What a Life!

Last week I bought a new camera. An Olympus D-595, 5.0 mergapixel digital camera. Point-and-shoot with nineteen shooting modes. I was tired of paying to develop film (and not taking pictures because of the cost), and my old digital camera was only 2.0 megapixels which wasn’t enough resolution for me to want to take photos I wanted to keep. I had bought it in the morning and was walking around the house and the yard later in the afternoon taking pictures with the new camera.

I was out by the garden – I was on one side and Ben was on the other – when I noticed this movement. Ach! It was a snake! I hate snakes! Someone told me once that if there is a poisonous that lives in the United States, you can find it in Florida. Well, I grew up in Florida. Steve has told me many times that there are no poisonous snakes living in eastern Nebraska. I don’t care. I still don’t like snakes, even if they eat bugs in my garden.

I saw the snake, and my first reaction was to run inside the house and scream. No, run inside the house, scream, call Steve and tell him to come home and do something about it. But wait, no, there aren’t any poisonous snakes in eastern Nebraska – I am not supposed to be scared. I need to be a strong, brave woman.

But I still thought my husband needed to know there was a snake in our yard. I thought, I could go email him and tell him. And then it occurred to me that I could just take a picture of the snake and email it to him. A picture is worth a thousand words, right? There is a snake in our yard!

I used the fancy optical zoom on the camera and quickly followed the snake over to the shed (that Steve painted barn red the week before Ben was born). I snapped a few pictures. Like this one:

Then I emailed that picture to Steve. I didn’t write anything – I just emailed the picture. I mean, I didn’t want to go overboard or anything. I was trying to keep myself under control. After all, there are no poisonous snakes living in eastern Nebraska.

He emailed me back. “Thank you” was all he said. So he was glad that I sent him the picture and let him know there was a snake in our yard, right?

He came home from work and I asked him about the picture. “You think I’m a snake?” he said. What would give him that idea? I took a picture of the snake in our yard, next to our shed. There is a snake in our yard! That was all I was trying to tell him. I mean, would I go to all that trouble to take a picture of a snake just to tell him I think he’s a snake? I don’t think he’s a snake – what would make me think he’s a snake?

Ah, communication. It’s no wonder the first month we dated he wasn’t sure whether or not I liked him. Actions certianly don’t speak louder than words when it comes to the two of us.