"Fun" Day = Needy Neighbor

Today was a fun day.  At least it started out that way.  I had a good friend who was willing to watch Dylan and Kate all day so that I could go on a field trip with Brynn.  It wasn't just any field trip either.  It was a field trip to Wonder Works.  Brynn has been asking to go to Wonder Works for  months.  But neither PJ or I were ready to fork out the money to take the family there - it isn't exactly a cheap outing.  So imagine her delight when she heard her class got to go there.  She was thrilled and has been very excitedly waiting for her field trip day to be here.  Today was that day.  But more on that to come in the next post...

Moving on with our day...
We got back, brought her best friend Emma and her sister Isabel with us (so they didn't have to go sit and watch their brothers during swim lessons), picked up Dylan and Kate, gathered up Tyler and headed home.  After a snack and a bit of gymnastics and dancing and singing inside, the girlies decided to go outside to play.  It couldn't have been more than 5 minutes before I gathered up some of the kitchen trash and went out through the garage to take it out and see how they were getting along.  A few steps into the garage I heard and saw the swishing motion I've always dreaded... there was a snake :[     

And it was headed the wrong direction - further in and not out.  So I had to go next door and get Blair to save me...

Which he bravely did.  Thankfully the snake was nice and obediently left when Blair urged him out.

Then Blair had to leave to get Milli.  But I had my boys there to protect me and help make sure the snake continued further away from our house instead of back inside.   We watched it for a while because he wasn't in a hurry to leave.  Surprisingly none of the kids were scared of it - not even Brynn - they all were very interested and wanted to see it.  So they watched it for me for a minute while I went into the garage to get the trash I never got around to throwing away.  And when I went back in I saw another motion along the wall and turned to see this guy...

Are you kidding me?!  I checked with Dylan to make sure the snake hadn't come back in.  Nope.  He was still over by the side of the house.  So this was snake #2 in my garage.  Lovely.  Blair was gone.  So I moved on down the street to Micah, who also bravely came to my rescue...

...only this snake wasn't as nice or obedient.  He found a hard to reach corner and coiled up.  We tried everything to get him out.  After about an HOUR (!!??) we were hot and sweaty and frustrated and the snake was getting upset and would not move.  I called housing so they could come and do some critter removal - they said they couldn't help.  Natural resources apparently only does alligators and bears.  What was I to do??  This was an emergency.  I wasn't about to let that thing stay in my garage.  We needed help.  The showdown needed to end.  So I called security forces.  They said a unit was on its way.  Imagine my delight when I saw who arrived... the very same Security Forces Officer that had to help me out of this situation a few months back:

 http://keddyskorner.blogspot.com/2013/03/hazards-of-living-at-beach.html  

Great.  They admitted when they got the call they weren't exactly sure what they were going to do to help.  But they got out of their car and came armed with gloves and a sledge hammer looking thing (even though they said legally they couldn't kill it) and some bolt cutters.  Wish I had gotten a picture of that but I was still getting over my initial embarrassment.  But they went to work and put on quite the show - the showdown became a throwdown!  I should have gotten video photage.  They were very scary... if I was the snake I would have fled also.  I'll tell you what that snake was bitting and striking at them like crazy but they were not going to let it win.  And my messy garage got even messier.  But they got the job done. 

And it literally FLEW out of our garage... in mid air.  So much so that a passing car stopped to ask what in the world it was.  I didn't get a picture of that either because I was running in the opposite direction when I saw it leave the ground and fly into the front hood of my car.  Yes, we/they drew a little crowd.  

In the end it ended up safely in a bucket where they took it far away out into the woods and let it go.  So it was a happy ending... only I can't help but wonder if those two snakes were making baby snakes in my garage somewhere.  I don't think I'll be able to go out there much until my husband finally returns home.  And I don't think I'll be able to ever look that awesome security officer in the face ever again because he admitted he remembered helping me in the sand too.  Sigh.  I hope my trusty neighbors don't start seeing me as the needy bothersome neighbor...  they were wonderful today.