This morning, I walked out to the bus stop to see this:

This picture is blurry and doesn’t do it justice, but the ones I took with the flash show the sky as dark. In fact, is was light and there was that big fat moon just sitting there. It was awesome.

Hey, did you guys see this picture I posted on Facebook yesterday?

That, my friends, is a Deadsnake. It was a copperhead, though I didn’t know it at the time. And I have a story about it. It’s not just a snake, see. And it really doesn’t matter what kind of snake it was. That right there, people, is a picture of mousy me confronting fear head on.

Yesterday, I burned trash in my yard for the second day straight. I picked up the next to last piece, which happened to be a huge piece of old wooden siding and underneath was this snake, all coiled up on itself. Now, I had just put a big piece on the fire, and I couldn’t afford to turn my back on it for long, because the flames were almost my height there for a bit. So, I laid the board right back down on the snake and I tended that fire until it got down a good bit. Then I told my first born son to go get the phone and come here. He argued with me a bit, because I hadn’t told him why I needed the phone and he wanted to be in the house, but eventually he came out with the phone. I told him I wanted him to use the rake to lift that board because there was a snake under and I had to kill it. Uh, my son, he is afraid of the snakes. Just like his mama used to be. And there was no talking him into that. At all. So I told him, “Fine, I’ll do both, you just watch and if it bites me, call 911.”

So I moved the board with the rake, and I got the hoe and I took a whack. And the darn thing slithered off into the grass, right toward my children, who were playing in the back yard. So, I whacked where he’d had been, and I looked for him. And I eventually saw his tail, because for some reason he had turned back to me. I guess the children’s noise or something made him turn around. I didn’t even pause to realize that if I was seeing his TAIL right there, his HEAD must be about there. You know, next to my LEG. I just started swinging that hoe. And I swung it many times in quick succession and I killed that snake. And then I took a few pictures. And then I picked it up with the rake and I threw it in the fire and I burned it. That’s the story of yesterday’s snake.

But there’s another fairly important story behind that one. It’s about the last time I saw a snake. Actually, two snakes, one one day and one the next. That led to the “great lawn mowing of ’08″, which I blogged about. Here’s the thing I didn’t blog about then, unless I did, but if I did, I’m telling it again. I had called my then-husband home when I saw the first snake, which was also a copperhead, under the tree roots near the fence, near the kid’s swingset. It was gone before he got here, but he came. The next day, I saw a huge black snake under the shed. It was so big I thought it was a bicycle tire until I saw the scales on it. I almost vomited in fear. I called him again, and my voice was shaking I was so scared. And that man told me to “quit being a pansy” and hung up. So, being a fearless warrior of a woman, I hopped in the shower to think and also get the stench of adrenaline and fear off of me. And then I got the shovel and went after the snake. Of course, it was gone before I got there, and the very next day, I mowed my entire half acre yard, which hadn’t been mowed in a couple of months, the last bit beyond the fence in over a year, but I was NOT gonna let one of my kids be eaten up by some huge demon snake. Not on my watch, husband be damned. And now you know the story behind the caption “Call me a pansy again, you hapless mf’er.”

I told you things were changing for me. Yesterday, I killed a snake, and I didn’t start shaking until after he was burnt slap up.

And then, when I left work, my car stalled out AGAIN, this time in the center lane of Clloege Road, which is, without argument, one of the busiest streets in town. Yay me! I finally got home, with a little help from my bff. My car, however is NOT home, and I am needing to figure out how to get it home. Hopefully, it is dry enough to run by now. I have to say, when I was thinking about travel deals, this was not what I had in mind.

Just to give you a glimpse of our watery reality, I took this shot of highway 74/76 from the bridge near my house. You could surf out there!

So, what exactly have I been busy with, besides the life list stuff, which I think will be a post of it’s own? Well, I have set myself up a studio in my living room/entry way. All that space that used to be devoted to doll cabinets has become a place for me to work and play and work at playing. I posted this photo to Facebook today and noted that soon the only thing standing between me and my creativity and celebrating my passions would be me. And as Ang. pointed out, sometimes me is a pretty big obstacle. I’d go so far as to say that it’s usually the only obstacle.

The good news is that I am working on clearing that obstacle up. And now I have a space. I don’t know what I am going to do in it first, except write this blog post, but I imagine that I will shortly be writing a list of stuff I want to accomplish here. I have a space. I have a space to work and study and play. I have a space in the main section of my house.

Which reminds me, I guess I need to let you know that I am no longer living mostly in my bedroom. I now spend a lot more time OUT of my room. And when I go in there to withdraw, I make note of it, and try not to let myself get sucked back in for too long. It’s become “not the norm”. That’s a good thing.

One final note for this post and then I will wrap it up. The thing I was dealing with this morning in my pages? Apparently, I have abandonment issues. Whoddafrickinthunkit?

July 13 was another oops. So, oops.

July 14 Cubbies This is what they looked like before the re-organization started. They are done now, though I have some stuff left over that I am not quite sure what I am going to do with.

July 15 Weird Yarn This became a hat for That One. Hope he drops by soon to pick it up. He liked the picture but I am sure he will laugh when he actually gets to feel the hat. It’s….interesting to say the least.

July 16 also an oops. It was the day MMH pretty much told Mama he was leaving.
July 17th also. It was the day he left. I was busy visiting Mama. We talked, we played cards, we shook our heads in amazement that he would walk away from so much for so little.

July 18 Uncle I gave up trying to catch up my reading before the piles of books on my little bookcase made me crazy, so I added another bookcase. I’m still behind, but at least it looks neater. And I get to display more pictures. I like it!

July 19 Bayer GirlCousin gave him to me. She picked out a good one. She tells me Ty is high class, but this one is a bed hopper. I never know where I’ll find him in the morning, but I know where he starts out each night: clutched to my chest with my body wrapped around him.

July 20 Lantana I finally planted it, LOL!

July 8 Blowing Bubbles Why, yes, a helmet IS mandatory safety equipment. At least it is if you are an 8 year old superhero type boy child.

July 9 Mandevilla It was just so pretty I had to take a picture of it.

July 10 Some Shoes I Want There’s another pair, too, but I could only pick one picture for the day and this is the pair I saw first. Yeah, artist dates are fun. And yeah, I do use my phone cam as a shopping list holder. I got skillz, dudez.

July 11 Visit with GirlCousin and AuntieEm I had soooo much fun getting re-acquainted with these folks. I should never have let time and distance come between us. It’s a mistake I will try not to make again.

July 12 Hospital Salad The hospital here makes wonderful salads to order. And it was so big that I had the leftovers for dinner the next night!

July 3 Making Faces Three of my favorite people, all hamming it up for the camera. It’s riot around here, I tell ya.

July 4 Party Time Which I blogged about here.

July 5 Another Party This time, it was for Guitar Guy’s son, who just had a birthday. I miss Guitar Guy. We haven’t just hung out in way too long. Darn my busyness and also my depression. Maybe depression isn’t quite right–more pulling back. I’ve had a lot of out-ness lately and when I do that, there is always a pulling back in to regroup. I prefer my own company still. I imagine I will be that way the rest of my life, or will at lesst need substantial alone time. I think I am going to decide that that’s ok, as long as I can still get out there. Speaking of which:

July 6 My Corner of the Living Room Yep, you heard that right. I’ve made myself a corner in the living room. I actually sit in it sometimes. Except today I am in my room….because I am cleaning it? I guess so. I shall move out there after my next cleaning time, I think, so I can hang with the kids.

July 8 Life List Stuff A bucket for planting lantana, bubbles for blowing, and an album for my hands prints. Also laundry soap, which has nothing to do with the list, but a lot to do with life.

June 28 Ouch So, forget the thing about not being able to walk and chew bubble gum at the same time. Apparently, I can’t even *talk* and chew gum. I was walking to the car with Drama, and she spoke to me and I looked at to answer her and sprained my ankle on a depression in the sand in my yard. Not even an actual hole, people. A depression. Only marginally less embarrassing that getting caught reading colonix reviews by my kids.

June 29 Oops I guess that when I spend the day blogging, I kinda forget the picture taking. Sorry.

June 30 Dead This is what my roses looked like when I got back to the garden shop last week. That just aggravates me to no end!! I did figure out why later in the week, though. Apparently the young man they are putting in there while I am gone did not understand that you water plants gently. He was using the power wash setting. Yeah, on my flowers. No wonder they looked beat and bedraggled and dead and ruined.

July 1 Buttons for a Baby Sweater Pretty self explanatory, right?

July 2 Sleeping I absolutely love it when I get to come home to see this. I could try to explain that, but I won’t bother. But it’s totally worth sleeping on the couch for!

June 23 Stuntman just because we were sitting and chatting.

June 24 Diva on her birthday

June 25 Lots of Books Somebody has a lot of reviews to write, and that someone is me. I pulled them all out to work on and stacked them ever so neatly on the bed. And then I didn’t get to them. When bedtime rolled around, I had to move them to the floor. Since that time, I have managed to review a couple of them, but I still have quite a stack. No, this is NOT the time for ya’ll to start sending subliminal “sell books” messages. Aint gonna happen.

June 26 New Hat That One picked this up for me on his travels this week. It makes a nice driving hat. On the way up to to Polkton, it kept my frizzed out hair out of my face, and on the way back, it preserved my small and curly hair from being blown about. I never realized a hat could actually protect your hair as well as hide it. Yay for hats!

June 27 Baby You’ve seen this one before, but it’s worth a repeat.

June 18 Baby Got Back Sorta. On this day, I slid into 2 pairs of jeans that I slid right back down my hips without unfastening, and then I pulled out these size 6 Levi’s. When I looked in the mirror, there was this thing behind that looked like it wanted to be a butt eventually. Like, when it grew up and stuff. Since I hadn’t seen anything like that on myself in months, I recorded the moment for posterity. And I will be buying some more of these britches in this size.

June 19 Six kid pile-up Here you see a lot of fun going on. This is the kid from down the street with five of my kids piled on top of him. Who knows why, but there was a lot of laughter and play shrieking going on, so I snapped it for ya.

June 20 Not an oops But it almost was. I had gone to bed when I remembered that I had not taken a picture. So I took one. Of the Christmas lights that hang behind the curtains in my room. Am I too old to refer to them as “fairy lights”? No, I don’t think so either.

June 21 Shirt I didn’t buy I almost bought this shirt for That One, because he loves to fish, and he frequently tell me about his nemesis, a huge fish that refuses to take his bait. They are old frenemies, he and this fish. But I didn’t get it because we decided $5 was too much to spend on a fishing shirt. Cause we are frugal beasts.

June 22 A Purple Spidey I love this kid and how he rawks this ‘hawk. He’s something else!