Snake on my patio

Snake on my patio
Originally uploaded by JennyWren129

I was outside on our patio, just about to refill the bird feeders, when I saw something on the food bin that looked like a snake! It was a snake! It is in the corner right by the house, and, later, it slithered down out of sight. Between chasing Sparky and Zephyr back into the house and before my camera batteries conked out again, I got a few pictures. We get quite a range of wildlife since we live right along the Olentangy River. I can't identify what kind of snake it is. (I tried using this site: www.oplin.org/snake/index.html ) Does anyone know?

The snake came back again today, so I got some more pictures. You can see them on my flickr site. I guess it might be sunning there or at least keeping warm, since the patio doesn't get much sunlight. Since it is a corner between our apartment and the one next door, it probably stays pretty warm.

Any ideas what kind of snake it is?

Computer woes!

My laptop has stopped working correctly (i.e. it randomly shuts down while I am in the middle of things or, when I start it up, the lights and fan come on, but nobody's home). This is an absolute tragedy a bummer, because my life revolves around this laptop I use the laptop frequently. Fortunately it is still on a 6 month warranty, so I am boxing it up and shipping it to California tomorrow and hoping it comes home soon (and without having to wipe the info. off, since I can't get it work long enough to back up my files!). I haven't been using my desktop much lately, because it has been freezing up (GRRRR!!!), and I haven't had the energy to figure out what is wrong with it or haul it in for repair. I am using Molly's PC while she is at work tonight (thanks, Molly!). I was going to use her laptop, when she is at home, but it will only connect to the internet away from home. I tried with the wireless and with the ethernet cable, but no dice. It is insane that we have 4 computers in the house, and only one is working well right now (and, (shh, don't tell), it is a little slow!) Waily! Waily!

Anyway, so I am trying to get some stuff done while Molly is at work. I still want to post an entry or two all about our trip, but it may have to wait for a while. Tonight I am uploading some pictures to my flickr account: pictures from the trip and pictures of the snake hanging out on our patio! And I am trying to wade through my daily internet stuff, but without being able to do my normal things on MY computer. Sigh . . . so sad :)

Tomorrow will be the only day this week that Molly and I can really hang out together (we hope!), because we've had back to back work and class schedules all week. Just makes the week feel longer. We hope to do laundry and go to the movies with the girl who watched the cats for us while we were gone. And veg out! We'll see how that goes, esp. without my veg assistant laptop.

Okay, enough whining from me!

Some quotes:

"…Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."
Dr. Martin Luther King, Letter from the Birmingham Jail

One kind word can warm three winter months. - Japanese Proverb

Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now -- always. -Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician, Nobel laureate (1875-1965)

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time. - John Lubbock

The most futile thing in this world is any attempt, perhaps, at exact definition of character. All individuals are a bundle of contradictions -- none more so than the most capable. Theodore Dreiser, author (1871-1945)

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky. - Rabindranath Tagore

I may be a despicable person, but when Truth speaks through me I am invincible. -Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948)

"I am irritated by my own writing. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce precisely the sound he hears within." --Gustav Flaubert

Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose. The Wonder Years