Another Snake Adventure

Thursday night I returned home to find an unwanted visitor sitting in my driveway. A rattle snake had made himself very comfortable, snuggling right up to my garage door. And that meant I was stuck. The garage door was my way into my locked house, but there was no way I was going to open the garage door on the chance that he would feel obligated to come in with me.

So what to do? Well, call my husband of course…even though he is several hours away…he will know what to do. Now, I say a silent prayer that he answers his phone.

• Hon. There is a snake right in front of the garage.
• What kind of snake?
• I don’t know (Does that matter?) I think it is a rattler, a baby one.
• What color is it? How long is it? What is the shape of its head?
• I don’t know (Really? I think the problem needs no description other than “snake”) I can’t see the tail, and I am too far to make out the head, but the rest looks like a rattler. But the real problem here is, I can’t get in the house!! I don’t have keys and I can’t open the door. What should I do?
• Well, you have to get it to move.
• Okay….
• Can you throw something at it?
• Um….well….there are rocks in the yard. Do you really want me to throw rocks at the garage door?

(And let me just add for the record that he finds this humorous, I could tell by the way he was laughing. And so does Jim who is in the car with him)

• You could spray it with water!
• So, I should get out of the car, climb around in the bushes and go into that dark corner to turn the water on, in my white skirt and heels. (Not happening)
• What about the hose on the side of the house?
• Did I forget to mention it was dark?
• The only thing you can do is get it to move or go get the keys from Kelsey (She is at institute). I am sorry hon. If you can throw some gravel that will make some noise he should move.
• Move where? What if he chooses to move to the bushes?
• Well, you will be able to get in and we can worry about that when I get home.

Even though he was laughing, I could tell he wanted to help me, but what was he to do? I was starting to lose it by this point, but I did not want a snake to bring me to tears. So, I said a silent prayer that pretty much went something like…I really need help! And that is when I knew I just had to “man-up”)

• Okay, hang on, I will try throwing gravel at him. ( I throw three handfuls of gravel and he doesn’t budge an inch,) He didn’t move. Nothing. Three handfuls all around him and he didn’t budge. (More laughter) Okay, I guess I will go and find Kelsey. Wait. He is moving.
• Run over it!
• Really?
• Yes, run over it!

So I did. And it was gross. I could feel it under my tires. And it didn’t kill him the first time. So I had to do it two more times. And then I just couldn’t take any more, I was done with the “man-up” thing. So I just left it there and decided to figure out what to do with it later. Maybe it would just disappear sometime in the night. One can always hope!