Kelly Times Two

There was a strange black figure up ahead in the distance as our Pathfinder was approaching our driveway tonight just past midnight. At first I thought it was a cat, but it had a more pointed looking silhouette. As we drove closer, I realized it was a possum and it ran into the flower bed. Kelly stopped the car and I handed him my camera and asked him to get a picture. The nasty looking critter then ran across the driveway onto our front porch and tried to hide beneath the wooden swing. I was nervous as the headlights put Kelly and the possum in full view. Kelly was crouching down low on the ground and I kept staring, fearing that I might observe an encounter and my husband could somehow get rabies. He was only about two feet away, practically lying on the ground when he snapped this shot. It's pretty sick looking, but I'm glad it only hissed at Kelly.

There were some workers in my backyard today and showed me (because I don't speak Spanish very well) that there was a coral snake on the gate of my fence. I think he was asking me if I wanted him to kill it, but I'm not sure. I signaled using the strangling motion with my hands around my neck, but I was trying to tell them it was poisonous. I think they took that as a go ahead to eliminate him. That was fine too. Two of the men got a stick from the woods, then I told him I wanted to get my camera. I said, "no encuentro mi camera" and he said, "busca," so I went back inside to try to find it. I just grabbed my cell phone instead and got a couple of shots. As often as I have creepy crawly things in my world, I justed added a label for this subject. Some rather sickening past posts include the coral snake that Kelly spotted in the driveway, the tarantula outside my window, and then many still remember the giant redheaded centipede that came through the vents...

Just after school today, Lindsey was about to leave to go to her physical therapy appointment, when she pointed out a big tarantula on the outside of our living room window. CREEPY! Here's a closer shot of the spider. I took the ruler to measure it and it's about 3.5 inches long, less than half the size of the nasty giant red-headed centipede that I encountered INSIDE the house last summer. Living next to the woods, we get all kinds of wildlife, so these creepy crawly things come with the territory, literally. Time to call for pest control! Sorry about the unpleasant image--I'll be sure to post something different soon. I just wanted Kelly to see what he's missing. Why do I get these uninvited guests when he's out of town? He's in California until Thursday.

As a jogger was passing by our house on Saturday morning, he warned Kelly that a snake was heading toward our garage. Kelly spotted the slimy, speedy Texas native, and quickly tried to recall the rhyme, "Red on black, friend to Jack, red on yellow, kill a fellow." Oh no! It's a kill a fellow! He suddenly grabbed the nearest lawn tool, a garden hoe, and called me out to the garage to keep an eye on our visitor. Then he started whacking the concrete driveway, and the snake started hissing at him. He missed it a few times, knocking a chunk out of the cement, then chopped it in half and both sides were still wiggling all over the place. We left it, hoping something would claim it for lunch, and several hours later when we returned home, noticed there were no takers. Here's what I found out about coral snakes: "The coral snakes are relatively small snakes that spend most of their time underground. Their primary food is other snakes. Despite their small size an...