Oh my gosh, what an eventful day today has been. Let me start by saying, the expression “that which you focus on becomes real” has never seemed more accurate to me than today.
Some background: May is graduation month in our family. Brittany graduated two weeks ago with her Master’s Degree of Science in Counseling from Southern Methodist University and Ashlyn graduates tomorrow with her Bachelors Degree in Psychology from La Verne University. Given farm costs, Jim and I split the trips, with my attending Brittany’s event in Texas and Jim attending Ashlyn’s ceremony in California.
When I left for Texas, I have to admit, I didn’t give a moment’s thought to Jim being alone at the farm. He has spent many a night alone here already. Needless to say, I somehow did not feel so blasé when my turn came to spend a few nights “enjoying” the relative isolation of our new home. Suddenly a trip down to the cellar during a power outage seemed inordinately more daunting than when Jim was about. The prospect of dealing with a snake or wasp infinitely more overwhelming than “usual.”
So how perfect for me that the day of Jim’s departure began with Trixie barking her warning bark incessantly from the dog run. Being a curious type, I donned shoes and went out to see what the fuss was about. The other dogs, of course, joined in the fray, with everyone trying to maneuver Jim’s wonderful stairs without anyone proceeding down. None of this seemed unusual until Trixie jumped down and yelped. Suddenly, I realized the object of her attention was a snake … IN THERE with my dogs!!!!!
The next few minutes were a bit of a blur as I leapt to the gate to let Otis and Trixie out — Deja had sensibly gone back inside — while yelling for Jim to help! Blocking the dog door, he came out quickly — so dapper in his shorts and muck boots — rack in hand and grabbed up the snake for relocation. All dogs were okay and the snake was relocated to the back forty, where it eventually turned tail and fled.
This snake, in my humble opinion, was not attractive like Mr. & Mrs. Snake. It’s black and white markings made it appear much more menacing. Fortunately, after some googling, I can confidentially report it was simply another harmless variety of black snake, in this case the black rat snake. Apparently, farmers really like these too: good mousers.
Whew, drama of the day over, right?!? Well, not exactly because remember, Jim is going out of town and I’m afraid. And what is my biggest fear: those tiny, little relatively harmless creatures — bees & wasps. So here’s a quick recap of my evening after dropping Jim at the airport:
- Return home.
- Enter the master bedroom, listening carefully since our wall is open to the stone following the bee extraction.
- Hear sound. Stop. See the bee. Sigh. (Take picture to send to Jim pointing out the irony of the situation.)
- Capture bee in the plastic trap. Take bee outside. Release with gratitude since it chose not to turn around and sting me.
- Go back to master bedroom, listening carefully.
- Hear sound. Stop. Smile. Realize it’s just our friends, Mr. & Mrs. Snake.
- But wait … that’s LOUD. That’s quite a bit of slithering. Okay, okay, I tell myself: remember you like the snakes; time to go relax.
- Take dogs outside.
- Enjoy the shade of our beautiful trees while I catch-up on email. Ahhhh, bliss.
- Go inside. Make dogs dinner.
- Go upstairs to shutdown computer programs since it is after 5pm and we have only 2GB of after-business-hours internet bandwidth left before the end of the month.
- Enter office cautiously, listening carefully since you never know what might be flying about.
- Hear sound. Hear ANOTHER sound. Oh, for goodness sake: dueling wasps. Yes, that’s right. One on each window. Sigh.
- Close window to trap wasp #1 between screen and glass. Congratulate self on bravery.
- Go downstairs as phone rings with friend’s call.
- Sit on couch. Chat with friend. Enjoy the chance to catch up.
- Hear noise. Now, what is THAT? Well, it’s Mr. & Mrs. Snake — and I can hear them from the next room!
- Listen carefully. Realize this is the sound of them killing prey. Decide I can live with this.
- Finish call.
- Go back upstairs to tackle wasp. Grab swatter (sorry, Scott), plastic capture tool, and wasp spray. One can never be too prepared with wasps.
- Stand frozen trying to work out how to attack wasp problem. If you have never tried it, capturing or killing a wasp which is walking down sheers is really quite difficult.
- Watch wasp appear to wake up and start to walk down the curtains. Watch helplessly as wasp flies in what appears to be the direction of the floor.
- Edge closer. Realize I’m completely unable to see the black wasp against the black wood floors. Give up. Wasp 1 / Vali 0.
- Go downstairs and call it a night praying please, please let the wasp disappear before the morning.
I hope you come home soon, Jim! I miss you!
Wish me luck everyone, Vali!