There's a Snake in my Mower

Samuel L. Jackson was not happy when he found out he had snakes on his plane. In fact, he was down right mad to say the least.
When I found out we had snakes in our mowers...well I had about the same reaction as him.

I hate snakes, a lot. I don't view them as little creatures that are fun to catch when you are a kid. I think some of this hatred for them stems from the fact that my older brother was the one who thought it was fun to catch snakes, then chase his younger brother (me) around with them.

Unfortunately, I don't exactly work in the most "snake friendly" environments. When I interned in Florida we had to deal with pigmy rattle snakes and water mocassins. I distintly remember a co-worker killing a (what he thought was) harmful snake with a bunker rake one morning. Turns out it was just a regular old corn snake or something. Either way, that's normally how I react.

It was a few weeks after I started, when somebody casually made the comment, "Well, I bet snakes will start showing up in the mowers now." The conversation started there and was between a co-worker and our mechanic who just were talking about how snakes crawl in to the mowers at night because it is a warmer area and then they surprise the operators the next morning when the mower is in use and the snake no longer wants to ride along.

Just to reiterate: I hate snakes. I did not look forward to the idea of finding a snake in my mower. I would probably have a heart-attack if I was mowing fairways and all of the sudden I see a snake down at my feet or feel it start crawling across the lap. The idea of it just makes me squirm as I write about it now and I feel like I should be looking around my house for snakes....

Luckily, I've made it this far without finding a snake in my machine in the morning, but I am still not fully convinced that I can go my entire six months in Hong Kong without having that unpleasant surprise in the morning.

Yesterday, we found a King Cobra on one of our fairways. It was exiting to see (from the comfort and speed of my golf cart) and I got brave enough to try and get close to take a picture...until I remembered an episode I saw on Nat Geo Channel about how Cobras can spit venom. I couldn't remember how far they could shoot it, but I didn't want to risk it and backed off a bit. A co-worker and I positioned ourselves to urge it off the fairway and ended up successfully chasing it off in to the trees. It wasn't until after it crawled under the fence that I realized it just crossed in to the village where I live. What an exciting place this is to live!!!

See you at home buddy!