Black Snake

Last Friday night I took a cruise over to the town of Marshall for "MAD Friday" (Marshall Arts District Friday night event series). Firewalker Gallery had live music and I wanted to check the scene on the way home. It was the end of a long week for me, so I was pretty tired, but it was the first "MAD Friday" of the season and I wanted to feel part of the loop, whatever the loop is. I enjoyed visiting with the gallery host LW for a little while and then I sat in a comfy rocking chair and got sleepy. When I started dosing off I decided it was time to call it a week and head home. I got in my truck and drove down the road, stopping to holler bye bye at Susie, who was hanging out in front of the gallery. All of a sudden some hip artsit person of mysterious identity hollered out "You have a snake on your tire!" Then all these hip artists were hollering out "Yeah you have a snake on your tire!" I put it in park and got out, confused about how I could have a snake on my tire. Someone yelled out "Turn off your engine- it went up in there!" I turned the truck off and put my hazards on because I was in the middle of the road. Hip artists descended on my truck like ants on a carcass. I opened the hood, still confused about what in the world was going on. Susie was there and we were cracking up. Then this local yocal country guy drove up and said, "Is everything alright here?" I said something about yeah, it's just a snake in the engine. He inquired, "Do you need any help?" Well at about that time I was getting really tickled about how many people were so involved and worked up about this situation and I figured it would be good to mix it up and get the local yocal guy involved so I told him I would need him to grab that snake out of there. All these artist people were shining their cell phones down in there to find the snake and sure enough someone spotted it curled up behind the engine. I said to that local yocal guy "Grab it! Grab it! Chuck it in the road!" He did and son, that snake was mad. It started coming after everyone then trying to head back toward the tire. I yelled at that local yocal guy, "Grab it again! Chuck it on the sidewalk!" He was busy threatening the snake that he would kill it. Well those artist people didn't like that. They were saying, " Don't kill it! It didn't hurt anyone! It's just a black snake!" I also said "don't kill it! Just chuck it on the sidewalk." Well, he grabbed it and chucked it on the sidewalk and it slithered away. Then the whole thing was over and I started to leave. Susie kept telling me, "Godspeed and be well!" over and over. It was really really funny. Then I got in my truck and left. It was one of those occurances that gave me a tickle. I felt like all of a sudden I was famous there in Marshall. Susie said people talked about it later. People getting so very worked up over a snake in an engine. Priceless.

Full, and I want to swim a lot this summer

Life is full. At least today it has been, and it has seemed to be full every day since the tree fell. This morning I woke up at 5:00 and got ready to head up the hill to Moonmeadow Farm to do farm chores before driving to Asheville to work a regular day at the Dirty Hoe (gardening). I am farm sitting at Moonmeadow, which is always fun and full of surprises and tiring. I milked Maude and Pearl (cows), and my hand muscles almost gave out toward the end. Then I wrestled an escaped sheep with all my might (I mean all of it) to get it back inside the fence. I strained and bottled the milk and hauled it to Asheville in a cooler. Then I worked a day in the muggy-ness in Asheville and went straight to samba practice after work, which included strapping a large heavy drum to my person and playing it for 1 1/2 hours. Then grocery shopping and finally now heating up a frozen pizza for dinner at 8:30. It's great. I'm not complaining, I am just updating the faithful readers about my full day, which is somewhat representative of how my days have been lately. I want to swim a lot this summer.