My day starts out with the longest 2 minutes of my life, this being the agonizing wait for the microwave to heat up the water for my coffee. Once this eternity is over, I settle down in front of the pooter to read my 6741674744 chameleon emails and catch up on the latest on ssnakess. I have not even settled in when Dom PM's me on MSN to tell me about this awesome post by SteeveB about monitors and dirt. Yes, we live in the same house, no we don't really speak to each other directly. Some find this terribly amusing, but hey, it works for us! He proceeds to quiz me about where would be the BEST place around here to find groundhogs, hence good dirt, yet not in an area that would attract alot of attention by his digging. In my semi-awake state I offer a few suggestions and off he goes. About an hour or so later, Dom returns ecstatic! "Trace, I've found the best dirt! My savs are going to love it!" It so turns out that he needs more dirt for the cage and asks me if I want to come along. I agree as I've been wanting to get out and do some herping.
At this particular site I was unsuccessful in finding any animals that even remotely resembled a reptile. I turned over every rock, every log, anything that would possibily even be hiding a garter snake. Nothing. Ah well.
Here is Happy Dom and his dirt pile:
Now the car (named Old Betty) is filled with heavy dirt, and I swear Old Betty is making groaning noises due to the heavy load she is carrying. Dom laughs, puts it in gear, and spins off. We reach the end of the road were there is a small ditch that we must get over. Dom gets out of the sagging car and assesses the situation. "I got stuck here this morning, and I'm not going to get stuck again" he claims. After making some seemingly geometric calculations, he gets back in the car, points it in the direction that he thinks would be the easiest way out and drives. Well sure enough we get stuck!
Here is Dom assessing the situation:
And digging:
Hey, maybe if I turn the wheel a little bit it will work:
All the while Dom is laughing at me "Stop taking my picture!" "You're going to put this on ssnakess aren't you?" Yep! Iam!
More digging:
"Hey Trace, look at me, I can lift my car!"
More revving:
Well after about an hour of digging, revving, digging, looking for nice flat rocks, etc, Dom emerges victorious from the ditch:
All was not lost today. Dom's car actually sounds better, despite the new clanking sounds coming from the back end! I did see some interesting tracks: LOL!!!
And almost caught the elusive Great Northern White Flying Chameleon coming out of hibernation. Those things are noisy!:
It can only get better from here. So Dom.... Murphy's Point tomorrow?
Linear Mode
