Love Buzzard's Crafts & Life

Since this blog was intended to be about me as well as my hobbies I guess I should write something about myself. Shortly after midnight, I looked at the date on my computer and saw that it is August 30^th and exactly a year since I had probably the most horrible night of my life and it had absolutely nothing to do with hurricane Katrina that was tearing up the coast of Louisiana. I had been following the news on TV for several days and even though I was safe and dry up here in north Louisiana I was upset by all that was happening on the Gulf coast. Late in the afternoon I drove to Winnfield where my sons were living to have dinner with them for I wanted to be with family. I wrote about that night and emailed to friends and have now decided that I will put it on my blog.

I am leaving this just as it was written last year and you can just remember that all of this happened one year ago on August 30, 2005 and I wrote the email on August 31.

Well I must tell you about my adventure last night. :O) I went to Winnfield to have dinner with Scott and Brian and then when I came home things got scary. I came inside and did not turn on any lights until I got to the edge of the kitchen and reached around and turned on the lights in my studio. I let out a scream that was probably heard by the boys in their apartments thirty miles away. :O) Slithering across the floor between my computer desk and my bed was a VERY UNWELCOME visitor. Well you all know how scared I am of snakes but I knew I had to do something for I did not want it lost in the house. He/she wiggled over under the bag that I use for library books and I ran to the back porch to get something to kill the visitor. The best thing I could find was an old fashioned mop, the kind made of cotton strings. I quickly grabbed it and ran back to the studio and poked at the bag and my visitor wiggled out. I started banging at him with the mop trying to hit him with the handle part at the end of the mop. As you can imagine I was not having very much luck. He kept wiggling around and I would poke some more. Finally I dropped the mop strings over him and then stood on the mop with both feet and bounced up and down. I would have jumped up and down but was afraid the snake would get away. Fortunately I was wearing my solid toed shoes that look like Crocs but are leather and rather heavy because once when I was stepping on the mop, one end of him flipped up and hit my shoe and had I been wearing scandals I probably would have died of fright right then and there. Removed the mop and he was still wiggling. So, I covered him again and stepped and bounced some more. Did this three or four times and then I happened to see a folded paper towel in the recycle basket so I picked that up and dropped in on top of the visitor and stepped on the paper towel and bounced up and down some more. I did that a couple of times and he seemed to be dead. All that was moving was his tiny tail and think that may have been because the ceiling fan was running.

At that point I called Scott and told him what I had just done and said I thought I would go to a motel for I just could not get in bed and shut my eyes two feet from where the snake was lying. No way was I going to get the snake outside. Scott told me to take off the head so I would be SURE he was DEAD and then go to a motel if I did not want to stay at home.

Now I had another problem, getting the head off. I certainly was not going to get near enough to do it with a knife. Being almost positive the critter was dead I went looking for something to remove the head and ended up with a length of hardwood flooring about two feet long. I pushed the paper towel back over the end of the snake, stepped on it to hold the snake in place and then pushed and pushed with the wood until the head finally came off. By that time I was exhausted, shaking, and dripping wet with sweat. I know horses sweat, men perspire, and women glow but believe me I was sweating. I grabbed my toothbrush, blood pressure and cholesterol pills, and clean underwear. Stuffed those things in my purse, grabbed my keys, and took off to Ruston to stay in a motel.

DUH, I was not even thinking about the hurricane and the people leaving New Orleans and coming north. When I got to the Days Inn there was a sign saying “Filled, No Room.” I went inside to ask if they knew of any rooms in Ruston. No one was in the office so turned around and went out the door and met the desk clerk coming in. I said to him that I did not have a flooding problem but a snake in my house. His eyes got big as saucers and he said, “Oh my God.” Then I asked him if there were any rooms in Ruston. His answer was, “the nearest available rooms are in Dallas, Texas.” So, I got in my car, drove to the end of their driveway and stopped, grabbed my cell phone and called a friend and asked if she had an extra bed. Quickly told her I had a snake in the house but he was dead. Of course she told me to come on over. Should have just called her to start with but as I said I was not thinking of hurricane evacuees at the time.

After I arrived at my friend’s home, we watched CNN for a while and discussed what was going on. Her daughter lives in Jackson, Mississippi and they had come to stay until they have electricity. Finally everyone was tired and we all went to bed. Every time I closed my eyes I kept seeing that snake slithering across the floor.

Woke up about seven thirty this morning and came back home. When I got back to my studio the ants were having a great feast. :O) The guys were still here working on my roof so I asked if one of them would come in and get the snake. After one of the men removed the snake I sprayed the area thoroughly with ant killer. I was chatting with the guys and one told me that the day before he had seen a snake in a flowerpot near my back porch. I had been thinking and thinking about how the snake could have gotten in the house. When the guy told me that I went to the back storm door and saw a small hole between the door and the doorframe. Still don’t know how he got under the back door to the kitchen. I have to believe that is the same snake otherwise I think I would have to just leave for good. :O) I called a friend who is in the exterminating business and he said there was nothing to put in the house to get rid of snakes if there were any. I had thought about a mama snake getting in and having babies. Oh my, I had all kinds of thoughts as to how it could have gotten in. When I told my friend about the snake in the flowerpot he said he would say that was the one that got in the house. He also told me not to worry. Now I am not a person who worries but I did think about the problem for a few days.

I went to Wal-Mart and bought a big box of mothballs for several people said they would keep snakes away. I put some at the two back doors and tomorrow after the lawn guy mows the lawn and weed whacks all around the house then I am going to put out moth balls around the outside of the house. I was sitting here and wondering if I really could stay here tonight and then I had a bright idea. I have now put mothballs all around my bed. I am beginning to smell them and supposedly that is not good so think I better remove them and maybe leave just two or three. Right now I have twenty or thirty around the bed. :O) Just swept up the moth balls and put them back in the box. I escaped snakebite so don’t want to kill myself with the fumes from mothballs.

I went to Winnfield again and had dinner with the boys at Pizza hut tonight. I just felt the need to be with my kids. Think I need to stop watching CNN for it is just too upsetting. At dinner I was telling the boys that I have been here in Louisiana for nineteen years and never had a snake in the house. And now with new storm doors and windows, the house is a lot tighter than it was. So, it just makes sense that the snake in the flowerpot is the one I sent to snake heaven.

When I left to go have dinner I left the lights on in my studio, kitchen and living room. I was not going to come into a dark house again. When I get up at night I never turn on a light, but you can bet the farm that for a few nights I will be turning on the light before I put my feet on the floor. I am sure that in a few days the memory will fade and I will be back to normal. Well as normal as I can be.

I sent a picture to the boys and tonight I asked Brian if he was surprised that I killed the snake. He said yes he was in a way. I told him that I HAD to kill it for did not want it making its home in my home. Now, had it been a BIG snake I would have grabbed the car keys, driven away in a great hurry and probably never returned. :O)

Think I have written enough about my night of horror. Here is a picture of the snake when I was finished with my dance of death.

Had it been a little green snake I would not have been too upset but this morning I found out it was what I had suspected, a baby timber RATTLESNAKE.

Anyone who knows me well is aware that I am deathly afraid of snakes of any size and kind. I don’t even like fake ones and have been known to scream at a picture of a snake. When I was in my college biology class I was bored and was flipping through the book and came upon a full-page picture of a snakehead with the mouth open. I threw the book and screamed which brought the class to a screeching halt. And if there are snakes in a movie or TV I look away until they are gone. I had people ask me how I could kill the snake and I guess that in my subconscious mind I knew that I HAD to kill it for there was no one around to do it for me. And I certainly did not want him/her slithering around in my home. I know that God was watching out for me for the snake could have been anywhere in the house or I could have stepped on it since I never turn on lights until I get to the room I plan to be in.

Oh yes, I do have a very nice bedroom but I have a large home and it is just too expensive to cool the whole house so I have a window unit in my studio and during the hot summer months I sleep in the studio.

And now you have read the saga of Deanna the snake killer. LOL

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 30th, 2006 @ 6:48 AM on the category Just Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.