Assorted creepy-crawlies

    We have come to that time of the year when every safety meeting (and I have to participate in two a day) has some reference to snakes.  Archaeologist, and I would assume the general public, generally fall into two categories: those that hate snakes and those that hate spiders.  I am one of the former.  In the majority of places I work there are four kinds of venomous snakes and two kinds of venomous spiders.  I think the odds are in favor of the snakes.  So twice a day we are reminded to watch the ground (for the copperheads, rattlers, and coral snakes) and the trees (for the moccasins).  I thought I had it all under control, my terror was down to a dull roar, then my roommate made me watch a show on animal planet about snake catchers.  Now I also get to worry about the anacondas, who have fangs long enough to cause major arterial damage, the Burmese pythons, who are large enough to eat alligators (and presumably people because they're roughly the same size, and the non-native species like the king cobra. 

    Then I got to thinking about my current crew.  There is the crew chief and there is me.  Two people.  Plus my crew chief probably has 100lbs on me.  If something was to happen to him there is no way I could get him out of the woods by myself.  We are required to work in pairs for safety, but now I'm thinking maybe they should raise that number to at least three.  Then you could do that crutch thing, i guess. Also, I there would be more people working and I wouldn't be nearly so tired at the end of the day.  But that's beside the point. 

Assorted creepy-crawlies

    We have come to that time of the year when every safety meeting (and I have to participate in two a day) has some reference to snakes.  Archaeologist, and I would assume the general public, generally fall into two categories: those that hate snakes and those that hate spiders.  I am one of the former.  In the majority of places I work there are four kinds of venomous snakes and two kinds of venomous spiders.  I think the odds are in favor of the snakes.  So twice a day we are reminded to watch the ground (for the copperheads, rattlers, and coral snakes) and the trees (for the moccasins).  I thought I had it all under control, my terror was down to a dull roar, then my roommate made me watch a show on animal planet about snake catchers.  Now I also get to worry about the anacondas, who have fangs long enough to cause major arterial damage, the Burmese pythons, who are large enough to eat alligators (and presumably people because they're roughly the same size, and the non-native species like the king cobra. 

    Then I got to thinking about my current crew.  There is the crew chief and there is me.  Two people.  Plus my crew chief probably has 100lbs on me.  If something was to happen to him there is no way I could get him out of the woods by myself.  We are required to work in pairs for safety, but now I'm thinking maybe they should raise that number to at least three.  Then you could do that crutch thing, i guess. Also, I there would be more people working and I wouldn't be nearly so tired at the end of the day.  But that's beside the point.