It was there. And now it's not.

There was a snake.

So, I decide to go trim some bushes this morning. Actually, first I decide I should go tend to the garden a little bit. You know: pull some weeds, fight the ant beds, scrutinize the newly growing plants for signs of eggs, worms, bugs, or disease, and maybe apply some organic fertilizer.

But then, before I got out there, I decide I need to start some laundry. So I do that.

THEN I decide I'll just trim the bush next to our front porch that is beginning to encroach upon the path my car takes to pull into the garage.

And while I'm out there with my pruners, I decide the front bushes needed a little trimming, too. I spot some poison ivy (I think it's poison ivy anyway) sprouting up in our front beds, so I retrieve the poison ivy spray and gave it a good soaking. By the looks of the spray bottle, it has been owned by us or one of John's family members for close to 15 years, so no bets on the potency at this point. (I am nothing if not thorough.)

Finally, it's time to go tend the garden, but before I could move to the backyard I need to load up all the bush trimmings into one of the trashcans.

Here's where the snake comes in.

My dad must have put some leftover cement from our fence gate restoration in the trashcan I decide to roll out because it is HEAVY!

As soon as I wrangle the trashcan out of its place I look down to see a snake curled up on the ground. The only reason no screaming takes place is because the snake is not moving. Not a bit. Not an inch. That, and I feel fairly certain a snake not even 1/2 inch thick and most likely less than two feet long is not realistically dangerous. Right? I guess it can still bite, but I honestly am not dwelling on that.

I stand stock still for what seems like 5 minutes contemplating whether to roll the heavy trashcan wheel back over the snake or go get a shovel to chop it up. In my mind I see a picture of people trying to kill a snake by rolling over it with their CAR to no avail (not sure if I've ever, in reality, seen that happen, but whatever) and decide a trashcan will probably NOT kill the snake.

(By the way, my Bible knowledge must be strangely ingrained in my brain more than I realize because the entire time I'm thinking of how to kill the snake, I keep thinking, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel" - Genesis 3:15. Why can't I remember all those OTHER verses I've tried to memorize?)

Then I figure I might as well just move the trashcan a little more. The snake is still not budging. So I wheel the trashcan out to the front yard, collect the bush trimmings, and bring the trashcan back to...

Snakes must play dead. I was probably more alarmed to find no snake where there had just been a snake than I was to see the curled up snake in the first place. Where did it go? So, it wasn't really dead. I should have gotten that shovel sooner. And, now the trashcan is sitting on the sidewalk in our front side yard because I refuse to go anywhere near the area where the snake HAD been but now isn't.

I have avoided that area of the yard all day. I continued with my plan of tending the garden (so far, no horrible pest or disease problems...that I can see), though the entire plan of yard work took more like 2 hours than my original, very first idea of, say, 20 minutes.

There is a snake at large in our backyard somewhere. John will definitely be taking out the trash this week.