View Full Version : Ever have an incident that left you permanently shook up?
Doc Safari
07-31-12, 23:34
I am still contemplating this one.
For those that don't know, I live on a ranch in the middle of nowhere in the desert southwest.
Last Friday evening I had just finished eating supper. It was pleasant outside. I decided to poke my head out and see if it was going to be stormy or the clouds were going away. Maybe I'd go to a friend's house or something.
I opened the screen door like I always do. I stepped on something that felt "spongy". Immediately it started rattling and I knew I had just stepped on a rattlesnake right at the front door.
I was already too far out of the door to just pull my leg back in, and not knowing his orientation or how many seconds it was going to be until I felt a pair of fangs in my leg, I quickly leaped out onto the porch and as far away from the snake as possible. I must have flung the screen door open as far as possible too, because I could hear it start to swing shut as I landed.
As I looked back, the snake was crawling into the house through the open screen door!
Just as he was about two-thirds of the way into the house, I quickly slammed the screen door on his body so he couldn't go any further.
As he sat there trapped, rattling furiously, I wiped my brow and thought to myself "What the **** do I do now?" If I opened the door, the snake would crawl into the house the rest of the way and would be nearly impossible to get at safely.
For what seemed like several minutes even though I suppose it was only a few seconds, I stood there staring at the angry snake's tail rattling, wondering how am I going to get out of this one.
All my guns were in the house. So was my cell phone, not that I could just call up animal control and have them drive all the way to the ranch anyway.
Finally, I ran to the back yard and got the pitchfork. I carefully jabbed one of the tines of the pitchfork through the snake's body. When the tine passed all the way through, I knew I had enough meat hooked to give me some leverage.
What would I do now? Could I open the door and get the snake out of the house before it could coil up and strike? Do I really have enough meat hooked that the snake won't wiggle free as soon as I open the door? Are my arms long enough that I've been able to keep my distance--and if the snake does coil up and strike as I pull it out of the house that I won't get bit?
I must have done the classic "1.....2.......3....." as I slowly opened the door. With the other hand I slung the skewered snake into the driveway as far as I could and as fast as I could. He tried to coil up and strike as I flung him across the yard, but he failed. He landed about fifteen feet from me. The snake was now wounded of course, and as mad as Hell. He immediately coiled up into strike position. That snake looked at me with its cold black eyes and flicked its tongue out, tail rattling all the time.
I knew that I had won, though. I ran into the house and got the single shot H & R .410. When I returned the snake was trying to crawl away, obviously groggy from the wound and the fight. Game over. I sent his brains into the dirt in a triumphant pull of the trigger.
I probably finished a twelve pack that night without ever tasting a single beer.
Several days later, I'm still shook up over this. Every summer from now on I will have to open the screen door just a crack to see what's there every time I go outside.
In all my years I was in law enforcement, I never had an incident that shook me up like this one. Maybe it's because it was in my own yard, or because it was a dangerous animal instead of a human, but I feel I won't be the same after this. I can only imagine that an AR "kaboom" would be about the only thing that could leave me as shook up.
I think it's definitely something about it happening in or around your own home. Iraq / Afghanistan events pretty much never bother me, but sure enough every time I see a damn raccoon, I'm reminded of the time a rabid raccoon chased me about 1/4 mile through my neighborhood when I was a kid (maybe 10 or 11). It was hissing, wheezing, and falling over at about 1 o'clock in the afternoon. Knew it was rabid as soon as I saw it. We locked eyes and the ****er started running straight for me. We were in a pretty much wide open field, so the only thing to do was run away; there was no cover to be taken. It was only about 10 to 15 feet behind me the whole 1/4 mile sprint, occasionally tumbling over and rolling before picking itself back up and continuing to chase me. Luckily, the house door was unlocked and I made it up the porch and through the door before it got me. It just laid down on the porch, foamed at the mouth, and died right there. My dad took care if it afterward.
Even now as a grown ass man, I don't like seeing raccoons. It's pretty ridiculous.
GeorgiaBoy
08-01-12, 01:02
Your home is the place you feel safe. A lot of animals share a commonality with humans in picking where they reside and feel that they are safer there than elsewhere. (Deer and ducks for instance). If they feel threatened or something happens to them at their home where they no longer feel safe, they will quickly leave it.
When a traumatizing experience happens at your home, the place you feel safe at, it amplifies the experience.
While its pretty normal to try to avoid a place where you had a traumatizing experience for a while (such as having a accident at a particular intersection), it occurring at your home will affect you more, because you can't get away from it. You can't get away from walking on your front porch, where you had the snake incident.
I don't believe I have had a very traumatizing experience in my life yet.
If you'd have just grabbed that rattle tail and started whipping him around like a pair of nunchaku and then helicopter spin for the big release you wouldn't be nearly as stressed out.
:D
Honestly though, if you live in the middle of nowhere you live WITH the critters. Hell I live in a densely populated area but it's still S. Florida and that means we still live WITH the critters (especially at night).
I always assume there is some kind of shit outside my doors.
Magic_Salad0892
08-01-12, 03:09
When I lived in Sacramento, CA when I was a kid. I lived in the North Highlands area, and there was a drive by shooting on my block, and several bullets hit my house. Actually... let me correct myself. They all hit MY ROOM because our house was at the end of the block, and several of the bullets went through my window, inches above my head. Shards of glass went all over me.
I was about 10.
This happened more than once, however that was the only time it hit my room or anywhere close to me.
I still refuse to sleep under a window.
Not as bad as a rattlesnake, because bullets aren't poisonous and I'd have had a better chance of surviving than the OP. But still sucked.
The_War_Wagon
08-01-12, 07:31
Growing up in rural NC, it was not an uncommon summer practice, for our Scout Troop to gather at the Scout Hut, and then backpack out to one of the boy's farms (+/- 5 miles) and camp for the weekend.
One such weekend, a boy about my age at the time (14-15) was down by the creek, and about to leap over to the other side. In mid-air, he suddenly noticed a rattlesnake sitting right where he was about to land! :eek:
He screamed, the snake screamed... and Darry actually managed to change direction mid-air, and land where the snake was NOT! Of course, the snake was already moving out at a pretty good clip in the opposite direction, too! :p
Just being unexpected, it shook us up for a few moments too... but we laugh about it now, 30+ years later.
Marriage:suicide:
C'mon man, it ain't all that bad....at least the third one anyway.
:D
Doc G - not only would I not have tasted an entire bottle of bourbon but it would have taken days to clean up the mess from my evacuated bowels.
Marriage:suicide:
I still wake up in cold sweats :p
Doc Safari
08-01-12, 09:31
Doc G - not only would I not have tasted an entire bottle of bourbon but it would have taken days to clean up the mess from my evacuated bowels.
LOL--I forgot that part. Right after the incident I had a pretty copious bowel movement myself, although I didn't have a clothing contamination scenario.
After typing my first post I remembered an incident with my dad when I was a kid. I wasn't there to witness it, but my dad, normally a red-complected farmer, came into the house rather pale looking.
He described accidentally disturbing a couple of rattlers as big around as a child's arm, and how he "gently" brushed them away with a shovel. The shovel's handle, BTW, was split lengthwise and splintered.
:D
montanadave
08-01-12, 10:56
I've read that snakes actually trigger an ingrained physiological startle response that is genetically hardwired into the brain. A "reptilian brain" (pardon the pun) fear response that evolved millions of years ago.
Nice to know it's still operational and not entirely obsolete. :smile:
Hogsgunwild
08-01-12, 11:32
Marriage:suicide:
Ha, ha, ha! That's just so very, very.... RIGHT! :D
Wait, what am I laughing about, I'm married...:cray:
This should fix it...:alcoholic:
And this...:suicide:
VooDoo6Actual
08-01-12, 11:40
Marriage:suicide:
+1 this.
montanadave
08-01-12, 11:40
Ha, ha, ha! That's just so very, very.... RIGHT! :D
Wait, what am I laughing about, I'm married...:cray:
This should fix it...:alcoholic:
And this...:suicide:
One would think.
And yet, there she sits, in your house with all your shit. :lol:
I always look outside before opening the door. A skunk sprayed my dog that way when I was 10ish. Dog must've startled it.
Moose-Knuckle
08-01-12, 11:42
Well there was this one time in Bangkok, when I was with a beautiful Thailandese woman who turned out to be a beautiful Thailandese man.
j/k :jester:
montanadave
08-01-12, 11:43
I always look outside before opening the door. A skunk sprayed my dog that way when I was 10ish. Dog must've startled it.
Same with getting out of the truck. After one close call, I always take a look at the ground before hopping out of the cab when I'm in the field.
QuietShootr
08-01-12, 11:46
I see marriage has already been covered.
I have a few, but most of those I save only for me. The one that really stands out was the first time I ever saw someone get killed up close. Happened when I was 17 and a new 11B graduate at my first unit. Our 11Cs worked out of M113s, and a combination of bad circumstances and human error resulted in a mortarman being decapitated by a concrete practice round about ten feet from where I was standing.
I could have done without seeing that.
QuickStrike
08-01-12, 15:43
Where there was this one time in Bangkok, when I was with a beautiful Thailandese woman who turned out to be a beautiful Thailandese man.
j/k :jester:
*Thai :p
I'm starting to get skunk smells coming from the backyard. Don't know if I should check...
This is what I get for mowing the front and neglecting the back. :mad:
I wonder if skunks release odor after a headshot?
well No snake story.
But I was driving a Big truck in 04 coming back from Florida and a logger truck goes flying past me on the road. I tried to raise Him on the CB to let him Know i had seen Local PD in the area and we come up on a intersection .
A family in a Minivan pulls out in front of him and he Smashes them .we locked down and I jump out with my first aid kit on the phone calling the HP .
I get to the back of his truck and see him coming around the corner throwing up I stopped in my tracks.
I asked "are you ok ? what about them ?" he looks at me and shouts" I killed them ,I didn't mean too OH GOD!!!".
I run back to my truck and pull up next to him to Block other motorist from seeing the wreck.
using my trailer to block the scene I jumped back out and ran to the van (wish I didn't) the family was gone the Mother groaned a little so I ran to her side.
But never got a response from her and she died right in front of me. I then turned to help the trucker he was going into shock possible heart attack he was a older man . I stayed with him until EMT arrived.
I sat in my truck and watch one by one a family of 5 being taken out and wrapped in sheets ,3 being children youngest maybe 1 -2 years old others Kids hard to tell. Gave my report and drove 5 1/2 Hours it shock sick to my stomach Back to My Hub .
Being a trucker I have seen many wrecks and bodies on the road but that one to this day still makes me shiver. I hugged My daughter so tight that night .and it completely changed the way I drive.
it also caused me to get out of trucking a few months later and I joined the Military .Now I am back in trucking so only time will tell before i see another accident
Growing up in Brooklyn NY in the 70s.
Dad and I were hunting out at the ranch last dove season when my 9yr old lab went after a downed bird and got tagged by one over 7'. We were hunting around a tank that had recently been cleaned up real nice because of the drought. Pretty much bare ground and easy for the dogs to spot as there was little to no grass around.
It was windy and the bird fell dead into a pear / mesquite flat about the size of an average 2 car garage about 100yds away. She ran right to where it fell and noticed she made a little jump like trying to avoid the cacti...she kept looking for the bird and I couldn't believe I had to go help. Anyway, I get about half way there and my other dog (a very young vizsla) decides to leave Dad and join me for the find. Both dogs are zig -zagging around and neither of them can locate?? I get there and scoot around the clump myself with no luck but 'know' the bird is down. Got feathers but never was found??
Anyway, I'm concerned that my lab is limping a little and not wanting get into the center and make last efforts & there I am standing 2ft away from this monster / evil creature. It never rattled. She died & didn't make it through the night.
By all rights, the 3 of us should have been hit & have no idea how many times I walked past it...yes, it messed me up & get where you are coming from. I still have that snake in the freezer and will be sending it to a taxi to have it mounted soon.
When I lived in Sacramento, CA when I was a kid. I lived in the North Highlands area, and there was a drive by shooting on my block, and several bullets hit my house. Actually... let me correct myself. They all hit MY ROOM because our house was at the end of the block, and several of the bullets went through my window, inches above my head. Shards of glass went all over me.
I was about 10.
This happened more than once, however that was the only time it hit my room or anywhere close to me.
I still refuse to sleep under a window.
Not as bad as a rattlesnake, because bullets aren't poisonous and I'd have had a better chance of surviving than the OP. But still sucked.
That is a real bad area. I used to live in rancho, rosemont and eg. The only good area being eg.
I am adding another marriage to the list.
Dirk Williams
08-01-12, 19:36
My uncles weeny dog got bit by a rattler last week in Marysville Ca. was telling me that the puncture wounds were about 1 inch between puncture wounds.
Rattlers are nasty I've had to deal with many over the years. I find a hoe or shovel to work best. Remember to cut the heads off and bury the head deep.
Bees will eat the heads and become a health hazard to humans.
DW
,
QuietShootr
08-01-12, 19:38
My uncles weeny dog got bit by a rattler last week in Marysville Ca. was telling me that the puncture wounds were about 1 inch between puncture wounds.
Rattlers are nasty I've had to deal with many over the years. I find a hoe or shovel to work best. Remember to cut the heads off and bury the head deep.
Bees will eat the heads and become a health hazard to humans.
DW
,
Huh??
montanadave
08-01-12, 19:48
Huh??
Hey, whaddya know? We're both thinking the same thing. :laugh:
My nephew got bit by a rattler when he was around 10 years old. Funny thing was he almost died from an allergic reaction to the anti-venom, not the bite itself.
a few when I was a medic mostly kids anything with kids kinda got to me :(
animal wise I taught diving for 15 years and did shark dives for a year so had some scary encounters
one was 3 huge galapagos sharks about 10 feet that decided to drop fins and hunch and circle me two above one started go below me I was in about 150 feet and about 150 feet from the wall
never swam backwards so hard in my life trying to remain calm got hunched in to the wall and they were still after me
then I remember a buddy who had a issue like this and he turned off all his photo gear ! so I turn of my flashes and such and they totally calmed down
turns out sometimes the frequencies can set them off ? or some people say
had a few other underwater run ins and a few friends that have been attacked with critters usually resulting in reconstructive surgery and lots of stitches or lost body parts usually fingers !
Smuckatelli
08-01-12, 19:55
I've been around snakes in the States, Asia, & Africa...the one that gave me the heebee jeebees were the Mambas.
The critters never really bothered me too much.
When my son was DX'd with leukemia at age 5 in 2007.......I'm still having issues getting over that.
Yup. My '05 Subaru Legacy lost a fight with a Suburban. I still drive through the intersection where it happened quite often and I always think about it. Almost a year later, I had a front row seat to a car accident. It all came back to me and shook me up a bit.
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e309/halo2304/General/Photo0256A.jpg
I have a couple...Years ago, (1982) I was a apprentice plumber/pipefitter and was working on condos on Marco Island, Fla. We were working on the 15th floor, or what was going to be the 15th floor, as this was just the form for the floor. We were setting sleeves, and running piping that would be in the slab when it was poured.All of a sudden sombody yelled "hey, a guy just fell" we all ran over to the side and sure enough, there was this person laying face up, spread eagle in the sand, Two guys ran over to try to give CPR, but it was too late, he was dead..He fell from the 12th floor, from a temporary landing..From what I could find out, he was landing bundles of cement block on the landing that were flown up with the crane. He was'nt tied off. he got in front of one of the bundles of block, to pull the forks out the crane had on it, when the straps holding the bundle of block together broke, and pushed him over the side...The sad thing is, I saw his foreman chewing his ass out a couple days earlier, for not being tied off and working out on that same landing..I never forgot the end result..
Dec 5, 2000
I was on my way to work, and hit a patch of black ice and lost control of my truck, I apparently slid across the median strip, (from the south bound lane of I-77) into the north bound lane, and hit a semi, head on.I had severe internal injurys, and almost died on my way to the hospitial (which thank God was only 2 miles away) I lost my spleen, and 3 ribs on my left side, They literally had to cut me open and gut me like a deer, removing my intestines removing bone fragments from my ribs, and sewing up holes, they repacked me, sewed me back up. I guess the only reason I'm here is because it's not my time yet, God must have something he wants me to do..It took me 8 months to recover from that, From time to time, I still drive by where the accident happened, what few memories I have of that day, still come flooding back....
LowSpeed_HighDrag
08-01-12, 21:43
I was in Bahrain in 2011 during the rioting. I was in the front of a bus and we ended up getting trapped in the middle of a riot. Molotovs were being tossed around, tear gas was everywhere, and all I could see were hajis in black masks running around like raped apes. The only thing that was running through my head was don't let them take you, don't let them take you. I could just envision guys like Nick Berg in situations just like mine. I didn't like that feeling.
Also had a few run ins with rattlers. I was up hiking Palomar 2 weeks ago when I ran into this guy about 3 miles from the trailhead. He had my heart pounding so badly because he totally surprised me. I had to call it quits that day because I was surrounded by undergrowth that looked just like him and wanted to be in the safety of my truck (wimp!!).
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f198/glockfire/DSC02782.jpg
Don Robison
08-01-12, 22:06
Not me, but the wife has had two run ins with rattlesnakes. The first one was stretched out in our Florida room and she thought one of the dogs had left a toy in there and when she went to pick it up it slithered to the corner and coiled up. I was summoned by the ear to "explain" why there was a snake in the Florida room and to dispatch it.
The second time was shortly after the the new 7th Group compound opened and she was working entry control. She went to flush the toilet in the visitor center bathroom and there was a rattlesnake on the handle and back of the toilet. They didn't have the electricity turned on yet so it was dark when she went in. She brought that one home for me to see.
She hates snakes.
QuickStrike
08-01-12, 23:10
I don't know about still being shook up. But I can remember two events that probably chnaged me somewhat.
Chased by a saint bernard when I was around 10.
F@ck you Bethoveen!
And another in high school where I was dumb enough to accept a challenge to "spar" with a guy literally twice my size ( was 5'3" and about 140 lbs). Got whupped pretty bad, my chin is lengendary though. :p
F@ck you sasquatch!
Coming across a black bear while squirrel hunting with a .410 single shot at the age of 12. Still remember that one.
LowSpeed_HighDrag
08-02-12, 00:18
Dec 5, 2000
I was on my way to work, and hit a patch of black ice and lost control of my truck, I apparently slid across the median strip, (from the south bound lane of I-77) into the north bound lane, and hit a semi, head on.I had severe internal injurys, and almost died on my way to the hospitial (which thank God was only 2 miles away) I lost my spleen, and 3 ribs on my left side, They literally had to cut me open and gut me like a deer, removing my intestines removing bone fragments from my ribs, and sewing up holes, they repacked me, sewed me back up. I guess the only reason I'm here is because it's not my time yet, God must have something he wants me to do..It took me 8 months to recover from that, From time to time, I still drive by where the accident happened, what few memories I have of that day, still come flooding back....
Wow, thank God you are ok now!
Magic_Salad0892
08-02-12, 01:10
That is a real bad area. I used to live in rancho, rosemont and eg. The only good area being eg.
I am adding another marriage to the list.
I don't remember Rancho that much, but I remember Del Paso Heights being the worst shithole....
Ever have an incident that left you permanently shook up?
Yes. More than a few.
From the highlight reel;
One was seeing my grandma go walking through her house after a shower stark naked when I was about 8 or 9. :bad: :laugh:
Another was almost flying a plane through a hangar- 50% of the reason I quit flying was that one incident.
And then there was the random collapsing of my left lung multiple times a couple years back.
As far as the snake thing- there used to be an elderly neighbor by us who hated snakes, and yet could not seem to keep them out of his house. Last version of the story I heard, he put a couple holes in his floor with a shotgun running them off. :D
A few here too. I learned a serious lesson, 'Words Have Power'. This is absolutely true, the fact I'm still here is a testament to it.
30 some odd years ago I was working as an x-ray tech in WV on a 12" gas line. Temps were in the high 90s, low 100s for a couple of weeks, very hot and humid. I was on a section that was stretched in and over the ditch up the side of an extremely steep hill, maybe a mountain to some. Welders were using their cables to tether down to work. The pipe when I couldn't set the camera on solid ground had to be tied and hung under the pipe for shots. Carrying 45lb camera, cables, film in and out of the ditch, over the top, back in up and down for each shot just totally wore me out in that heat. After a few hours of that drill coming close to the top of the hill I had to drop into the ditch which was about 7 or more feet deep reach up and tie the camera again to the underside of the pipe.
I remember pausing in exhaustion leaning against the side of the ditch and said to the likes, "God, just close up this ditch and kill me now." I know, idiotic thing to say, out of exhaustion or not.
Anyhow, I recovered slightly finished the shot on that weld and looked up to the next one. I realized I could shoot it from the right a way up top. I pulled everything off the weld, climbed out of the ditch and moved up top to the next. Less than 15 minutes after I said that stupid thing while just beginning to get ready to setup on the very next weld.. The ground shook, I looked up and the whole line from the bottom of the hill all the way up and past me to the top completely fell into the ditch. The skids, hundreds of feet of pipe, everything gave way and the ditch closed up over it.
Right where I was in the hole when I said that was completely closed up just 15 or so minutes before. I would have been killed instantly. I'm very serious to this day about what I say, words have meaning and consequences. May be a coincidence to some but you're not going to convince me of it.
I don't remember Rancho that much, but I remember Del Paso Heights being the worst shithole....
Can't forget g parkway, the gardens, florin road, fruitridge, oak park, folsom blvd, white rock, meadow view..
Magic_Salad0892
08-03-12, 05:28
Can't forget g parkway, the gardens, florin road, fruitridge, oak park, folsom blvd, white rock, meadow view..
You just mentioned every area with a major local gang.
QuietShootr
08-03-12, 07:39
I didn't know we were doing 'I saw my grandmother naked' type stories. I suppose that widens the field a bit.
I'm not a snake hater. I used to keep them as pets when I was a kid, and while I'm a little wary of them as an adult in the wild, I'm always the guy who will go into the room with a broomstick and catch it while everyone else is screaming like a little girl. It's like those dudes who tower-climb for a living - I don't think they necessarily have gigantic balls, they just must not feel what most of us would feel doing this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A_h2AjJaMw. I'm like that with snakes.
To me, huge balls isn't doing something YOU'RE not scared of, even though everyone else might be. To me, having sand is being so ****ing scared of something you can hardly keep from pissing yourself, and going ahead and doing it - and performing to standard.
Good snake story: One of my best friends met his (fellow expat) wife in Thailand, and they bought a house together outside of Phuket. His wife is a bad-ass adrenaline junkie who grew up in Belfast and as far as I can tell just doesn't have any fear anywhere in her body. They heard a dog commotion in the kitchen after going to bed one night, and she got up to see what was the matter. She then returned to bed without comment.
In the morning my friend got up, yawned and stretched, and went into the kitchen to fire up the coffee - to find a very HUGE, very dead cobra in the kitchen trash can. She had beaten it to death with a broom handle and tossed it in the trash without even coming to get him.
Putting down my best friend's dog (used to be my dog) still haunts me. It was the humane thing (dog got mauled by wolves, more than an hour to the vet, no hope of survival either way) but I still can't sleep sometimes.
Snakes scare the shit out of me. When I was 16, my parents bought me a truck. I drove that thing all over fire roads, logging trails, etc. and camped all over the place under the bed cap for years. One time, though, I decided I'd "cowboy" it and sleep on the cap's roof. There was a beech tree with some branches overhanging the cap, I parked there so I could be somewhat protected if the rain rolled in. Lo and behold, I wake up at like 5:30 in the morning to something up in the tree above me. So, I'm a little freaked out and I grab my trusty knife (shotgun and .22 are both in the cab, because I was dumb) and I stood right up to look into the branches. All of a sudden, I notice the branches are weaving in and out of one another, and why are there no leaves on that really thick branch?
At this point, I reach out and tug one of the branches. No rattling, no warning.
In the tenth of a second between the tug and the realization there was a snake in the tree, I didn't think to hold still and be cool. I let go of the branch and leapt backwards, landing on (and going through) my windshield, then finding myself sitting on the hood, waving my knife and screaming like a 6 year old girl that touched a toad. My friends, their rigs parked in close proximity, are now awake and laughing, up until the part where the snake (6+ foot rattler) is entangled in me and a bunch of broken glass. Somehow, I managed to cut thing's tail off (about a foot of snake) which I flung into the grass. Then I felt a sharp sensation in my right ass-cheek. My mind said "glass, glass, please be F%@&!#g glass". Of course, my mind was wrong. It was our good friend, eastern diamond-back rattler, buried at least two inches into the upper corner of my pale moon. He managed to put some venom into me before I drove my knife through his body and into the hood of my truck (I was so damn proud of the body work, too...). The snake died on my hood, after letting go of my derriere. I was in shock in seconds, my friends carried me to their bronco and drove me home. I got to the hospital, and amazingly, aside from some serious swelling of my bum and blood-loss from the glass shards, I was totally unscathed. I wasn't in serious shock when I got to the hospital, and they concluded the venom didn't affect me to the point of necessitating anti-venin (anti-venom? I don't know which is correct, and I'm not driven enough to Google it). I, of course, was on so much morphine at that point I couldn't keep saliva in my mouth so them telling me this was a moot point. All the same, I wasn't real happy that they felt it was no big deal :mad:. I swear I got gray hair after that encounter. I slept with a loaded shotgun in the corner of my room and several knives in arm's reach for months after that.
****in' snakes...some screwed-up shit, snakes. I will never sleep under a tree again, unless I'm in the arctic circle. At least if I got killed by a tree-polar-bear it'd be a unique death.
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