Day 10: An iPad to the rescue

Between You, Me and the Lamp Post

Day 10: An iPad to the rescue

No doubt you are all familiar with an iPad. But are you aware of its many uses? When I Googled ‘uses of an iPad’ I got the following:

Upon the release of the original iPad, Apple formally declared that it is a "magical and revolutionary" device for "browsing the web, reading and sending an email, enjoying photos, watching videos, listening to music, playing games, reading e-books and more."

Where the writer of this blurb said ‘and more’ I can think of one more use … an iPad is a great sneak catcher. A snake catcher? No doubt you’ll want a word of explanation.

A while back my son and I were walking back from the bowling alley when we entered the garden of our condo building and noticed something small on the driveway. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a green snake. What to do with it?

If we left it there, the poor little thing would surely be run over by a car and be killed or suffer a painful injury. I wasn’t particularly fond of the snake, but I didn’t want it to be harmed either. We should move it, but how? I didn’t know whether it was a poisonous snake or not and didn’t dare to pick it up. It could just turn around and bite me.

That’s when I noticed that Dieter was carrying his iPad. “Scoop it up,” I told him. “Scoop it up with the iPad and dump the snake in the grass.”

He approached the snake who seemed to be fast asleep in the spring sunshine. He pushed the iPad toward the snake’s body and it promptly wriggled its way onto the pad. Holding the pad as far away from him as possible, he moved onto the grass and dumped the snake under a tree. That was the last we saw of it.

Yesterday though I saw another snake. This time I was on my way to the supermarket when suddenly a black and luminous green little snake slithered onto the pedestrian walk. This time I didn’t have to do anything. The little thing took one look at me, got the fright of its life (seeing something 200 times bigger than him or her) and quickly returned to where it came from.

Snakes … while I’m not keen on them, I’m not afraid of them either. A few years ago, I visited an exhibition where a huge black snake was on display. A man held the snake and invited those who passed by to touch it. Nobody was keen on doing so.

When I approached he also asked me if I cared to pet the snake. After asking if it would bite and I was assured that it was a friendly snake I touched its body. Not only was I surprised by the firmness of the body but the snake was silky soft. Almost like touching a bar of glycerin soap.

Should you ever see a snake, there’s no reason to panic. That is if you live in North America like I do. If you live down in Brazil it might be a different matter.