So Rick and I just got back from our semi-nightly two-mile walk (actually 2.25 miles tonight), where, halfway through the walk, we saw a couple people ahead of us in the middle of the darkened road. One of them was holding a flashlight, and, as we approached, yelled something unintelligible and waved the light toward the curb. What did he say? Don't bake any coal? It's a fake silly troll? Oh, no, wait -- there's a SNAKE in the road. (I would've been happier with the fake silly troll...)
And sure enough, just a few yards ahead of us, a dark serpentine shape was nestled against the curb. The man with the flashlight wondered if we knew anything about snakes, as he and his companion were unable to decide what sort of snake it might be. "It doesn't have rattles," the woman with him said, "and we don't know if it's poisonous." So Rick, being the ex-boyscout he is, asked for the flashlight so he could more clearly inspect the creature. It was about two feet long, with a diamond-shaped head, and a tell-tale coppery color. Rick said it was probably a copperhead, and the woman asked, "so is that bad?" Well, it's not exactly a harmless fluffy bunny...
We searched the internet for pictures when we got home, and it definitely looked like a copperhead. (Also known as a "death adder" according to one of the sites we found. Well that just sounds charming...) However, even though they're poisonous, their bites are rarely fatal to humans, and they're considered non-aggressive. Which would explain why our neighborhood copperhead chose to non-aggressively coil next to the curb while we gathered around it in curiosity. Still, it's rather disconcerting to happen upon a poisonous snake while simply strolling through the neighborhood.
So when are we moving to Chicago?
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