing a tree as I passed, or rather, as I came to a thrilled and joyful halt. Trivial human sadness gone, I was now happy.
But that was not enough. I've felt very close to wildlife since I was just a boy; therefore it was no surprise now that I decided I was going to hold this snake. I called Shannon (who would have killed me if I hadn't, as he'd not yet seen a wild Australian python) right away so that he could pluck it off the tree for us to hold.
We had a slew of inconveniences upon arrival. I couldn't get in touch with him for around twenty minutes while the python climbed higher in the tree. When I finally got a hold of him via telephone, and by the time he showed up, we had accrued a small crowd, all saying such phrases as "we should kill it," "we should leave it alone," "you're going to hurt it," "you guys are idiots," et cetera. And the python was about five feet over our heads, and climbing. I ran around to grab something to stand on and to find my camera while Shannon monitored the snake's progress and the increasingly concerned peanut gallery started throwing their two cents' all over the place.
Beating through the Australian bush (parking lot), I returned with something to stand on and something to photograph with, and through complex teamwork and assertiveness (and about ten minutes time, too long to hold the onlookers' attention after they realized their cautious causticisms were being ignored), we retrieved this four/five/six foot beauty from the tree. Did have to climb a bit, et cetera. Anyhow, looks to be a carpet python, a local species.
Shannon even demonstrated the proper method of handling (get head control so they can't strike) so that I could have a hold. Although, it was the first WILD snake either of us had ever grabbed before.
A succesful release left me a happy boy and much more cheerful!!!
Although additionally dismayed by the realization that the short dinner window had just then closed, the consequent necessity to call for pizza was well received by me.
See, I was in the library reading (pleasure books, nothing for any of my imminent assignments) and typing strange e-mails to girlfriend. With grumbling stomach I waited for a calm dining session; dining hall dinner hours are from 6 - 7 PM and 6:00 PM is a social nuthouse which I try to avoid. The line is killer, too. Why wait in line when you could, say, write one more e-mail?
So 6:35 rolls around and I head out of the library to get food (I mention the word 'food' so often as I'm still hungry now at 8:00 PM while writing this because I missed dinner). While my feet dragged on the pavement between the library and the student center and the melancholic Charlie Brown melody in my head droned on, I casually cast glances around the darkened outdoors. Motion caught my eye.
See, in an upcoming post I'll tell you about how a friend of mine here, Shannon (a great future land biologist to be sure), and I often go on "nature excursions." He, being a terrestrially-focusesd man, is very reptile oriented. This is good, for I know I have a human reference to consult regarding some of the unfamiliar Australian land vertebrates. Because of this, I've been much more aware of my surroundings - eager to find and learn about new land animals...
With or without this newly heightened sense of awareness, I quickly noted that the eye-catching motion belonged to a five foot long python (boa constrictor). He was climbing a tree as I passed, or rather, as I came to a thrilled and joyful halt. Trivial human sadness gone, I was now happy.
But that was not enough. I've felt very close to wildlife since I was just a boy; therefore it was no surprise now that I decided I was going to hold this snake. I called Shannon (who would have killed me if I hadn't, as he'd not yet seen a wild Australian python) right away so that he could pluck it off the tree for us to hold.
We had a slew of inconveniences upon arrival. I couldn't get in touch with him for around twenty minutes while the python climbed higher in the tree. When I finally got a hold of him via telephone, and by the time he showed up, we had accrued a small crowd, all saying such phrases as "we should kill it," "we should leave it alone," "you're going to hurt it," "you guys are idiots," et cetera. And the python was about five feet over our heads, and climbing. I ran around to grab something to stand on and to find my camera while Shannon monitored the snake's progress and the increasingly concerned peanut gallery started throwing their two cents' all over the place.
Beating through the Australian bush (parking lot), I returned with something to stand on and something to photograph with, and through complex teamwork and assertiveness (and about ten minutes time, too long to hold the onlookers' attention after they realized their cautious causticisms were being ignored), we retrieved this four/five/six foot beauty from the tree. Did have to climb a bit, et cetera. Anyhow, looks to be a carpet python, a local species.
Shannon even demonstrated the proper method of handling (get head control so they can't strike) so that I could have a hold. Although, it was the first WILD snake either of us had ever grabbed before.
A succesful release left me a happy boy and much more cheerful!!!
Although additionally dismayed by the realization that the short dinner window had just then closed, the consequent necessity to call for pizza was well received by me.
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