The Evidence Remains

Last Thursday was not our best day and, if you come over, you'll still see the evidence. First, poor Caroline took a tumble and hit her eye on the corner of the coffee table. I thought she had hit her head and could tell it really hurt from the way she cried. So, I picked her up and was trying to console her when I noticed a big black/purlple thing popped out under the outside corner of her eye. Within about two minutes, it looked like this...

and, until yesterday, it got darker and bigger each day. Her eye is black almost up to her eyebrow now.

And then a little later, Caroline and I were on our way out of the driveway for a walk when we met a new neighbor hanging out by our mailbox...
My fear of snakes runs pretty deep, and I really surprised myself when I didn't totally freak out. He didn't seem to be going anywhere so I took a few pictures and tried to teach Caroline the word, "snake" and tried to calmy (while my heart was racing) explain that we shouldn't get too close to them. (I figure she needs to know the danger, but no reason to pass my insane fear on to her). Fortunately, Mike was on his way home and only a mile or so away. So, after the quick (very quick) lesson, Caroline and I backed away and waited for Daddy to come home and save the day by...

wrestling the snake to its death with his bare hands?

getting a shovel and chopping its head off?

catching it and releasing it into the wild?

Uhh...no. He ran over it with his truck.

Eight times. (Mike is almost as unfond of snakes as I am). And then took us to get ice cream.

I'll spare you the "after" photos, but it was gross. And neither of us were interested in dealing with the remains...so even though a few days of sunshine and a couple of rain showers have cleaned things up a bit, our deceased visitor is still on the curb. And Caroline's eye still looks like she was in a boxing match. But the most lasting "remain" of that day is my new snake paranoia. I am constantly scanning for them and gasping if I step on a stick. Hope that fades with the black eye or we may have to move again!

(By the way, anyone know what kind of snake it is? I guess it's probably "just" a harmless black snake...but I definitely saw some kind of light pattern markings on its back.)