bludroptop wrote: True story: Many years ago my New England raised family stopped at a roadside picnic area in Florida for lunch. There was a swampy creek, towards which my sister pointed and said "look, an alligator!" My mother glanced over and said "that's not an alligator, its a log". She then picked up a stick, walked over calmly and whacked the object with some force to prove her point. It wasn't a log. Mom still has all of her parts attached, but over the years I've come to realize that is mostly just dumb luck.
LOL that story reminds me of a similar situation.. Used to do cut-away recovery for Skydive City in Zephyrhills when I was a teenager/early 20's. The drop zone is surrounded by a HUGE nature preserve/swamp. So when someone chops, it's usually out there in the sticks. One day we were out chasing this chute, and my friend stepped over a log to find a HUGE diamondback (prob 8 foot plus)on the other side, it didn't move, a discussion ensued as to whether it was dead or not, as my friend almost stepped on it, and it didn't move. I swore I could see it breathing, but wasn't going close enough to find out, he swore it was dead. To prove his point he picks up this 6 foot log, raises it over his head and brings it down as hard as he can over it's head, (remember we're in a swamp or marsh or whatever you want to call it) the log proceeded to disintegrate and now there was one very large, very pissed off diamondback staring him down... Yeah, he leaves snakes to me now.
