I'm so tired of snow...

[twentygirl]

22 inches last weekend and now more coming! I'm worried about my roof caving in. :(

[moa]

Where are you?

[CBrine]

Twentygirl,
I know the feeling....I've got about 6 feet of snow piled beside my driveway. I'm in Brampton, and it's -22 degrees Celsius.

:-)

[Bob Phillips]

Well, you will be pleased to hear that it is a gorgeous Spring day here.

[mdmackillop]

In Chile?

[Bob Phillips]

No, quite warm, as I said before.

[malik641]

Why do you think I moved to Florida! :cool: (originally from New Jersey).

[Ken Puls]

So.... do you think twentygirl's roof caved in then? :dunno

[CBrine]

Hey....It's warming up by the end of this week.
Water will again be able to exist in it's liquid form.

:-)

[Ken Puls]

So tourists will be able to go near the CN Tower again? LOL!

[CBrine]

As long as they sign the wavier.

:-)

[Aussiebear]

We are in the middle of what the experts are calling a one in a hundred year drought. We've been at level 5 water restrictions now for 6 months, and Brisbane as johnske will tell you is about to joiin us in the same water usage.

I'd kill for rain, let alone see snow.

Ted

[CBrine]

Aussiebear,
I think is a case of "The grass is always greener":-) Don't mind the snow and water, but the other day while I was sitting at a stop light, after the latest ice storm, I had 1/2 lb chunk of ice fall off a high tension wire, which damn never blew my windshield out. Lucky I was stopped when it hit. We also had a major highway closed for about a day and 1/2 because of a 50 ft piece of ice(Size of a small car) hanging off the side of the CN tower in high winds. While I'm sure you would enjoy the water, you may not enjoy the days when we have 700 accidents in the city because of ice storms, and 70 car pile ups on major highway as a result of "White outs" where you can't see more then 3 ft in front of you because of the blowing snow.
Give me sandy beaches and nice temp's any day. Although you can keep all your venomeous snakes, never want to be anywhere near something with the name of "Death Adder":-)

Cal

PS-Ted, not to belittle you problems. Hope you get some rain soonest.

[Aussiebear]

Hey I only want to see the snow, its the rain that we so desperately need. The clouds overhead right now are dark and capable of dropping buckets of rain but nothing is there to trigger them.

Don't worry about the death adders..... the red backs will get you first!!

Ted

[CBrine]

Sweet....
http://www.amonline.net.au/factSheets/redback.htm

About the worst insect we have is the fiddler spider, which can give a nasty bite, but unlike your friend, he's something of a recluse. I've lived here 20 years, and never set eyes on him. Our major issues are bears, raging Moose, Elk or Deer, and the occasional mountain lion(More out Ken's way, but I lived Calgary for a couple of years as well). You can see all of them coming though, and death is usually through mauling and biting, instead of a couple of tiny holes.:-)

[Aussiebear]

We don't really have that many to get concerned about when you think about it.

Nothing super hazzardous in the air, in the water, there's a couple (certain Sharks, a couple of the jellyfish, stonefish, sea snakes, blue ringed Octupus, and crocadiles.

On Land, however there's a couple of spiders, a few snakes, the odd casawary, the dingos on Fraser Island, and some of the southern beers to keep you on your toes.

The worst of them all however, is the "taxman"..... you make a dollar and this creature will bite you everytime.

Welcome to my wonderful friendly ( and safe) country :hi:

[CBrine]

and some of the southern beers to keep you on your toes.
ROFL.

Ahhh...The "taxman", they most have gotten loose on a flight to Canada from Australia, since we have them here as well, simliar to our "West Nile Virus" Issues. Although, we also have the parent species of the "taxman", who we like to refer to as the "lying politician". They tend to encourage and direct the "taxman", which causes the "taxman" to take even larger bites from you, usually around the wallet area.:-)

[Aussiebear]

Your description matches our version all too closely.

[Bob Phillips]

Ahhh...The "taxman", they most have gotten loose on a flight to Canada from Australia, since we have them here as well, simliar to our "West Nile Virus" Issues. Although, we also have the parent species of the "taxman", who we like to refer to as the "lying politician". They tend to encourage and direct the "taxman", which causes the "taxman" to take even larger bites from you, usually around the wallet area.:-)

Don't be daft, you both inherited them from the mother country, as with all of your civilisation.

I heard an interesting news snippet this week. When the Americans first moved into Iraq after the war was done, what did they feel was the biggest prolem that needed immediate attention. Was the fact that most of the population was starving, that they had no power, the education sytem was smashed ... No. They set about reforming the tax laws.

[Aussiebear]

Yes that's true.... England's tax laws were horrendous back then!!

[Ken Puls]

Just picked up this thread again, and am killing myself laughing! :0

[Tommy]

I think we call those spiders black widows. (Warning do not stand between me and someplace else when there is a spider involed :spidereek )

I found a (black on yellow kill a fellow oh what is the name of that snake) on my front porch, cost $2500 USD to fix my truck where I ran into it. :nooo:

We haven't seen snow here in at least a year (2 of my girls have never seen snow) and before that it was around 10 years (I think don't hold me to that). We have floods here on a regular basis, still amazes me that someplace you drove down a day or 2 before is under 20 feet of water

[Aussiebear]

Down the back of the house I've got a raised cage with fan tail pigeons. Anybody who has dealth these birds will know they are mentally challenged att he best of times. I mean, you tell me of another bird that will stand its ground and argue land rights when you are bearing down on them with the ride on lawn mower?

You pick them up and move them off to one side and by the time you get back on the mower, the little sods have moved back to where you just removed them... So I decided I'd lock them in the cage for the day.

Next night about 10pm I get a burst of caring sharing attitude and decide to go down to see how they are going. I climb in the cage and the birds are somewhat unsettled. There's two on the ground floor and three up on the high platform. So I drop the torch and pick up two birds and lift them onto the upper platform. At this point I'm at a three quarter crouched position.

Directly behind me and at the sam e level is the three nesting boxes. I'll just spin around and check the nesting hen which when last seen was sitting on eggs in the center box..... I turn around and the first thing that registers is that I'm looking into two of the coldest eyes God ever put breath into. Its eight inches away. This moment is broken by the quickly flickering of a split tongue.

Bless my soul I thought to myself..... ( well alright maybe I have cleaned that bit up since I realise that some of you have only just left the monestry in the last 24 hrs and are probably a wee bit shy of the odd feral word, let alone some strong Aussie venacular). My eyes have gone into hyperdrive, and I swear they are as big as the rising full moon in the early evening light.

As I blink, the cold eyes with attached slippery tongue withdraws slightly into the nesting box. Plan A was an absolute beauty... "Freeze" and I can tell you I had that bit down pat, but as with all good plans, you need something to go wrong and I could feel a cramp building in my right leg. The pigeons behind me kept cooing and urging me on "Sic him Rex, we're right behind you". Yeah right, thanks for your support fellas.

Right about now I've started forming plan B, which involved tryig calculate how many nano seconds have I got to do a reverse half pike with a twist to dive out the door which I've just spent a good 45 secs trying to wriggle through to get in...... Plan B gets scrapped after i realise that I'm going to be left with two broken hips as well as getting drilled by the owner of the two cold eyes. So I resort to the only manly thing left.....

I call the wife.

Now Helen is in the house and at the opposite end, hardly in a position to hear me, but hey I'm a strong beliver in miracles. Inside my head I think I yelling my head off and there's hardly a whisper coming out of the mouth. Something is wrong here because there's no one coming from the house. What am I to do? Right about now God who's been very busy elsewhere turns his attention to my problem and decides to intervene.....


The head withdraws further in to the nesting box and I execute a perfect 10 exit of the cage, apart from the fact that I've gained a huge bruise on the left hip. On standing up I as all great Aussie male do, take on the air and bravado of Mick Dundee. The snake has swallowed the bird in the nesting box, and I'm thinking how to get the sod out of there. No worrries a little voice inside my head tells me..... we'll hose the sucker out.

The pigeons have held a mass meeting of five and decided they don't want to be here. By now they are on the ground floor requesting that I let them out. One cardboard box later and they are granted their request. For the last few days they've been lodging complaints of whiplash.

Off to my left, I hear the cavalary arriving in the form of the bride in nighty, who was asking " I thought you were coming to bed?". Snakes got my bird I replied. So in with the hose and three minutes has passed, nothing happening except the snake has kindly asked room service for some shampoo... Ok more water i decide. All of a sudden 2 foot of snake appears and I realise its a carpet snake. Well bless me I say to myself, where's my bird I enquire of the cold eyes. Cold Eyes now has about four foot out waving in the mild night air and a huge bump now tries to exit the nesting box. We can now account for the bird. The snake is no longer hungry it seems.

The bride who had beaten a strategic retreat to the house, has rung up a neighbour, and asked him to come down. John arrives with my fish landing net and a hoe. John, I want this blighter in one piece cause I know a guy who will let him have the roof of his shed as a living space... I'll pin his head and you unfurl him from the roosting rod.

Well the short end of the story is that there's nothig special about snakes until you try to unfurl them. Just half a loop is all that's required as this thing seemed stuck like glue to the rod. You unroll some of him and the bit you missed could hold the tide out.

We are three rows of houses away from the scrub, and the lack of rain has forced him to come looking for food.

[CBrine]

What a great narrative Aussiebear, I was on the edge of my seat wondering how you were going to make it out of the bird house.:-) I figured you must have made it out, or you were writing this post-humoeusly using some kind of ectoplasmic internet connection. I just checked the listing for carpet python, and sounds like he like's rats and mice as well, which I guess is why you are giving him to the friend.(Strange Austrailian gifts, we usually give wine:biggrinro ) Although staring him in the eye, in a confined space, in a country that has 9 out of 10 of the worlds most venomeous snakes, would make you a little nervous I guess.

[Aussiebear]

Whilst a carpet snake can bite, its not posionous. The main problem was that I couldn't tell what it was at the time as the main light source was below his head, and all I could see were these two black eyes staring back from a triangular shaped head. As with all snakes, they tend to rapidity poke their tongue out when alarmed.

[mdmackillop]

Great story Ted.

[Ken Puls]

Fantastic story! :)

[geekgirlau]

:rotflmao:

... and if you think the snakes are scary, wait until you meet the bears!!! :tongue:

[mdmackillop]

The bears don't scare me, you just shout "Access Database" and they disappear into the bushes crying "Wooo Hooo"!

[Aussiebear]

LOL!

[CBrine]

I thought they only did went "Woohoo" if you threw them a chocolate bar?
(Anyone with kids should get this:-) )