It’s not over yet!

When Elaine and I were weighing the pros and cons of moving from the city to somewhere in the mountains, we never failed to bring up two very serious cons.

Here we are almost nine years later, and we have experienced both cons in the same month. Wildfires and rattlesnakes.

I’ve written about the wildfires, so this is a story about a rattlesnake.

The story begins with Elaine working in the store, I was playing construction in town. Ivy and the twins are at home enjoying a day off away from the store. I received a phone call from home.

Ivy: Hey Dad, what gun should I use to shoot a snake?

Me: What?

Ivy: Boy Twin found a snake in the tool shed.

Me: A rattlesnake?

Ivy: We haven’t seen it, but we can hear it. I will go see if I can see it, here’s Boy Twin.

Me: Wait! (I hear the cordless phone being carried outside. It’s windy.)

Girl Twin: I don’t know why I have to talk on the phone!

Me: Put Ivy back on the phone!

Girl Twin: I can’t hear you, it’s too windy.

Me: Take the phone back inside, get Ivy!

Girl Twin: What?

Me: Get Ivy!

Girl Twin: I can’t hear you, it’s too windy. I’m gonna give the phone to Ivy.

Ivy: Dad?

Me: TAKE THE PHONE INSIDE, SO YOU CAN HEAR ME!

Ivy: I can hear you, now.

Me: Take a rake, stand outside the door, poke the rake inside the shed, maybe you can get him to strike the rake and you will be able to see him.

Ivy: Dad, I can hear it, but I can’t see it.

I was playing construction with my friend, Kerry. Kerry said “let’s go up there! I’ll drive” We started for home.

Kerry didn’t tell me we had to stop for gas just to get up there. Of course he didn’t know that every traffic light would be red when we got to it. He didn’t know that every road we traveled on would be under construction.

Kerry made up for lost time when we got out of town. He was driving pretty fast. Things were fine until he tried to speed up the portion of road with several switchback. He started to spin his tuck around and we were headed for the ditch. He recovered control before we crashed. He gave me one of those “God, I hope no one saw that” looks.

We arrived at home, SAFELY! Kerry stuck his head inside the shed and saw the snake under my air compressor. He was able to move a few tools away from the snake and I made the snake pay for the all the excitement of the day.

Now you can see why the pros outweighed the cons. Its the adventure!

Our crazy lives!

Monner