Don't Ever Do This

Brad and I were taking our evening walk around the neighborhood. Almost home, I stopped because there was an unusual hissing noise coming from the next door neighbor's bushes. "What's that sound?" I said, as I started poking around, reaching my hand toward the plants.

"Oh, it's just the water system coming on," Brad figured it out before me.

"Oh, right." I agreed as I retracted my hand and we continued on home.

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Maybe two weeks later I'm walking alone passed the same house. I noticed a spine of an animal in the street. I kept walking, thinking since it was trash day, probably someone's fish dinner got pulled apart by dogs or coyotes in the neighborhood. I pretty much dismiss the whole thing.

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The very next day, same spot, I walk past the same torn apart animal. I take a good six or seven steps beyond where it was and my mind flashes like lightening--that was a snake! I saw a piece of the distinctive diamond pattern skin laying nearby. I couldn't resist returning and inspecting it more closely. Yep--definitely a rattler. And that's when the foolishness of my hand reaching into the bushes at that very same spot became crystal clear to me.