Because I am brave

I am a brave warrior woman, but mice? I hate them. They totally freak me out, and ever since the great mouse-in-my-cereal incident of 2008, I'm very paranoid about these things. It is no surprise then, that a week or so ago when a mouse ran out from under the closed garage door and right in front of my feet, that I screamed a little bit. And then I made Dean put out a bunch of traps, and we've caught a few mice since then. This is called living in the woods people. The mice are every where. 

Mice attract mice eaters. 

So this morning I was visiting on the phone with a friend, and I had Axel bring one of his new trucks out on the driveway to play because it's very noisy. I am not against noisy toys, I just like them better in the outdoors where the sound has somewhere to go other than my ears. While my friend and I chatted, I played "stop that truck" by blocking it's path down one of the three very steep hills, which Axel thought was hilarious, of course. Since Angela wasn't out with us, Axel soon became bored and asked to go in the house (so he could pester HER with the noise.) 

When I'm on the phone, I have a tendency to pace. I've watched my mom do this, so I'm blaming her for this learned behavior. When it's nice outside, this "pacing" might cause me to walk down the driveway to the mailbox, or just stand out on the front step, or just generally wander aimlessly. It was as I was stepping off the front step onto the driveway that the SNAKE crawled right next to my foot.

Pretty sure I screamed. 

A little.

And then I did that "Oh my God that was a SNAKE!" shiver reflex thing. That is because God has taught us snakes are BAD for a reason. Because they ARE! 

I ran in the house. 

Now what? Where did it go? I looked out the kitchen window and saw the snake sitting right next to the deck. I stepped outside and it slithered (ewwwwwwwww) under a railroad tie.

OMG they are just SO GROSS!

And yet there is that slight fascination thing, and OH OH OH...blogging moment! And my camera is right there on the kitchen table just waiting for a moment such as this.

I went outside to look....carefully stepping out onto the pavement. Have to be very careful because it might jump out at me or something. Pretty sure snakes can jump.

BLEHHHHHHH I don't want to look.

There he is. I can just barely see his head in the darkness of a hole that has been dug under the railroad tie. He's just looking at me, waiting for me to walk away so he can get back to his goal of the garage and whatever mouse he smells in there.

I need my zoom lens, so I run as fast as I can (careful to take as few steps as possible so as to not become a target for the snake.) to find my zoom, then run back outside. 

He's still there. I can't believe I'm sitting here taking pictures of a SNAKE because they are so GROSS but I MUST because....well because! The pictures are not focused very well because that darned snake was getting ready to jump at me, just I know it. 

Just look at those creepy little eyes. I think it's time to rip the deck off the house so there's nowhere for these guys to hide.