Alrighty, so my family having all different skeds and what not decided the only way we could all get together to celebrate my birthday, was to invite everyone out to a breakfast / lunch sort of thing. Well, I had to get up with only 4 hours of sleep and it was really nice. Dun get me wrong, I have no idea how I am still awake at this hour, but I am.... Anyway, I hadn't seen the sun at 10am in a LONG time, so needless to say I've been dead all day.... But around 1 oclock I had a real brush with death on the day before my birthday lol.
After the brunch, we all returned home and I decided I was going to check on some of the landscaping I was previously doing a few weeks back since I had time to kill before work (Yeah, its all overgrown again might I add with FRIGGIN ARROW PLANTS!! GAH!!!)... So I walk down the yard and cross over our bridge that spans the very end of the lake (Well, used to before the drought made the water receed)... Anyway, it was such a nice day I just kinda zoned out as I walked to the end of the bridge. Then I noticed, vaguely, some yellow jackets buzzing around... So naturally that coupled with a spider web crossing two trees I needed to walk between, my attention was pretty well skyward...... And that was the problem.......
I stopped right at the spider web and stared for a moment before turning to the left to go around one of the trees and thats when suddenly the ground next to me started to beat out a woodpecker style rhythm.... Now, this of course caught my attention and immediately I looked down to see this tail smacking the ground rapidly.... And at first I swear I thought it was like an iguana's tail until I traced it back to the source, which (wouldn't you know it?) was a 4 - 4 1/2 foot long snake whose head was about 2 feet from my left foot...... Yeah.....
So, we locked eyes (If possible) for about half a second before I lept back and he shot back into a coil.... Mexican stand off.... Gotta love it.... I can't remember if he hissed or not because I swore loud enough passing aircraft could hear me... I had about enough time to finish swearing and I bolted for the house (And one the many blades in my bedroom) and he turned and shot off towards a nearby tree next to the water..... The moment I burst through the door I figured I was closer to the garage than my room so I went for a hoe and my step dad hearing what I'd seen (acting like a 8 year old on christmas morning) grabbed a shovel. By the time we got back the snake was LONG gone of course and we searched for about 10 minutes but couldn't find him anywhere.... So he's still out there waiting for me lol.
And I've been replaying this in my head all day long, even now..... Its kinda strange, the moment I calmed down from the initial heart attack (Seen and handled my share of snakes, but usually not surprising me at my feet) I thought about what kind of snake he was..... I think he was just a common (If not LARGE though) black snake, not even poisonous..... And actually good for keeping the field mice and rats in check....
The strangest realization of all is thinking back to that half second when we were staring at each other, before we both jumped back.... For some reason, I know he was a snake, but I would almost swear there was a very real and intelligent sentience behind the eyes.... Not like just another animal, but almost like looking at another person. Its kind hard to express into words really....
In the long run though, it was my fault any of it happened in the first place. He was just streched out sun bathing in a patch of sunlight through the trees and I almost stepped on him unknowingly. He was even nice enough to give me a fair warning (tail slapping) before more drastic measures needed to be taken.... I've run across a possible snake once or twice down there (mostly in the under brush where I'm weed whacking), but never come that close before (to my knowledge).....
I guess on the one side...... I don't relish our inevitable second meeting, but I am glad I didn't get the chance to kill him....... Hopefully though, I've learned to keep my eyes and ears open a bit more instead of zoning out quite so much.... Perhaps I will even gain a bit more self control instead of instinctively thinking to kill that which suddenly scares the shiznit out of me.....
Heh........... Birthday presents come from the strangest places sometimes.....
Tags: Snake Birthday
