"Snakes On A Trail"

I forgot how I always seem to have more snake encounters in the fall season. I've seen the same (maybe? who knows) garter snake yesterday and today out sunning himself (herself?) in the same place on the woodsy stretch of my usual running route. It's a pretty good size garter; it kinda freaked me out yesterday, but I was looking ahead better today, so I wasn't surprised this time...

That is until I rounded the next bend and saw not very far ahead what I assumed was just some downed branches laying across the path. Yeah, well, not so much. One of the "branches" turned out to be a big brown python or boa (!) also out enjoying the warm asphalt and late afternoon sun.

And it was at that "WTF?!? Is that a.... uhhh... errrr... Sweet fancy Moses! Yes, it IS!!!" synapse-connection when I did my panicked & terribly uncoordinated stutter-stop while simultaneously shrieking quite loudly. Fortunately, no one else (as far as I know!) was within earshot of my embarrassingly frightened yelp. The snake just lazily looked up at me, then seemed to "Harrumph!" as much as a snake can possibly express such a thing, and finally resignedly slithered off into the brush at the side of the path.

It must have been a pet someone dumped. That's rather sad, it looked like a perfectly nice snake once I realized it wasn't actually going to attempt to wrestle me down and eat me. The Good Lord knows that I'm certainly no fan of snakes, but I felt badly that I disturbed this guy's time peacefully soaking up the last of the day's warm sun.

Fortunately, no more snake encounters during the run. That's not exactly the kind of workout I'm trying to give my heart!
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Now playing: lou reed - walk on the wild side