Florida man survives lightning strike, spider, snake bites
My son, as I’ve previously written, joined a swim team this year. He gave the coaches trouble, but as the season wore on, he became pretty good at the whole swimming thing. Apparently, he’s a bit of a natural. Coach’s words, not mine. But of course, he’s my boy, and so I’m proud of him. He may not be Michael Phelps, but if he keeps it up, he’ll probably be a competitive swimmer in high school. Maybe - who knows?! - college.
He’s 7 years old, so I’ll slow my roll on that, but the point remains: He’s pretty good so far.
Now me? I’m not a swimmer. Not talented at swimming, marginal at floating. Throw me overboard, I’m frantically treading for 30 seconds and then it’s glubglub city.
I exaggerate, slightly, but really: I’m not a good swimmer. But I can get from one side of the pool to the other without incident. I can swim. As such, I can still beat my son in a race. Or so I thought.
My 2-year-old daughter was chosen to start the proceedings. On the side of the pool, wearing her floaty, she called out “On your mark, get set, go!”
I allowed my son to dive in while I had to start from a standing position. He crushed me. So then we changed the rules. He would be allowed to push off, I’d still start at standing position. He crushed me. Both at standing position:
He beat me. Later that day … ME: I can’t believe it. You’re a faster swimmer than me. HIM: I know. ME: Yep.
To be clear, I wasn’t upset in the least bit. Surprised, sure, but not upset. I wouldn’t go as far to say I was happy, though. Doesn’t feel like the right word.
In fact, I can’t find the right word. We need a word for “that ‘course of nature’ feeling you get when your offspring surpasses you.”
How do the Germans not have a word for this? I think I’m going to make one: Kinderübertreffen (kinder = children, übertreffen = surpass).
There’s your word. Kinderübertreffen. That’s how I felt.
The boy is growing up. He’s my oldest, so everything that happens with him is always going to be the “first time” for me. And this feeling of kinderübertreffen is certainly a first.
All that talk of “they grow up fast” is starting to come home to roost. I just experienced it in the pool. Won’t be long before my basic job is done and he’s unleashed on the world at large. One your mark. Get set. Go. Pretty much the official parents credo, eh? LAKELAND, FLA. >> Kyle Cook can’T decide whether he’s really unlucky or incredibly fortunate.
Over the past four years, the 31-year-old Florida man has survived a lightning strike, a bite by a venomous spider and — most recently — an attack by a rattlesnake in his backyard in Lakeland, southwest of Orlando.
“I need to get a (protective) bubble,” Cook told The Ledger (http://bit.ly/2bUmVsZ).
His father, Mike Cook, sees it another way. “He’s a walking Murphy’s law,” the elder Cook said. “I walk on the other side of the mall.”
On Aug. 11, the younger Cook was almost finished cutting the grass at his family’s rented house when he heard a loud rattling sound. First he thought it was the buzzing of cicadas. Then, he thought the push mower might be making the noise so he shut it off. That’s when he saw the snake coiled about 3 feet from his right foot. He estimated it was about 5 feet long and had a girth the size of a soda can.
After briefly freezing in fear, Cook said he moved his left foot back and stepped on a stick. The noise apparently provoked the snake, which struck his ankle.
He says it happened fast. “I didn’t even see it bite me,” Cook said. “I just screamed and ran to my wife.”
His wife, Sara, said she washed the wound and called the poison control hotline. She then drove him to the emergency room at a Lakeland hospital.
Cook, a self-professed “bigger guy,” said doctors told him the snake’s fangs didn’t penetrate beyond a layer of fatty tissue.
“They said the tissue saved my life because it didn’t allow (the venom) to go into the bloodstream,” he said. He said he spent one night in the hospital and received one dose of antivenin.
He’s still experiencing soreness and walks with a slight limp.
Reactions to snake bites can vary wildly, according to Dr. Alfred Aleguas, director of the Florida Poison Information Center in Tampa. He said an average of 11 venomous snakebites have been reported to the center in the past five years, including a high of 17 in 2013.