It Was A Good Day

Stories Behind the Story #2

You know how somedays are good and you think to yourself that you’ll remember the day and how perfect it is, but you don’t? Well, I remember this day.

It was a cool and sunny Spring day before we had moved into the house at our Double Mountain ranch. We were living in Sweetwater while building and renovating the place. Because it was springtime, knew that it was liable to be a “snaky day”.

By the time we arrived, our two-year old son had fallen asleep in the car. So we parked in the shade, rolled down the windows, and let him sleep. We took the opportunity to scan around the property for snakes and look at the progress that had been made on the house.

While I was in the kitchen, I heard a loud buzzing from somewhere outside. After a few seconds it donned on me what it was, a rattlesnake. But it was unusually loud. I followed the sound and stood on the porch. At the bottom of the steps was a large roadrunner who had cornered two rattlesnakes. (So cool!)

I turned around and ran to find my husband. He grabbed a shovel and I checked on our son. He was still blissfully asleep.

I heard the sound of the shovel against concrete and checked on husband’s progress. I was surprised to see that the roadrunner stayed by his side. The bird was focused on those snakes!. I swear he was cheering my husband on and giving directions. The snakes were quickly dispatched.

Husband walked over to me. “Let’s go get some lunch in town and leave this guy to his business.” I agreed. We wanted the roadrunner to feel comfortable. (Of course I daydreamed about how cool it would be to have a roadrunner who hung around the house.)

We had a nice lunch at the local café, fifteen miles away in Aspermont. We went back to the house and the snakes were gone. We walked around and puttered on the property for the next couple of hours, always mindful to keep an eye out for more snakes.

As we were cleaning up and closing the house, I took another walk around to make sure we hadn’t left any tools out and looked for more rattlers. There was some English ivy growing on the side of the house and it bothered me. Now I know that some people love ivy and the idea of it covering the west side of the house can be practical, especially in the Texas summer sun. But long ago I read an article where ivy had worked its way into a house’s brick facade and caused the entire wall to pull away from the house. It took two hundred years, but I still didn’t like the idea of ivy working its way into the siding. I didn’t want it to damage the century’s old home, so I began to rip it off. I pulled ivy off for several minutes, working my way down to the ground. It was denser at the bottom and more work intensive.

I lifted up the ivy to rip away a big section and there was the prettiest pink, contented, sleeping rattlesnake. I pulled back my hand like I had touched a hot stove. I stepped back six feet and stared at the ivy, expecting the snake to crawl out. How had it stayed asleep? I called my husband over and he killed it.

All day long I had been so careful and for a brief moment my precautions went out the window when I had been preoccupied. We used the situation as a teaching moment to our son and inwardly I chastised myself. I had my own teaching moment. It didn’t fully dawn on me how lucky I was until I was thinking about it later. On the way back to Sweetwater, I said to my husband, “We had a good day. It could have been very different, and I could be in the hospital right now.”

“Yup.” He didn’t have to say anything else. The look that he gave me told me plenty. I don’t know how he does it. But I swear, with one look he can show disappointment, fear, love, and gratitude. No wonder he’s a man of few words. I think he was tempted to scold me but I think the look on my face said plenty too.

I know that we think that we’re in control of our lives. And I think that we are, but only to a certain degree. It certainly doesn’t hurt to be vigilant. But sometimes I still think it’s up to fate as to whether or not the snake is asleep.


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