Desperate Houseowners

Desperate Houseowners

Ooh, have I got a story for you! But you're going to have to be patient because you need a little background info. first.

The Setup

We have this ugly path thing in our backyard that we've never loved. It connects the deck with a concrete slab/patio further out into the yard. It was made out of a few random stepping stone slabs and surrounded by rocks. Furthermore, it was lined by wood blocks that stick up at different heights. The wood was rotting, the weeds were prevalent, and it was just an eyesore.

We started the removal process a long time ago but never really finished it up. And since we are planning to sell our house soon, we had to get our butts out there and get busy.

On Monday night, we spent several hours in the backyard spiffing up the path. Pretty early into it, Nick asked me if I wanted to go inside and work on something else while he finished up. Even though I was probably complaining, I told him I was no wimp and wanted to stick with it. He persisted a bit, which I thought was either just really noble or really annoying, but I stayed out and put in my time.

The Story

Tonight we were changing into pajamas in our bedroom and were looking down onto the path below (or lack thereof), admiring our handiwork. And Nick said, "Do you want to know why I kept asking you if you wanted to go inside when we were working on the path?"

At that instant I expected the worst, and it was confirmed. He said that he had lifted up a stepping stone and found a little garter snake underneath. Knowing I'd be freaked out, he killed it and threw it in the grass close to our house and continued working, hoping I didn't discover any little snake friends and family members.

I don't know why (call me crazy and morbid), but I wanted to know EXACTLY where the dead snake was. We opened up one of the bedroom windows, screen and all, and hung our heads out looking down on the yard. He sort of pointed in the general area, but that wasn't quite specific enough for me. I said stuff like, "Next to that blade of grass? How about near that one weed?" Anyway, it just wasn't working.

So Nick did what any normal person would do. He spit out the window and aimed for the dead snake so that I could see precisely where the snake was at. His aim was a bit off, so he ended up spitting about three different times, saying, "There. No, there. No, it was more like there."

And then we heard a noise and looked up. Our neighbor, whose backyard butts up to our backyard, was conveniently on his deck with a perfect view of the two of us hanging out of our window and spitting.

We shut the window and closed the blinds immediately. And now I don't think we can ever show our faces in our backyard again. So anyway, I guess you could say that this whole selling our house and moving thing comes at the perfect time.