Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?

[keptin]

I was walking in a field of cactus (one of many today), minding my own business, when tkatkatkatkatakatkatkatka. Five foot rattlesnake right in my path, one of the few non-spiky ways across. What do you do in this situation, you might ask? You curse loudly until your supervisor comes over, then half the field crew stands around and goes "whoa,

Comments

[sadie_the_xo]

Welcome to sort-of-West-Texas!

Also, so very sorry you had to come here.

It was super wet up there earlier in the early summer/late spring which brings out the snakes. There was a rattler in my parking lot. In the middle of a city. If you're going to be up there around mid-fall I'd look out for dust storms, as sometimes they turn into raining mud if a storm follows after. Also, floods. So, um.... Good luck?

[keptin]

Yeesh. I really don't like this part of Texas. Speaking of which, where are you these days? Out of college or sticking around?

[sadie_the_xo]

Yeeeeah, every season is like a new adventure! Out of college and back in Austin.

[keptin]

We should hang out sometime when I'm back in town. The old gang hasn't seen you in years. And hopefully Goobles will be visiting at some point.

More "Chops" in your field .. more months as a pro on your resume'

[arthurthedented]

Its ODD that you've gone from a bustling fun metro area to outback of nowhere but something is very very reversed... here you were marking time, and there.. in the dust and cactus and boredom... youre moving forward.

Lifes a funny old thing.

Hell and heaven are the company you keep.. so I hope theres a troupe of at least vageuly geeky companions who dont follow the archeoligst stereotypes I've heard (mostly about drunkeness) and are up for some fun RP at the end of the day.

Congrats on work in your field! (and my it be more filled with stuff to find and less filled with.. well, that other stuff... next time)

[lex_of_green]

Man, you really ARE Indiana Jones.

[keptin]

Damn right I am. The only problem is that after four years of everyone calling me Indy at school and another year of everyone calling me Indy at work, I have to go by my real name here and it irritates me. I like Indy better, but I can't introduce myself that way to archaeologists I just met.

[aliseadae]

Names are weird. I prefer Brackett in some situations, but I don't really want strangers calling me that. I like it when friends do, but most people call me Sally.

[keptin]

Oh, I want them to call me Indy, but asking them to is kind of like signing up for a gym, then asking all the long-time body-builders in it to call scrawny little you "Schwarzenegger". They might laugh and think it's cool, or they might decide you're a douchebag.

[aliseadae]

Re: horseflies. You'd feel rather smug, probably, were you to see the cats' place at camp. They were in a little outdoor room enclosed by mesh. The horseflies wouldn't see this mesh, would crash into it, fall to the ground dazed. Then the cats would eat them. It was great.

[keptin]

That's awesome!

[sphinxfeather]

Oh, man horseflies...I've had to deal with horseflies (fuck you, Canada), but only in conjunction with large quantities of mosquitoes ("only"...although I suppose I was more at risk of losing my sanity instead of serious quantities of Hit Points). I've never had to deal with snakes or cacti or larger numbers of spiders. I do hope you have a DAMN good set of hiking boots/knee-high boots/celestial battle armor for trudging through all of that.

[keptin]

Hah, I wish. My boss told me to bring "hiking shoes", so I brought the shoes I wore in Europe, because that's exactly what they are (and from a very well-respected company, one of my co-workers tells me). The only problem is that, if you recall, they're cut like tennis shoes, so every cactus, spear grass, velcro leaf, ant, spider, etc, etc that wants to can get in below my snake guards (camo-print shin armour)and crawl up my leg or down my shoe. Next time, I'm bringing my gorram combat boots.