Swimming with Snakes

This morning I was swimming laps at my neighborhood pool. I finished my third set, took a drink of water, turned around and saw a snake swimming over the lane line right toward me. It was a small snake, and probably about 5 ft away from me, but I was out of the water in about .0001 seconds nonetheless.

Once out of pool, I could see the snake was just a baby -- about 12 inches probably. I scooped him out with a net, tossed him in the woods, and continued swimming, but I was a little wigged out. I swam 6 more laps but couldn’t concentrate. I wondered if he was coming back to finish the job he'd started. I wondered if he had 15 or 16 siblings slithering around, and of course, I wondered if mom was creeping around. I decided to cut my swim a little short and head home.

This is the first snake I’ve seen in the pool, but I think about it every time I go, especially in August when it’s still dark outside. Today it was light, so I could see. But when it’s dark and my hand hits a leaf, or a piece of foam from a raft or something, I almost have a heart attack every time. So to actually see a snake completely validates my paranoia. Like most people, I cannot stand snakes. I mean, it’s not Snakes on a Plane or anything, but it’s not cool to be in a pool with a snake.

I think that once civil twilight is around 6:30 a.m. in August, and I’m swimming in the dark again, I’m going to have a hard time keeping my HR down. If I see another one, I’m calling in Samuel L. Jackson to come down to my pool and take care of business.