parktrotter

This one actually turned up a little to the north, in Sonoma County; we were hiking along a ridgeline above the Russian River when this fellow slithered directly beneath our feet.  It’s what I think of as a gopher snake, although I would be happy to be corrected.  It is not a rattlesnake.  A rattlesnake has a spade-shaped head, and of course has rattles.  I may be a worrywart parent, but I refuse to worry about something like this.

The even more handsome specimen in the background is Dustin, our 11-year-old.  He was the one who spotted the snake; I would have stepped right on it if he had not been there (more a problem for the snake than me).  I want the kids to be comfortable in the outdoors, and with Dustin, the project is working.

But I’m not a fanatic.  We are packing for our trip now.  Primitive as the Marin countryside can be, I assume this place we are staying will have a DVD player and a VCR.  So what to take along for Lewis?  I think I will toss in Ratatouille, his current favorite, and It’s Potty Time, another much-loved flick.  The two make a fine contrast.  Like all Pixar films, Ratatouille was absurdly expensive ($22.99 for, what, about ten cents worth of media–you are paying for the copyrights, of course).  It’s Potty Time is a VHS tape made by Duke University about thirty years ago–it has a very ’80s vibe–and might retail for about ten cents today.  Lewis, who is thoroughly potty-trailed already, just likes the music.  And that’s the way it goes: spend a thousand dollars on a young child at Christmas, and he will end up ignoring the toys and playing with the boxes.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS