Serpent! Serrrr...pent!*

One of the surprising parts of putting in a pool, is the need for said pool to need "watering" for like 28 days while the gunnite cures. There's science behind it, which is actually kind of cool to read about it, but it's a whole "who knew?" situation for me.

Regardless, we've been dutifully watering the pool as recommended by our pool installer.

So, this morning, in my jammies and without my glasses, I shuffled down the deck stairs to the spigot to turn on the water to the sprinkler that sits in the bottom of said pool, and as I reached for the knob, something poked it's head up and then back down behind the wall that separates the space under the deck from our patio.

It's a little knee-height wall.

And...I might have freaked out a little.

But I hurried back upstairs, telling myself, "Maybe it was a rat."

Now, I'll be honest. A rat isn't better. I know that. You know that. Everyone knows that. But I did not want it to be a snake.

When hubs came down, I said, "Can you go down and look and see what poked its head up when I turned the water on?"

And he's all, "We get a lot of skinks."

Friends, I can tell the difference between a skink and...well, anything. Skinks are tiny. They are not scary.

So he's gesturing to me through the window and finally, I go out on the deck as he's going down the stairs and, having woken up a bit more I am now wearing my glasses, so I lean over and look down and before I can point the damn black snake is already in the process of crawling over the wall.

So I shriek, "Snake!" Because terror. Even as I'm trying to tell myself that it's a good kind of snake to have. They're good. They're not dangerous. They're not scary. It's not even that big. 

And I run back inside. Where I proceed to not-quite-panic.

Hubs comes back in while I'm trying to not curl up in a ball on the floor saying, "It's okay." over and over and he asks, "Do you want me to move it?"

"No. He's good. He's fine."

And ...yeah. All true. But also? Whyyyyyy?

Why do snakes exist? Surely there are other choices God could have made?

Anyway. It's about time to go turn the water on for the next round of pool watering and...I don't want to.

*spot the quote

(It's from the Disney Alice in Wonderland. No one was going to spot that.)