Eewww! Snakes!

I really need to be doing bills and preparing kids' lessons, but here I am plunking at my keyboard . . .

I was chatting happily with one of our neighbors at a birthday party on Friday, when I told her about the black snake that Keri Lynn saw in the backyard.

"Oh, that's a Water Moccasin. You have about 15 minutes for the paramedics to come if it bites."

Great.

She continued, "I was told that I need to buy two King Cobras and let them out in my backyard to get rid of the other snakes." (She has a creek behind her house and has had several Water Moccasin sightings there.) "King Cobras are dangerous to other snakes, including Water Moccasins, but aren't dangerous to humans, hence the name "King" Cobra."

I could feel myself turning green at the thought of taking myself off to the pet store for a couple of King Cobras. Eeewwww!

The weather has turned cold REALLY fast. It may warm up again before the cold sets in, but I don't think so. It was below freezing last night and we saw our first frost on the ground when we got up this morning. Everyone else's lawn was all crystallized and pretty from the frost except for our lawn which we only, so there was little moisture to make much frost, just a few patches here and there. Our heater is in full force now.

My sister Connie came through for an evening and morning on a return from a trip to Nashville. She had to fly through Atlanta, of course, on a buddy pass, so got stuck here. Mom bought her a ticket to come home so that she wouldn't miss her classes today -- otherwise she would have had to stay until this morning. (Now I'm kicking myself for not taking any pictures while she was here to post on the blog -- bummer, bummer, bummer! The time went too fast!) At any rate, it was good to see her. We'll be seeing Mom, Rich and Connie's kids in less than two weeks when they come through on a visit. They'll also be traveling on Keith's buddy passes, but hopefully won't be getting stuck in any airports since they'll be traveling in the week rather than weekend.

Connie came at just the right time. The trees are GORGEOUS. I'll be posting some pictures soon. It's so fun to simply drive around right now and watch the leaves falling and swirling. Each day, there's another new fall color on display. I can't believe that the trees will be losing their leaves AGAIN! (Didn't we go through this last year?) And then they'll be just as naked and stark as can be while we all freeze! It's amazing to see God's artistic flair in nature. He is the great Artist Creator.

Yesterday, we had our 10-month walk-thru. With the house, we get a two-month and 10-month walk-thru to go through any warranty issues related to the house. We will actually have been in our house here in Newnan for one year by the end of this month. I cannot state enough how much I dislike the walk-thru process. I'd just as soon just skip the whole thing and go about my business. However, I've got this husband who likes to make sure that we're getting our money's worth on this "little" investment called a house, so I set up the meeting anyway! And it went pretty well. The flooring company will be coming soon to repair some gaps in our wood floor and in some linoleum. A guy will be coming to fix some carpet problems. Our deadbolt in the basement actually works now. And . . . the most amazing thing . . . the guy is trying to figure out what to do about our uneven floors in the kitchen, living room and dining room.

It was the funniest thing, because he could see the obvious lean of our refrigerator. It's a full inch slant because of the slope of the floor. So he actually left from our meeting and then came back about half an hour later to check it out further, bringing one of the builders with him to get his opinion. They looked at the support beams in the basement and were up and down for a good part of an hour. I put in my two cents worth about the other uneven parts, showing the lean in the china cabinet, bookcase, and desk unit. It's going to be a complicated fix, but I think they're going to, at the very least, fix the slant at the refrigerator, because they could see a mistake at the beams.

As it turns out, the builder that the warranty guy brought in was the guy who designed our house model! I was so pleased to meet him and tell him how much I love the design. I think he was quite pleased since I'm sure he hears far more complaints than compliments.