Lake Manatee State Park, Bradenton, Florida
The four kings seized all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food; then they went away. They also carried off Abram’s nephew Lot and his possessions, since he was living in Sodom. ~ Genesis 14:11-12 Over time, the lure of the darkness of Sodom has drawn Lot, so that he is now actually living within the city walls. How often are we enticed – – gradually, little by little – – into accepting the things of this world?
It’s often foggy here in the mornings. Today, there was a thin layer way out across the saw palmettos in front of the tree line, but as we watched, it began encroaching! Moving ever closer to us. Fun!
Blaine turned on the news this morning, as he often does, and you won’t believe the story! Someone, somehow discovered a 16’ Python just 36 miles from here! For those of you familiar with Northeast Ohio, that’s roughly the distance from Akron to Cleveland! Not very far at all! YIKES!!
I pieced together the following from stories I read at miamiherald.com and clickorlando.com. It’s not all a direct quote, but it’s close.
Aaron Brown was recently driving down the street near his home in Zolfo Springs when he spotted an amazingly big snake on their land over the weekend. “I drove past it and said, ‘That’s a big snake.’ I had my mother with me and she said, ‘Well, get out and get it.’ I said, ‘You get out and get it. If that joker catches me, you can’t help me,’”
After getting brave enough to point a flashlight into a drainage pipe, he discovered that inside the culvert sat a beefy Burmese python, literally piled on itself in layers.
Brown called his cousin, William Wilkinson, and the two of them, along with Wilkinson’s son, Hunter, worked to hook and shoot the snake after it moved into a culvert.
It proved to be 16-feet, 4-inches long, once they wrestled it out into the light. That’s nearly twice the average for pythons in Florida, experts say.
At about 16 feet and 300 pounds, the python was the largest reported snake to be found in the area.
Wilkinson said that the family had never seen anything that big in the woods surrounding their property in Zolfo Springs, which is southwest east of Tampa.
After capturing the snake, the family called Dustin Crum, a local snake hunter, who took the snake. Crum said he found 100 eggs inside the animal while he was skinning and examining it.
Crum said he was working to make sure pythons are not migrating north of the Everglades and hopes that this was a “rogue snake.”
The cousins are now keeping an eye on the area for any other wayward pythons.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the pythons are the most concerning invasive species in the Everglades that have established a breeding ground in South Florida.
“These boys stopped an invasion by eliminating a big breeding snake like that,” Crum said.
We went for a bike ride around the Park, but didn’t take any pictures. I was out for exercise; Blaine was searching for armadillos. We didn’t see much, but we did get rained on and had to duck into a shelter for just a minute.
I went back home, but Blaine carried on, and look what he found!
When I began today, I didn’t think I’d have anything to write about (I was planning on staying home and blogging), so when Blaine and I were goofing around this morning, the Lord decided to allow me the time to do some creative writing. I only spent about 20 minutes on it (I had that enormous Ringling post to work on), so don’t expect a lot. 😊
Once upon a time, there was a knight named Sir Kaufsalot, who’s prowess with a sword was unmatched, and his hair was the stuff of legends. He had long, copious amounts of flowing locks that he spent a great deal of time grooming – probably more than he spent on his trusty champion steed. Men were envious, and women swooned whenever he walked by, tossing his head to and fro to ensure his massive mane got noticed.
Sir Kaufsalot possessed other attractive features as well – his piercing blue eyes; his wide and welcoming smile; his broad shoulders and muscular body, built from years of wielding his hefty sword, riding atop his horse, and fighting in battles. The battles brought with them, scars of various types and places, of which he loved to brag. And people loved listening to his tales, despite knowing they were a bit exaggerated.
There really was just one problem with Sir Kaufsalot (besides an abundance of arrogance). He was constantly clearing this throat or bursting into uncontrollable fits of coughing. This little habit of his caused most people to give him a wide berth, after all, who wants to be coughed on all the time? Gross!!
Time passed and Sir Kaufsalot’s condition worsened. He consulted with a plethora of healers – physicians, herbalists, shamans, botanists, even an acupuncturist he discovered whilst on one of his crusades. All to no avail.
Sir Kaufsalot was just about at his wits end. His eyes were always red and puffy, his back was aching from walking bent over all the time, his throat hurt, and worst of all, he was neglecting his hair!
And then, one day, during a particularly difficult coughing fit,
he coughed up a large hairball.
His coughing jag ended, and he was elated!
And immediately cut his hair.
THE END