_The Moose_
Snake Watch
So yesterday after taking our vehicle to get an oil change I stop in Glen Burnie at the Starbucks to get a caramel macchiatta. When I come out I see these 3 teens hanging around my Mercury Mariner SUV. At first glance I think they are up to no good. But it turns out they just watched a 3 and a half foot long 1 inch in diameter snake slither up into the engine compartment of the SUV! I kid you not!
So I calmly contact the garage where I just come from and ask them to please put the truck back on the lift and get the snake out. Well Bob from the garage, not being too terribly helpful with my dilemma, says, “ My guys didn’t put him in there and they aren’t getting him out”. But being a nice guy that he was and not wanting to totally leave me out in left field he looks up the non emergency phone number for the police. I thanked him for his help, and promptly dialed the number he gave me. Well the dispatcher tells me, “Call 911!” I say, “For a snake?!?!” He says “yes, it could be dangerous!” and hangs up on me!
So-o-o-o-o I dial 911. That dispatcher says I need animal control and he says he’ll connect me with them. So then I’m talking to another guy at animal control and I tell him my dilemma and he says he’ll send someone out and takes my location info and fone number in case “she” needs to call me. “she, I hear myself say, and he says “Yes”! So I’m thinking why do I need yet another girl here, I need a man that can help me out with this problem. Anyway, thankfully while I’m pondering this situation standing there in this hot parking lot watching to make sure this snake hasn’t vacated my vehicle before someone gets here to extricate it, she drives up along with backup, A MAN!!! YAY, I’m so thrilled…
So they get out and ask me how and why and I tell them “I don’t know, it just slithered up there…another patron of the Starbucks saw it!! “ I wished she’d have told me before he did so, but….anyway they looked and looked and of course couldn’t find the damn thing (it’s a black snake, an alternate serpentine belt, ) and told me basically I SOL. Male cop says, “most likely you’ll
chop him up on the drive home!” MOST Likely, I say?!?!? MOST being the operative word!
Last thing the guy says to me is, “Go ahead and drive it home, the firewalls in vehicles these days are “pretty” safe but “if” you happen to see him crawl in, calmly pull the car over, and get out and call us again as we’re on our way to Severn!” “Funny that’s where I’m going, I hear myself saying…”
So I drive myself and the damn snake home the nerve wracking 11 miles all the while looking out the rear view mirror and hoping to see him fall out bit by bit. But when I get home, I back up into the driveway and park the SUV and get out and go around the front to “check to see if I can see him, mind you not expecting him to still be there”……..WHEN YES, he’s still there and is looking at me from between the grill!!!!! Well I’m not really afraid of snakes, but he scared me so I screamed and of course he recoiled back into the engine compartment.
So I called 911 again. This time there was no answer so I hung up. Yes, no answer! Just as I had resolved myself to the fact that I’m stuck with this guy til he decides to leave, the 911 dispatcher calls back and I proceed to tell her he’s still there. She says, “ we sent someone out earlier and it was determined that the engine block is too tight for us to get him out, we don’t have anything to get him out with except tongs; and if I leave the vehicle alone he’ll PROBABLY come out at night when he’s hungry; and blah, blah, blah and again I’m SOL basically!”
So now I’m sitting on our driveway on snake watch waiting for him to get hungry and leave. After an hour and fifteen minutes I see him peek out the grill again and I run inside the house to get Doug who’s been home now about 15 minutes and is unconcerned about the whole thing. He gets his shoes on and by the time we get out there again, the snakes gone back into the engine area.
So back Doug goes into the house, and I proceed to watch and wait til it gets too dark and starts raining on me! Still no damn snake.
So Friday, Doug goes off to work and says to me as he’s leaving, “It’s take a snake to work day!”
Mind you Doug works 26 miles from here out in the boonies and just picture this snake getting in an SUV on Thursday afternoon and waking up on Friday 37 miles from his house…….I’ll bet his wife is pisssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssed!”
True story...happened on Thursday!
Snake Watch
So yesterday after taking our vehicle to get an oil change I stop in Glen Burnie at the Starbucks to get a caramel macchiatta. When I come out I see these 3 teens hanging around my Mercury Mariner SUV. At first glance I think they are up to no good. But it turns out they just watched a 3 and a half foot long 1 inch in diameter snake slither up into the engine compartment of the SUV! I kid you not!
So I calmly contact the garage where I just come from and ask them to please put the truck back on the lift and get the snake out. Well Bob from the garage, not being too terribly helpful with my dilemma, says, “ My guys didn’t put him in there and they aren’t getting him out”. But being a nice guy that he was and not wanting to totally leave me out in left field he looks up the non emergency phone number for the police. I thanked him for his help, and promptly dialed the number he gave me. Well the dispatcher tells me, “Call 911!” I say, “For a snake?!?!” He says “yes, it could be dangerous!” and hangs up on me!
So-o-o-o-o I dial 911. That dispatcher says I need animal control and he says he’ll connect me with them. So then I’m talking to another guy at animal control and I tell him my dilemma and he says he’ll send someone out and takes my location info and fone number in case “she” needs to call me. “she, I hear myself say, and he says “Yes”! So I’m thinking why do I need yet another girl here, I need a man that can help me out with this problem. Anyway, thankfully while I’m pondering this situation standing there in this hot parking lot watching to make sure this snake hasn’t vacated my vehicle before someone gets here to extricate it, she drives up along with backup, A MAN!!! YAY, I’m so thrilled…
So they get out and ask me how and why and I tell them “I don’t know, it just slithered up there…another patron of the Starbucks saw it!! “ I wished she’d have told me before he did so, but….anyway they looked and looked and of course couldn’t find the damn thing (it’s a black snake, an alternate serpentine belt, ) and told me basically I SOL. Male cop says, “most likely you’ll
chop him up on the drive home!” MOST Likely, I say?!?!? MOST being the operative word!
Last thing the guy says to me is, “Go ahead and drive it home, the firewalls in vehicles these days are “pretty” safe but “if” you happen to see him crawl in, calmly pull the car over, and get out and call us again as we’re on our way to Severn!” “Funny that’s where I’m going, I hear myself saying…”
So I drive myself and the damn snake home the nerve wracking 11 miles all the while looking out the rear view mirror and hoping to see him fall out bit by bit. But when I get home, I back up into the driveway and park the SUV and get out and go around the front to “check to see if I can see him, mind you not expecting him to still be there”……..WHEN YES, he’s still there and is looking at me from between the grill!!!!! Well I’m not really afraid of snakes, but he scared me so I screamed and of course he recoiled back into the engine compartment.
So I called 911 again. This time there was no answer so I hung up. Yes, no answer! Just as I had resolved myself to the fact that I’m stuck with this guy til he decides to leave, the 911 dispatcher calls back and I proceed to tell her he’s still there. She says, “ we sent someone out earlier and it was determined that the engine block is too tight for us to get him out, we don’t have anything to get him out with except tongs; and if I leave the vehicle alone he’ll PROBABLY come out at night when he’s hungry; and blah, blah, blah and again I’m SOL basically!”
So now I’m sitting on our driveway on snake watch waiting for him to get hungry and leave. After an hour and fifteen minutes I see him peek out the grill again and I run inside the house to get Doug who’s been home now about 15 minutes and is unconcerned about the whole thing. He gets his shoes on and by the time we get out there again, the snakes gone back into the engine area.
So back Doug goes into the house, and I proceed to watch and wait til it gets too dark and starts raining on me! Still no damn snake.
So Friday, Doug goes off to work and says to me as he’s leaving, “It’s take a snake to work day!”
Mind you Doug works 26 miles from here out in the boonies and just picture this snake getting in an SUV on Thursday afternoon and waking up on Friday 37 miles from his house…….I’ll bet his wife is pisssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssed!”
True story...happened on Thursday!