[TriLUG] OT: what is this cable?

[Steve Litt]

On Mon, 13 Oct 2014 01:37:31 -0400
David Burton <ncdave4life at gmail.com> wrote:

> I rototilled my yard and planted grass. But right beside the curb I
> accidentally dug up the end of an odd electrical cable. It looks like
> it probably goes under my driveway.
> 
> Neither I nor either of my next-door neighbors had any utilities go
> out when I dug this up. I don't know whether I severed it or it was
> already severed. Does anyone know what it is?

A few years ago I had an equally puzzling weird wire. Early morning,
not wearing my glasses, I saw a strange wire sticking out of my pool
timer motor box. It looked to have cloth insulation like ancient wiring
(going back to knob and tube), but the insulation was bright colors,
yellow black and red. The wire was about 1/2 cm thick (that's pretty
darn thick), and very stiff.

Still without my glasses, I opened the timer box, and started noodling
the wire out. Finally it came out, but it was teed onto a smaller black
wire somewhat similar. As I pulled it out, my stomach turned
sommersaults.

The colorful wire was the remaining half of a coral snake, featuring
some of the deadliest venom in North America, currently with no
available antivenom. The black wire was a smaller snake, in the mouth
of the coral snake.

The coral snake had chased the little black snake into my timer, bitten
and killed the black snake, but before he could make a meal of it, the
timer motor gears, in perfect Edgar Allen Poe fashion, slowly cut the
coral snake in half, probably over the course of a couple hours.

Eeeeuuuuuu!

SteveT

Steve Litt                *  http://www.troubleshooters.com/
Troubleshooting Training  *  Human Performance