Rats!

So, here it is -the last day of school finally arrived. Maya left peaceably this morning for her last day as did Kate. Maya has a "full day" today (won't be home till 3 p.m., her normal time) whereas Kate's day amounted to maybe two hours of socializing, getting phone numbers, e-mail addys, my space accounts more than likely. Something I suspect she spends more time getting during the normal school day too though but on the last day, well ya know, priorities and you have to be well stoked for the summer with people you can correspond with and communicate to and fro don't 'cha?

So anyway, due to several sleep interruptions last night, I slept rather late today -didn't get up till a little after 11 a.m. As I waltzed through the living room, enroute to the bathroom, there's a bevy of teenage girls (ok, so there was only three) blocking my route as they were all hovering over something on the computer -someone's My Space" obviously.

On return from my bathroom visit, as I headed towards the kitchen for a cup of coffee that I hoped would help me to wake up, I noticed the girls quietly dispersed, went upstairs to Kate's room, without my having to say a word to anyone to order them out of my battered up computer chair and away from my portal here.

And so it began - my reading the stuff I try to read every day -other people's blogs!

Mandy is babysitting today - has her sister-in-law's baby girl here. Carlea is a little cutie pie -about six months old now and just a smiling, sweet little thing she is too. Kurtis, on the other had, is not overly friendly to her as he sees her as an interloper, moving in on HIS turf, taking valuable attention time from his mother away from him and sliding it over to his little cousin.

But anyway, things were moving along fairly quietly. Carlea asleep in her carseat and Kurtis nodding off for what I was hoping would be a nice, early, afternoon nap. The teens had made their way back downstairs and were heading out to go up to Kate's Mom's house when suddenly Kate hollers out for Mandy, announcing that there is a snake on our front door step.

"WHAT?" That was me! Trying to keep any panic out of my voice too ya know. (I hate, absolutely loathe, abhor and despise snakes, any kind, you name it and I am also terrified of them too -poisonous or not.) Mandy, it so happened, was out in the backyard hanging up clothes so she didn't hear Kate's announcement.

I got up wandered out to the front porch where all three girls were gathered around the front door -well, actually only two of them were by the door as the third one it seems is maybe just a tad more afraid of snakes than I am and she was hanging back by the dining room doorway, trying NOT to view the snake.

Yep! There is was too -in all its slinky, slithery glory - a nice big long old black snake just slowly dragging itself across the concrete doorstep in front of the doorway. It was making its way into the flower bed there and suddenly it dawned on me -HEY! This could make for some good blog material and maybe even get some pictures to go along with it, to prove this entity had been nervy enough to invade our space, come this close to humans, etc. etc. etc.

Jorge (the Mama cat) was beside herself wanting to be let outside and Kate was moving her foot back and forth trying to blockade it so the cat wouldn't escape the second the front door was opened too. I mentioned letting Jorge out as she would probably tussle with the snake and maybe even kill it but that terrified Kate as she was afraid the snake would bite Jorge and after all, "You can't risk that, she's a Mama, she has babies to feed ya know!" Yes, Kate actually thought of that! Surprised the heck out of me that one did ya know!

So I came into the living room, reached up on the shelf above my computer for my sweet little camera and came away empty handed. Drat! Looking around the desktop (the actual one, not the computer one, ya know) and through the rubble that calls my desktop home, no camera was to be found. Then I thought I remembered having seen it out in the kitchen maybe yesterday on the counter there -which meant Mandy had been using it -so I meandered out there but couldn't locate it. Hmmm. Maybe she had put it back in my purse or maybe I had done that and had forgotten about it so I found my purse, but no camera. Ok, desperate times call for desperate actions and I called out to Mandy then asking if she knew where it was.

"Yeah. It's on the counter, off to the left side of the coffee maker." Yeah, looked there but had to lift about ten or fifteen papers up before I finally located my camera and headed back to try to get a snapshot of this slithering beast in my front yard.

However, by the time I finally found the camera and got back to the door, the snake had made its way across the front yard, behind the maple tree and apparently slunk itself then in between the rocks of the rock wall Bill had erected in the front of the yard to hold the dirt that composes our parking area in so it doesn't all wash out and down into the yard every time it rains!

By this time, the girls left then -figured it was safe to walk up the sidewalk to the road. Mandy had come back inside and I told her, showed her where the snake had been visiting and pointing out to her where we believed it had gone to hide out now too. I reminded Mandy then -figure I'll let HER explain this to Bill -about how there is this door in the back of the house that goes into the basement and how some people within the family have a tendency to go in and out of that entry way with no regard to being sure to close the door tightly then too. I also reminded here that a few years back we had evidently had a snake get into the house where it at least shed its skin on the ledge above and behind the furnace and had been found when the guy who used to do all the repairs on my furnace and wiring and such was doing some work here one day and he had to run his hand across that ledge and found the snake's skin. Funny thing about that is that he is much like me and is also terrified of snakes too!

So here's hoping maybe now Bill will remember to tightly close the damned cellar door behind him when he uses that entry way. It's doubtful but I can hope, dream, can't I? And don't anyone bother now to tell me how nice, loveable and useful black snakes are too -I DON'T CARE!

The only good snake in my book -is a DEAD ONE!

And that brings me back now to the title of this post.

RATS! Something that exciting -a live critter -in my front yard, on my doorstep no less -and I missed getting a photo of it because my dear sweet daughter didn't put my camera back in my regular hiding place for it!

Let that be a lesson now for one and all to Always Put Things Away, where they belong!

Boy, David McMahon would be so chiding me I bet for not having my camera at hand -at all times - wouldn't he?