Friday was quite an eventful day. Stacy started things off with a bang by having shortness of breath and some little contractions. This happened a couple of times with Alayna and Stacy's Dr. made her check in to the hospital for observation and prescribed some muscle relaxants. So we were not in a panic for this trip to the hospital, and I was glad for an excuse to leave work early. The new variable this time is that Stacy has very low blood pressure. So a muscle relaxant would only make her more faint than she already is. Luckily all is well with Stacy and Cavell, no drugs were administered, and Stacy was told to eat a diet higher in salt. Who would have thought?
When we returned home it was time to fulfill a promise I made to Alayna and myself. We set up the tent and had a Daddy/Daughter campout in the backyard. Of course we didn't get a single picture taken of this adventure.
Since we were "roughing" it, we ate bbq bratwurst and oven baked tater tots in the tent while we watched The Incredibles on the laptop with virtual surround sound. The movie was over at about 10pm and Dad and Daughter promptly fell asleep. I woke up repeatedly expecting Alayna to be cold or scared by strange sounds. She slept like a baby until 7am when she woke up and stated, "It's light outside".
We did get some pictures of Friday night, but they had nothing to do with the tent, dinner, or watching the movie. I noticed that my arch nemesis the Southern Black Racer had left me a gift in the form of a skin shed. He is getting huge. I think he is taunting me now.
Click on the above photo to zoom in and see the snake skin. I drew a line highlighting the length of the skin. Below is the skin against a piece of cardboard. It's nearly 5' long.
The next three photos are of a poisonous Coral snake Stacy spotted in the backyard while we were setting up our backyard adventure. He is small, maybe about 18" long. He is very brightly colored. I stepped on his head and held him to the ground while Stacy retrieved the shovel from the shed. Stacy took a little longer to get the shovel than I expected and this little varmint started climbing his tail up my leg. I was afraid to lose control of his head so I just stood there with a poisonous snake trying to wrap itself around my ankles. Kind of icky.
According to what I have read about the Coral Snake it is nocturnal and rarely seen. This is the second snake I have dispatched in my own yard during daylight hours. Maybe I'll think twice about the next backyard campout.
Another threat to the safety of my little kingdom has been vanquished. Thor named his hammer Mjolnir meaning Crusher or Destroyer. Maybe I should name my mighty shovel?
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