Let me tell you about my day. it started out great, did a few admin things this morning then had a great Zoom meeting with one of the HubSpot team members. Went over some of my business questions and I was really impressed. If you guys get a chance, go over and check them out, especially if you are looking to get into e-commerce. Had my lunch after the meeting and started working on my next project, I think you are really going to love it, by the way! About 3:30, I had to get up and move around so I made some coffee and started to go out onto my front porch to get some air. Well, that is when things went a little crazy. I opened the front door and sitting on my front porch like he had business was a great big 6ft + black rat snake. 😶 Luckily, I had set my coffee down so I could open the door so I didn't end up with coffee everywhere. I looked at the snake (of course screaming my fool head off) and it just looked at me like, "What??". I slammed the door and of course was jumping around squealing like a girl and realized that the snake had to go. My husband doesn't get home from work until about 5:30 and there was no way I was letting that snake be on my front porch for two hours! I don't know if anybody else does this but I keep a spray bottle with water, peppermint and cinnamon essential oils in it at my front door to spray around the door to keep spiders away so I grabbed that to arm myself and proceeded to throw open the door and spray the snake in the face to get it off my porch. It really looked insulted but I didn't care, he had to go. So, I kept spraying him but he wasn't moving fast enough. I ran back inside and grabbed the first thing I came across under the kitchen cabinet and it happened to be Mrs. Meyer's glass cleaner. So I ran back outside and proceeded to start spraying him again. Still wasn't moving fast enough so I took the sprayer off and starting slinging the glass cleaner at him. That got him moving. He slithered (does anybody else hate that word? Just reminds me of creepy crawlies!) off the side of my porch. I looked over the railing to make sure he was really leaving and sure enough, he was starting to crawl back up! So I doused him again with glass cleaner until I ran out and he started crawling off down the side of the house. Whew! I took my triumphant self back into the house, patting myself on the back for my quick thinking the whole way. So, after I calmed down, I decided that I still wanted (needed at this point!) to go out and have a little quiet time to let my nerves completely unravel from where they had sprang up around my head like a slinky. So, got my poor neglected coffee, heated it up in the microwave and headed back outside to relax. Who do you think was at the bottom of my steps trying to come back up to my porch? The blasted snake! So, I ran to get my next weapon that ended up being Mrs. Meyers All Purpose cleaner in honeysuckle scent. I just started dousing him, didn't even bother spraying this time. Well, he turned around and started away from the house but for some reason, he turned around and came back! Well, I had used all of my cleaner so I ran back in and grabbed another cleaner but this one was a lot stronger and was left over from Covid days. It also has a better sprayer since it has a stream option. We have a little log cabin birdhouse that hangs in our flower bed beside the porch that a sparrow makes a nest in every year and she has babies in there right now. That snake headed right for it. I started spraying him with the cleaner and he was ducking and dodging and still heading for the bird house. Now, I was pitching a fit this whole time so I am surprised that none of my neighbors called the cops but they probably heard me scream snake and sat back to giggle over my crazy self. I live out in the country by the way...... So, the snake gets up in the bush next to the bird house and proceeds to try to stretch over to it. I sprayed him right in the eyes and he fell out of the bush, did that get him gone? No, he was determined to get to the birds. So, he crawled up into another bush right next to the porch while I wasn't looking but when I finally saw him, I sprayed him again and he fell out of that one, too. I haven't seen him since. One thing I do know is that we should be able to smell him coming! Honeysuckle, lavender and "fresh scent" . Do you think the other snakes are making fun of him? I guess it will be an early warning system for the squirrels for a while! LOL! Anyway, that is the kind of afternoon that I had so please forgive me for not getting up my blog for my journal series today! I will work on it tomorrow and pray that my new yard resident doesn't show up again! Y'all have a great evening and Happy crafting sweeties!