Poison on the porch

Yesterday, a 4' green snake uncurls on the upper terrace, eating a toad a few yards away from where W usually sits. I'm glad W spots it before he sits down - and before it comes into the house.

Poor froggie.

The day before, our neighbor informed Waldemar that green snakes are poisonous. "Stomp your feet when you walk through grass," he cautions. "They try to get out of your way."

The poison part must be true: the snake was just getting its jaws around the toad but the toad was not moving away. Its hind legs were twitching but otherwise, it was still, being swallowed alive.

The snake isn't moving now, either. I boiled a big pot of water and put in some carbolic acid for good measure. W tossed it over the critters.

Poor froggy. We'll miss it chirping and catching insects in the flowerbeds. Poor snake. But we won't miss it at all. W tosses the dead creatures into the jungle behind the house.

I saw the long green snake (or its sibling) a few years ago, curled around the main trunks of the guava tree near our main porch. The tree had is often climbed by kids and adventurous adults. It had been climbed by our European nephews the day before they spotted the snake. They shouldn't have told their dad. (Says the grandma, tongue-in-cheek.)

My nephew-in-law, seeing the snake for himself, forbade his sons to go back into the tree. I felt bad about that, but the snake was already somewhere else.

We had not seen it since, though I looked for it often. Beautiful creature. I don't mind it outside. Today, it would have had to wind up the tree into its upper branches and across the roof  to the upper balcony. Gone.
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In other matters, Ibu Apong is filling up the cookie boxes almost as fast as I can empty them. I share some treats to neighbors and send others to birthday friends. Here's the latest, wrapped up and ready to go on a birthday plate.

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One of the things we miss after living in Seattle is great internet. We have had lousy on-and-off connections through Telkomsel, a local phone company. Their connectors are sometimes placed in open boxes that get shorted out by rain or wind. It's cheap though.

Hoping for change before I teach a remote 3-week course that starts next Monday. Looks like another company has received permission from the neighborhood council to bring in their fiber network.

The new company's employees have climbed the trees and poles in the neighborhood to string their wires. Today they're at our place. This is the high-tech way it happens. 2 young guys, an aluminum ladder, no fear of heights, and no protective gear except for an anti-CV-19 mask.

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Our non-profit teams are listening to podcasts by thinkers and trend-setters from the States. We have to contextualize, considering how their observations and advice might affect what is happening here. We brainstorm re-launching how we serve.

Today we got another notice from the government in Jakarta that it's expecting a spike in virus cases in August. Sigh. We were hoping we'd be able to reopen and meet people in the next month or so. Looks like it may be longer. We keep our ears and eyes open.

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I post art journal pages from 30 Zoom meetings in a separate blog. I try different things: the one below is done with my non-dominant hand, just because. Yes, I'm looking and waiting, even as I write my to-do lists.

During other online meetings, I finish quilting the center squares of a huge blanket. Whew (130?-some squares later...) I pieced the quilt more than a decade ago, and now it's finally time to quilt the border. 

But I'm running out of the quilting thread. There are maybe 20 needles more on that spool. And I can't buy it here. What to do? That's a wide checkered border.

Read more:

*You have given human beings dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet. Psalm 8:6

*The Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. Psalm 100:5

*Your dead shall live. Isaiah 26:19

*We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus.  2 Corinthians 4:14

*Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us. Ephesians 5:1-2

Moravian Prayers; Redeemer—source of love—you set us free to live abundantly; grant that we may be good stewards of the earth and kind neighbors to her peoples. Bigotry, hatred, and oppression threaten to overwhelm us; help us, O God, to stay strong and work towards peace. 

O Lord, we thank you for your resurrection power and your promise of eternal life. Our hearts rejoice in your majesty and we lift up our voices in praise, for you are worthy of honor and glory. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.