Surprise!

This morning was pretty typical. We had our normal routine of waking up, eating breakfast and getting Jonathan ready for school. At some point, Eric headed out to the garage, probably to move the trash cans out to the curb since today is trash day. After a couple of minutes he came back inside, grabbed my camera and then went back outside. I didn't think much of it. The sun was just coming up, so he was probably snapping a few shots of the sunrise. He came back in later and set the camera down without saying anything. I continued to tend to the kids and a little while later he left for work.

It wasn't long after he left that I remembered the camera. I grabbed it, turned it on and hit the "review" button. This is what I saw...
Aaaaahhhhh! Ew! Ew! Ew! Don't you think a person needs to be warned before being surprised with a picture of a snake early in the morning?

After calling Eric I learned that it was a small snake, only 12-15 inches long (I guess I should have been able to tell that from the picture since it's right next to an oak leaf and a pine needle, but my mind was too busy with the reality of the snake to think about the facts in such a logical manner). He also said that it was in our driveway. Of course, I was just about to head out to the driveway to take Jonathan to school. Ugh! So, I lead the kids out there slowly and carefully, keeping my eyes peeled for the snake. I don't know what would have been worse, actually seeing the snake, but at least knowing what its current location was, or what did happen, not seeing the snake and remaining in a tense state of expectation of coming across it at any moment while I quickly got the kids in the car. So far, the rest of the morning has proceeded without any additional snake viewings.

But, now for the rest of the week I'll look twice before reaching down to pull a weed or retrieve a ball from my front flower beds. I'm sure that little suburban snake is not poisonous, but I'm also positive that that knowledge won't change the number of decibels that could be measured from the blood-curdling scream that will be issued from my general vicinity should I happen to come across this reptile unexpectedly!