A Squirrel, A Turtle and A Snake

We had a very interesting morning. Up before the sun, per usual. 6:30 am and LB is already down for a nap. Nice. I'm working away. About 7:15 there is a loud BOOM and my screen goes black. NO!! I look out the window towards where I heard the boom. And from the utility pole I see a squirrel fall to the ground - dead. Apparently it had the munchies early this morning and got a little more than it could chew! So of course LB wakes up - nice. And of course Grant is out of town. One of the few mornings he can sleep in and I'm calling him at 7:15 - what do I do?? About 15 minutes later the City utility people pull up to fix the problem. And I learn that this is the third squirrel encounter they've had this morning! And its barely 7:30 in the morning! Wow. I had no idea. Apparently this is when the squirrels go after the power lines the most - who knew?!?

So we're all up. Nap cut short. We hop in the car and head over to Westgate for a walk. I was trying to beat the heat, but it was still pretty hot. The trail weaves in and out of woods and around ball fields, etc. Along the side of the path we see a turtle. It was probably the size of my hand. We didn't touch it. It just sat there as we rolled on by. And as we're passing I think - you know, I remember my mother-in-law telling me about walking on the trail and encountering a snake. Wouldn't you know - 100 feet later - there's a snake. It was probably a good 4-footer. Grey and black - is that poisonous? I have no clue. I just treat them all like their poisonous. I figure I'm safest that way. So, there I am with LB in the jogger and I'm frozen. There is about 2 feet behind the snake - can I sneak around? Should I turn around? There is no one around. And the snake is just there, doing nothing. While I go round and round in my head about what to do, the snake finally decides to move along. Once it got off the trail we scooted on by and didn't look back.

Whew. I'm glad we haven't had anymore animal encounters today.