Skip to main content

Held Hostage

I went out for a bike ride this morning.  I was convincing myself that April is the absolutely best time to be in Florida.  Everything is as green as it gets.  Flowers scent the air.  It is warm, but a sea breeze caresses your every movement.

I do tend tho have these Florida moments, on occasion,  when I think to myself Why do I live anywhere else?

Well, I cruised into my driveway after the bike ride and noticed something black and shiny and slithery by the steps.  It disappeared under the steps.  Good grief! The largest snake in the entire universe!  I saw it!  In my driveway!  Now under the steps!  And how was I possibly going to get into the house now?   And if I got in would I ever come out again? O.M.G.

Now, I do know that black snakes are harmless.  I know that they are far more afraid of me than I am afraid of them.  Poor snake was probably cowering under the steps for hours, in dread fear of a human nearby.

I went about my day and eventually went out to the lanai to relax and read for a bit.  I noticed the snake cautiously poke its head out from under the steps.  It wiggled out into the open.  It was tiny.

google image of what I thought I saw

Comments

  1. susie @ persimmon moon cottageApril 7, 2015 at 9:01 PM

    Snakes, rather little or big, do stop us in our tracks, don't they. I'm not afraid of them once I am sure that they are not a venomous one, but I'm not a fan of being surprised by one of them either. I am trying to get in the habit of wearing gardening gloves while working in the yard because we have little garter snakes that come to our yard, and a week ago one managed to get into our house. The garter snakes that are like the one that got into our house don't lay eggs, but have several live baby snakes. I am hoping that the one that got into our house wasn't pregnant when it came in. I haven't seen any more snakes in here. And my Fuzzy Pom isn't acting like there is anything scary lurking around in here.

    I hope your little snake finds a new home, but just in case, watch where you step, wear shoes, and don't forget your gardening gloves.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Linda ReederApril 7, 2015 at 10:27 PM

    Creepy. But good for you for self-talking yourself into calmness.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Granny AnnieApril 8, 2015 at 6:26 AM

    I do not like to come across a snake but it doesn't throw me into a panic as much as it used to. Black snakes are harmless unless they get into the chicken house and then they eat the chicken eggs. I have had some real adventures with black snakes. Of course we also have rattle snakes and copperheads, neither of which I care to run into.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousApril 8, 2015 at 8:53 AM

    Ew. I hate snakes...and spiders.

    ReplyDelete
  5. TaborApril 8, 2015 at 9:09 AM

    You are safe and that is the difficulty of living in Florida. Fortunately this was not a poisonous snake. If you have bird feeders up, this might be one of the reasons.

    ReplyDelete
  6. RianApril 8, 2015 at 10:40 AM

    It was probably just out sunning itself in that Florida sunshine. I'm definitely not afraid of snakes, but do believe in caution around them. My youngest son is a curator of Herpetology at a Zoo and he has always been in love with snakes. The outside cats are always catching little snakes - as well as lizards, etc. in our yard or down by the creek. I think they're kind of cute... (but DH says that I think "every critter is kind of cute").

    ReplyDelete
  7. TomApril 8, 2015 at 11:02 AM

    Well, kinda creepy as you say ... but they have snakes up north too.

    ReplyDelete
  8. MuffieApril 8, 2015 at 11:43 AM

    Yuck! We don't see snakes around here, but I'd freak out if I ever saw what you did!

    ReplyDelete
  9. SakuApril 8, 2015 at 8:06 PM

    It may be tiny but I think snakes are creepy! I'd have the same reaction and I'm not sure I'd have been able to go through that door. Hopefully you have a second entrance!

    ReplyDelete
  10. UnknownApril 8, 2015 at 9:31 PM

    I think I would have moved! I don't think I could have gone inside let alone ever come out again. Hope he goes away.

    ReplyDelete
  11. SextantApril 9, 2015 at 11:59 AM

    I rather despise snakes. I am OK with them after that initial startle, but none the less I don't like them. Harmless or not. I read somewhere recently that we don't have an instinctual fear of them. I think that is bull. I find myself jumping at snake shaped sticks. If I ever die from a snake it will probably be cardiac arrest from being startled by it.

    ReplyDelete
  12. KayApril 24, 2015 at 10:38 PM

    I'm so glad we don't have snakes in Hawaii.... for now. You are so brave.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I appreciate readers' comments so much. You don't even always have to agree with me.

Popular posts from this blog

It's TIme

 It's been a while since I have posted anything and even my reading your posts is falling by the wayside. I am in Florida now. I have a yard where little attention was spent on landscaping for the past years so I am slowly and (somewhat) methodically addressing that. I also volunteer to work at the pollinator garden and the edible garden I helped install at the UU grounds and I took over the volunteer job of cleaning out the overgrown community garden by my neighborhood mailboxes. The neighbor who was doing that got sick and could no longer attend to it. It's a bigger job than I'd thought at first -- not only overgrown with weeds, but the plants that are wanted there are in life and death competition for each others' spaces. And two walks a day, morning and evening, so Levi can keep up with addiction to canine social media and a daily rousing came of stick or ball midday take up another chunk of my time. I have a weekly meditation group that I co-facilitate, and my own ...
10 comments
Read more

New Furniture

 We went shopping for a new couch. I liked this one, the first store we went to. Of course it would be an impulse to buy the first one so we trekked around to other stores -- something we liked more, a better deal? No surprise that we ended up going back to that first store the next day and purchasing that couch for our living room. Also a matching love seat for the den where we watch TV. Because I had replaced my old love seat with two recliners. We couldn't keep three households worth of furniture after all. Well, my recliner was not big enough to accommodate both Levi and me. Poor boy had to watch TV from his bed on the floor. There! This is much better! Spoiled much? The little tail on the floor belongs to his toy squirrel, Buddy. It's like having a toddler with the need to be picking up toys or risk tripping over them. But his very favorite play thing is that bathmat that can be found anywhere but the bathroom floor.
10 comments
Read more

Walking

 I have always been a walker. Now that I have a high energy dog there is no excuse for not getting out there. And the weather is not an interfering factor here. Early morning and early evening are our preferred times so even when it gets hot we should be okay. We can get quite a long walk going around the neighborhood, greeting neighbors out working in their yards or walking their own dogs. But the landscape changes quickly just beyond the confines of the housing developments. It could be described as natural Florida or as sites of future housing developments. I do prefer the first option. And I really enjoy being out in natural areas so I often opt to head to a nature setting. I would have liked to put a picture here. Unfortunately my iPhone has made a unilateral decision. It will no longer be sending my photos to my computer. Why? I have no idea. However, we may be walking along happily enough -- me listening to the birds or trying to identify wildflowers and other plants while L...
10 comments
Read more