Wednesday December 26, 2012

Trust everyone had a wonderful Christmas Day.  We sure did.

Ours was a combination of partly noisy, and quiet contentment – wonderful.  Bob and I don’t exchange Christmas, birthday or anniversary gifts.  We have what is meaningful and important to us.  One of the many highlights of the past few days was getting my fingernails painted by an 8 year old and toenails painted by my sweetheart;  maybe silly for others, but so precious to me.

The old gal Munching Myrtle is back in the pantry, not because we put her there – she went by herself and is POUTING!  Can you believe it – POUTING!  My snack plate of choice tonight is a combination of cucumber, sliced pear, hard boiled egg and some grapes along with a bottle of Boost.  When she saw that,  she was soooooo ticked and disappointed with me, so off she went, head down, settling for the rest of the night (right now it’s 4 am as I’m writing this).  What she doesn’t realize is, in a couple of hours, she’s probably going to get a healthy muffin – we’ll let her stew for a bit, won’t hurt her at all.

This is totally off topic but people seem to enjoy this silly true story of my life………..funny now, but not so funny at the time. 

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I have a paralyzing fear of snakes.  Unfortunately it’s prevented me from fully enjoying holidays, hikes and walking through the fields and bush here at the farm.  The night before we left for Australia, my sister called and reminded me that Australia has the most dangerous snakes in the world – that prompted me to avoid the rain forest and had me walking around for 4 weeks with my collar up, looking more at the ground than around me! (we did enjoy our holiday – just made me more aware of the possible dangers.)

Many people, especially women, will comment that they’ve never seen a snake in their life except perhaps at a zoo or in a glass case displayed somewhere.  So I decided to go back through my life and count the times I remember being ‘stalked’ by a snake, starting with the first one I saw on the sidewalk going to the outhouse, which was part of the woodshed attached to the house.  I was very young and of course, IT WAS BIG.  In reality, apparently it was almost dead and not so big. So I did the girlie thing, screamed, stood there and cried.

So, in total I counted 37 times THAT I REMEMBER places and types of snakes that stalked me in different areas – I told you they find me!

Anyway, back to my story.  Three years ago, we had just bought a house in Arizona and decided to go to one of the beautiful pools for a little R and R after a lot of shopping, redecorating, etc.  No was sitting close to me, had beach bag with towel by the side of my chair, reading and enjoying myself.  Bob was playing water volleyball nearby – it was a beautiful sunny day as usual in Arizona. After about an hour, I put down my book, sat up to watch the volleyball game and THERE IT WAS…………………………………….A SNAKE, positioned at a 90 degree angle, the end of it about 18 inches from my chair so I KNOW it had gone under MY chair and was heading toward the other end of the pool area.

Other than my fear of snakes, another thing people know about me is that I don’t scream, usually don’t panic until after an incident BUT when I do scream, it’s for a very specific reason.  So when Bob heard the scream realizing it was coming out of my mouth, he JUST KNEW I was going through another ‘experience’.

So once again I did the girlie thing and ran like h*ll over to the side of the pool and stood there like a statue and watched the men look at this thing, deciding what to do with it.  They looked at the diamonds on its back and realized it was not a Diamondback Rattler but a Bull Snake with light diamonds on its back which apparently was harmless.  What did it matter to me – a snake is a snake is a snake is a snake.  A man standing 6’ 2” picked it up behind the head, held his arm out and up and the snake almost hit the ground…………………..so that was the length of it.

But  the story continues.  I watched as he walked to the end of the pool and LET IT GO!  I was still standing there paralyzed and a very nice man came up behind me, tapped me on the shoulder and said ‘Are you alright’?  Wellllllllllllll, I jumped, screamed some more and scared the poor thing right out of his mind. Sitting here thinking about it now, I hve to laugh out loud remembering my reaction to his kind gesture.

I made myself go back over to the pool the next day with Bob as my Snake Protector.  I knew if I didn’t do that quickly, I would never be able to go back to the beautiful area again.  We spent a fair bit of time in the water and when out by the chairs, he was encouraged not to sleep but be a true outlook for me until I was able to relax.  I was also able to find that particular man and apologize.

Here again, residents of MountainBrook who have lived there for years, commented they have NEVER seen a snake in the pool area in all the years they have lived there.  Looking back at the situation, I can say it could have been worse.  It could have crawled into my beach bag, settled in and when I reached in to get my towel……………………………you can imagine what that would have done to me if I had TOUCHED IT!  I might not be here to tell this story – heart attack happening. 

Fortunately we were at the end of our time there so were able to process another one of my ‘experiences’ on our wonderful trip home through the States and Canada.  We always have so much fun driving leisurely, singing along to old country songs on Sirius Radio, exploring to stop and enjoy different areas.  Unfortunately we have not been able to go back, because of health reasons, to enjoy our beautiful home (and pool area).

Lesson to be learned here – EXPERIENCE, ENJOY AND LIVE LIFE……………………NOW – YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT TOMORROW BRINGS!

To-day I’ve had a slow gradual increase of energy, was able to raise myself from a seated position a few times by myself (using my pregnant lady poses) so hopefully things are moving in a positive way. 

Munching Myrtle is sticking her nose out of the pantry, waiting, waiting, waiting.  We will give her a few more hours then feed her breakfast.  Don't worry - she will get her muffin soon.

Have an awesome day!  I intend to have one as well.