"I'm so glad we don't have snakes anymore"

I'm going to file that quote under "famous last words."

On Sunday I took advantage of the nice weather to wrap our arborvitae's and Rose of Sharon plants with deer mesh.  The deer already had a nice-sized meal of the Rose of Sharon's and I really hope that they survive the winter and come back next year, but it's too early to tell for sure.  The arborvitaes are evergreens, and you would think that deer wouldn't want to eat evergreens.  But you would be wrong.  They nearly destroyed the poor little bushes our first winter here (and actually did completely destroy at least 3 or 4 of them that we had to replace.) So now, each fall, we wrap them in this black mesh product called Deer block, and it more or less prevents them from being able to snack on my shrubs.

So, as part of this project, we also decided to bring in the hoses that we run to the garden each spring for watering and for our Scarecrow (another deer repelling device.)  I was pulling multiple long and gray hoses down our mountain of a backyard and towards the garage, when out of the corner of my eye I spotted moving and my heart did a little jump - I thought the movement was a snake.

Of course, it wasn't a snake.  It was the end of one of the hoses that I was pulling, but because I was going around a corner, the end of it caught in my peripheral vision.  Calming down, I thought, "I'm so glad that we don't have snakes anymore."  Because when we first moved here, there were quite a few snakes, including one that lived quite comfortably in our retaining wall, evidence of one that had lived in our attic, and more than a couple of times when we nearly stepped on snakes in the yard.  They were always small snakes, but I'm not a fan and didn't appreciate having to be on edge every time I walked through my yard.

It's been at least a year since we've seen a snake, hence the thought that I had above.

But not five minutes later, while tinkering about in the garage, DH calls me over.

"I don't have my glasses on. Is that a snake?"

"Yes, that's definitely a snake," I said, while thinking to myself "Are you KIDDING me!?!??!"

I take one measly moment to appreciate the recent lack of snakes in my life, and within minutes, a snake appears.  What kind of sign is that!?!?! What does it mean????

Is it karma? Did I jinx myself? Seriously - is there a lesson to be learned here???

Anyway, DH proceeds to attempt to capture the snake, but he's unwilling to pick it up.  He approached it with a shovel at which time it started to slither away, and at the same time I let out an ear-piercing scream so shrill that I can barely believe it came from my own mouth. DH jumped a mile and the snake slithered behind our wall of tools.

See him back there between the wall and the carpet?

"PLEASE do not scream like that again," he said, as he tried to move tools away so that he could get a clear shot of the snake again.  The snake pulled back and coiled up, like he was going to strike, and I zoomed in to take more pictures.  I was chastised as not being helpful, and was subsequently asked to leave, but not before I got one last picture of that ugly little bugger.

Preparing to strike

You see, I'm not actually afraid of snakes, per se.  If I can observe one from afar, and it's not moving and I know exactly where it is at all times, I am fine.  But if a snake catches me off guard, or if it's not clearly visible to me, then I totally freak out, causing more shrill girly screams. 
So this morning, after I had already gotten into my car and was backing out of the driveway, I saw it again - right there, in the exact same spot it had been yesterday, on the rug to our door.  I told DH and I don't think he did anything about it (or at least, I'm not sure that he did.)  So when I got home this afternoon I did a thorough visual inspection of the area surrounding my car before I was willing to put my foot on the ground.

And then I ran inside.

Maybe I am afraid of snakes.