East Texas Night Life

Last night, I gave up working on my impending deadline at about 9:30p and decided to head to bed a little early and get a good night’s sleep. The idea was my eyes needed refreshing after staring at three screens of squiggle all day. So, tell me, why is it that every time I try to do this every wild animal in the county sees fit to hide under my house as though it were their only safe haven?

The house is built on piers primarily due to the slope of the land, but also due to the nature of the ground on which it is built. There are advantages to having your house on piers…but somehow after last night I can't think of one to save my life.

As I stood today looking into the cavern beneath my bedroom, I instantly got a flashback of all the dry shelter caves I have seen when exploring/hiking throughout the West and Mid-West United States and the Ozarks. They look exactly the same. And in looking about the neighborhood, I’ve found that all the other homes on piers are UP on piers….usually to create parking and/or boat storage. At our house, we’ve made a safe haven for animals of all kinds!!! And most of these animals being nocturnal, well, that goes a long way toward explaining the interest all the dogs have in our house. It must look like a midnight McDonalds to them!

 

Then there are the snakes. Squash Blossom and I were making our way to the Scat Family Trio offices one morning and darn near stepped upon what we later thought to be a very young rattle snake. It was gorgeous, actually. A pale, but rich greenish-gold with a diamond blue-black pattern stretching all the way down it’s back. It hissed and jumped, but no rattle, so I assumed it was a Copperhead—even though it didn’t look it. Nevertheless, I lobbed SqB about 20yds away and told him to go into the house and STAY THERE!!!! For once, he obeyed. Single machete to the neck and Mr. Snake was no more. His head remained, but his body went through all the throes of trying to attack and finally crawled off. I remain a little leery of his brothers and sisters….and parents for that matter. We’ve also found Corral snakes here recently and have been unable to trap them or render them headless.

Mimi and I are here for the weekend alone (alone  alone  alone  can you hear that? it's nooothing!)…quite a refreshing time. No panicking octogenarians, no harassment or sarcasm (which is the way of things in this family). Not even any kids. I intend to go back in and sleep like a baby! The only reason for this blog is to let you in on the night life I experience and give you an update. Buddy and the Grand Scats had a great meeting and it sounds like the Scat family trio is going to get off the ground in a serious way here in the next months! That would really be something. Wow.

We shall see.

Scat.