Eggs Over Easy

Here are a few things I miss about the rural mountain community I grew up in...

-Snow in the winter
-Wild flowers in the spring
-Mild summers
-Leaves changing in the fall
-Sleeping with the windows open, listening to frogs and crickets sing their late night lullabies.
-Never having to "lock up". Our doors were always unlocked.
-Seeing all the stars
-Knowing not only all my neighbors, but everyone in the entire community (pop. 135)
-The smell of wood burning in the fireplace (1. it is allowed up there and ban on most days down here. 2. It actually gets cold enough up there to need a fire and it rarely gets that cold down here.)
-Looking out my window to a beautiful mountain view vs. looking out my window and into my neighbors window.
-Privacy without a privacy fence.

Things I will NEVER miss about the mountains...

-Long curvy roads to the nearest big city. (read: Getting car sick)
-Mosquitoes
-And snakes! See exhibit A and B. This harmless little California King Snake is using the door frame of my childhood home to lounge on while he eats the birds eggs that were in the nest on the porch light. The same front porch light my parents use to flash when I lingered too long outside with a boyfriend, but that is another post entirely. My dad and little brother arrived to the house for the weekend in time to witness this event.






Dad relocated him to the wood pile to quote, "make sure there weren't any rattlesnakes in there... And don't tell Kiwi (yes that would be me) or the boys!" Those were the words he spoke to his lovely wife. I don't know which part of that should concern me most. The fact that he mentioned rattlesnakes in the wood pile, or the part where he says, "Don't tell Kiwi".

He knows I am paranoid about snakes and I am always telling the boys to "WATCH for SNAKES!" every time we go up there. Buzz is a coward timid like me when it comes to snakes so he has opted out of several trips to the mountain house with Papa. I think Papa knows that if Buzz found out there was a snake on the front door there would be NO getting Buzz back to the mountains at all! Smart Papa.

Papa has said since I was a little girl that there were no snakes in the front yard. I learned when I was a little girl that Papa sometimes LIES! I learned this the first time while walking barefoot in the grass in the front yard. A racer snake slithered right across my foot. Of course I screamed like the little sissy I am, yelled for my dad, shivered, gagged and ran inside to the safety of my room handled myself gracefully amidst the gut busting laughs of my father. Now that snake was only about 5" long and smaller around than a piece of licorice, but it was still a snake and it WAS in the FRONT YARD albeit on the very, very edge of the front yard/field...okay it was slightly more in the field and I should have had shoes on, but it was close enough.! I cannot imagine what would have happened if I had come home to Mr. King Snake. *shivers, gags* Now for the second time I have proof that there are snakes in the FRONT YARD, and now the wood pile too for that matter.


*Just so you are not thinking my dad was totally irresponsible, he ALWAYS made sure we were aware of snakes, more specifically RATTLESNAKES, and that they could be anywhere (even the unlikely front yard). He always told us to wear proper shoes outside the front yard and watch where we were stepping in and out of the yard. We had a front yard full of dogs, and people and no where for snakes to hide, so the chances of a snake in the grass in the front yard were about as good as the chances of a snake in the Walmart parking lot. As for the King Snake, the house is not a hub bub of activity 24/7 like it was then. It is just a weekend home now, no dogs, no kids, just a quiet little nest serving up eggs over easy for breakfast.