THE UNWELCOMED VISITOR

I was mowing my front lawn yesterday, rather pleased with myself that I was not huffing and puffing (maybe because it was such a beautiful day to mow a lawn in the first place). As I cut the last section (feeling quite proud of myself) and was preparing to put the mower away, something caught my eye in the area where I last mowed. At first I thought it was a stick, but when the cord from the mower touched it, the object began to slither into the grass off the sidewalk.

"OMG! IT IS A SNAKE!!", I sreamed in utter terror to myself. It was not a big one, mind you, but about 12"-18" long and very thin, but anything bigger than a little worm is too big for me. It was not the typical variety of garden snakes we get here in the Buffalo area, but rather a drab gray instead of a bright green.

I jumped back about 2' and I think my feet were actually touching the ground then and began to look around fervishly for someone to help me. Well, for once on this block, no one was around. That figures! Since I had no one to protect me, I had no choice but to deal with it myself, which I did. I backed even further away, flip and flopped the cord more as it slithered into the grass and toward the fence which is next to a field. Then I aimed the mower toward the gate and made one mad dash toward the back yard.

I shudder thinking that I had been mowing the lawn in sandals, that I had just mowed over the area from which the snake seemed to be escaping as it made its way to the sidewalk, and that I must have at the very least disturbed it. Later in the day, I asked one of my neighbors to come and move my garbage bin from its tidy spot in the area where the snake seemed to excape to to a more appropriate spot very close to the sidewalk.

I am convinced that I will never walk that area again, but the big question will be, "How the heck am I going to get the mower out from the back yard to the front yard to mow my front grass next time? Carry it through the house?"

Everyone tells me that that snake was probably more afraid of me that I was of it, but since I was the one that screamed (I don't recall it standing up and screaming when it saw me) and since it made no attempt to hide itself from me in the first place (ignorance is bliss, you know) and since it didn't appear to almost have a heart attack like I must have appeared, I seriously doubt that.



ANSWER TO LAST TRIVIA QUESTION: What was Howdy Doody's twin sister's name? Heidi
TODAY'S TRIVIA QUESTION: Zenith introduces "lazy bones" tuning in 1950. What was it?THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: I'm in shape. Round is a shape.