Some Days are for Thinking About Other Days

There are days when almost anyone can feel the need for  a little more reflection on life. Some days are suited to thinking about other days more than for standing on their own and competing with other days.  Today is probably one of those days. It is not that there are no events happening but simply that memory is the stronger draw for me today. Of course I tend to think of the historical context and of my own past more than most people,

So it is with today’s events. killed one of quite a few snakes I have killed out here in the many years I have been here. It is quite different than hunting as it does not improve the larder or menu. It just presents itself to machete, shovel, string trimmer of brier-hook wielding me. Four I have killed with my walking stick –I do not recommend that as it is a little too fair and equal of a combat. Today I saw the snake and chose to kill it in about a second (sort of like living in the Cold War stand-off’s worst fantasies and fears but for much smaller stakes). While doing more of the endless lawn and garden work out here where there was no lawn or garden and no vast transformation such as leveling, re-soiling and seeding was done — that was when the herpetocide occurred.I try to leave most snakes alone and even in the house lot I care for there are two species I avoid killing. Nonetheless, I deliberately ferret out and kill cotton mouths, water moccasins, copperheads and a couple of other species once they appear in any part of the common grounds in the past or near me or on the house lot or playground today. Then in gardening I sometimes have to kill a snake too quickly to identify it and will kill many I would not kill elsewhere.

I am just resting now and thinking of the past. I may have quite a bit to do in time but I will  not be as fully engaged as on some days. I am getting to the end of my resources in ever new ways. The world as I know it seems to become more remote and yet more intrusive with each year. So I simply take a day sometimes to remeber when life held more promise.