Want to hear a crazy fact about Autumn?
I have this crazy knack for walking away from encounters with poisonous snakes...without being bitten.
To date anyways.
I lived in Arizona as a kid for about 7 years. We were taught to be careful and aware outside. There was everything from poisonous snakes to scorpions to tarantula's. I don't remember ever seeing a scorpion but we did get tarantula's on the patio where I rode my trike. I remember screaming for my daddy once because one was out there with me. He told me to step on it. It was bigger than my foot. What I didn't know at that age was that my dad hates spiders. He didn't want to step on it any more than my 5 year old self did.
My craziest memory and encounter was not with a spider. It was with a sidewinder rattlesnake. In our back yard. I had just entered the back yard with my sister and one of her little friends following me. I heard a rustle and turned around to find myself face to face with this rather large snake.
I screamed.
I ran.
It hid.
We ran in the house to tell mom and then we all went to the wall of windows in the back of the house. We couldn't see it anywhere. But the rug to wipe your feet had been kicked up to make a tunnel. I knew it was in there. It had to be. So I got down on the floor and looked through the glass door into that dark space. And there is was.
That gave me nightmare for years. And to this day I get chills even at the zoo looking at snakes in their glass aquariums.
Mom called someone on the base and they sent out a guy to catch the snake. We got to watch the whole thing from the back window wall. And the funny thing was we lived in a military duplex and our side was fenced with chain link. The not-so-bright guy kept having to go in and out as the snake went from one yard to the next thru the fence. Finally he got smart enough to call in back-up and they caught the ugly thing.
Flash forward to my mid 20's, living in Florida with my incredibly hot husband. (Just sayin.....) We were in military housing again, with a carport instead of a garage. There was a door into the kitchen from the carport. By that door was the recycling bins that made perfect little caves. (Hindsight)
One evening I was hurrying from the back yard to the front to wash out Bone's hermit crab aquarium when I sort of noticed a hose stretched out from under the car to the recycle bins. Hmm. That should have caught my attention, but I was losing all daylight and in a hurry. So without thinking too much about it I continued my power walk and stepped on that hose.
And felt its ribs break.
And kept walking and did not look back. I knew I had just stepped on a snake. We had also had a very funnny (to the adults) and frightening (to Bones) incident with our son running into a hog-nose on this same carport. I didn't really have time to go check it out at that point.
Hubs opened that kitchen door just afterwards and I heard him yell for me and tell me there was a snake. I said I know, I just stepped on it. At that point I came around the side of the house to see it.
To see my husband with his face down close to see what it was.
And it was a rattlesnake.
Of course.
I do believe I let loose a blue word or two and yelled rattlesnake. Hubs moved away and found a shovel and finished it off. It was not a large snake thank goodness. Maybe that is why it did not get me when I stepped on it.
So here we are back in Texas.
One evening recently I finished a Netflix movie about 10 at night and wanted to get it in the mailbox so I didn't forget in the morning. So I shoved my feet into flip-flops, snapped the light on as I opened the door and walked out to the mailbox. There was a weird shadow movement in my peripheral vision but we have so many bugs and geckos that I didn't even slow down. (This has served me well over the years....don't stop.)
After putting the movie into the mailbox I started back to the front door.
And there was that movement by the door. And that was a snake.
So here we have a copperhead on the front step. He had just caught a gecko and I watched in fascination as he swallowed that sucker. And I was feeling rather thankful for that gecko at that moment as I stepped about 4 inched from that sucker. I had my phone in my pocket so I grabbed it to snap a picture. I was shaking so bad at that point that I had to take like 12 shots to even get this half way clear one.
But now I'm standing outside with the mosquito's wondering how I'm going to get back into the house. I have all the other doors locked up tight. Its too late to knock on a neighbors door. I am also in flip-flops so trying to kill it doesn't appeal to me -- I have this weird thing about having my feet safe. What can I say...I'm mental.
And my biggest fear is that Alia is about to go to bed and come looking for me...see the front light on and open that front door. So I did what all crazy people do and texted my husband a picture. LOL. He told me to call Mouse's ipod and see if she would unlock another door. Luckily she was still up and had the ipod near her. So I was saved.
When Hubs got home he began watching for the snake. And one evening he called me outside. Not to the front where I knew the snake hangs out as I had seen its tail about 4 times last year but thought it was a Rat Snake.
...these guys started making an appearance also.
And the garden is looking rather sinister now....
I have this crazy knack for walking away from encounters with poisonous snakes...without being bitten.
To date anyways.
I lived in Arizona as a kid for about 7 years. We were taught to be careful and aware outside. There was everything from poisonous snakes to scorpions to tarantula's. I don't remember ever seeing a scorpion but we did get tarantula's on the patio where I rode my trike. I remember screaming for my daddy once because one was out there with me. He told me to step on it. It was bigger than my foot. What I didn't know at that age was that my dad hates spiders. He didn't want to step on it any more than my 5 year old self did.
My craziest memory and encounter was not with a spider. It was with a sidewinder rattlesnake. In our back yard. I had just entered the back yard with my sister and one of her little friends following me. I heard a rustle and turned around to find myself face to face with this rather large snake.
I screamed.
I ran.
It hid.
We ran in the house to tell mom and then we all went to the wall of windows in the back of the house. We couldn't see it anywhere. But the rug to wipe your feet had been kicked up to make a tunnel. I knew it was in there. It had to be. So I got down on the floor and looked through the glass door into that dark space. And there is was.
That gave me nightmare for years. And to this day I get chills even at the zoo looking at snakes in their glass aquariums.
Mom called someone on the base and they sent out a guy to catch the snake. We got to watch the whole thing from the back window wall. And the funny thing was we lived in a military duplex and our side was fenced with chain link. The not-so-bright guy kept having to go in and out as the snake went from one yard to the next thru the fence. Finally he got smart enough to call in back-up and they caught the ugly thing.
Flash forward to my mid 20's, living in Florida with my incredibly hot husband. (Just sayin.....) We were in military housing again, with a carport instead of a garage. There was a door into the kitchen from the carport. By that door was the recycling bins that made perfect little caves. (Hindsight)
One evening I was hurrying from the back yard to the front to wash out Bone's hermit crab aquarium when I sort of noticed a hose stretched out from under the car to the recycle bins. Hmm. That should have caught my attention, but I was losing all daylight and in a hurry. So without thinking too much about it I continued my power walk and stepped on that hose.
And felt its ribs break.
And kept walking and did not look back. I knew I had just stepped on a snake. We had also had a very funnny (to the adults) and frightening (to Bones) incident with our son running into a hog-nose on this same carport. I didn't really have time to go check it out at that point.
Hubs opened that kitchen door just afterwards and I heard him yell for me and tell me there was a snake. I said I know, I just stepped on it. At that point I came around the side of the house to see it.
To see my husband with his face down close to see what it was.
And it was a rattlesnake.
Of course.
I do believe I let loose a blue word or two and yelled rattlesnake. Hubs moved away and found a shovel and finished it off. It was not a large snake thank goodness. Maybe that is why it did not get me when I stepped on it.
So here we are back in Texas.
One evening recently I finished a Netflix movie about 10 at night and wanted to get it in the mailbox so I didn't forget in the morning. So I shoved my feet into flip-flops, snapped the light on as I opened the door and walked out to the mailbox. There was a weird shadow movement in my peripheral vision but we have so many bugs and geckos that I didn't even slow down. (This has served me well over the years....don't stop.)
After putting the movie into the mailbox I started back to the front door.
And there was that movement by the door. And that was a snake.
So here we have a copperhead on the front step. He had just caught a gecko and I watched in fascination as he swallowed that sucker. And I was feeling rather thankful for that gecko at that moment as I stepped about 4 inched from that sucker. I had my phone in my pocket so I grabbed it to snap a picture. I was shaking so bad at that point that I had to take like 12 shots to even get this half way clear one.
But now I'm standing outside with the mosquito's wondering how I'm going to get back into the house. I have all the other doors locked up tight. Its too late to knock on a neighbors door. I am also in flip-flops so trying to kill it doesn't appeal to me -- I have this weird thing about having my feet safe. What can I say...I'm mental.
And my biggest fear is that Alia is about to go to bed and come looking for me...see the front light on and open that front door. So I did what all crazy people do and texted my husband a picture. LOL. He told me to call Mouse's ipod and see if she would unlock another door. Luckily she was still up and had the ipod near her. So I was saved.
When Hubs got home he began watching for the snake. And one evening he called me outside. Not to the front where I knew the snake hangs out as I had seen its tail about 4 times last year but thought it was a Rat Snake.
No. Hubs ran across and killed this guy where we have the dogs.
And that is not the snake I had a run-in with on the front step.
It's too small.
So, I have now three snake stories I can tell. And my real fear is three strikes and you are out. My luck has to be up by now.
And its 25 minutes to a hospital.
In other news
And the garden is looking rather sinister now....
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