Probably the scariest day I have had in awhile…

One of my jobs this week was to get the utilities called in which involved me reading the water and electricity meter. Both of which I had never done before. I discovered that the water meter is actually located at the top of our little cal-de-sac underneath a little metal door that’s flush with the ground. When I realized I was supposed to open the door, I felt my face get hot as I remembered stories from Ethan about opening backflow boxes (from his days in irrigation) and finding the most ginormous snakes. I was holding my cell phone talking to the utility lady and actually contemplated putting the phone down just in case adrenaline (specifically he flight response took over and I screamed like a little girl…

Sure enough, under the metal door was a foam like sheet folded to cover the valve. And it had slugs. Huge slugs. Lots of slugs. They’re gross, but better than snakes. Again, I got hot and jittery as I realized what was next. I had to lift that foam piece to look at the valve. Right where I was sure I’d find the snake. I should mention too, that for our cal-de-sac, there are several of these boxes and you can’t tell which box goes to your house until you did what I was doing and then there’s a chance it’s not my box  and I’d have to do it again, increasing my chances of finding one of the things I am most scared of in my life (not a bad life I lead, I know). I kept wondering if one would be under that foam would I touch it by putting my fingers underneath there just to lift it? We’re in Seattle and it’s cooler here, too cool for snakes, right?  Well, box number 1 wasn’t mine, so I moved to the next one, lifted the metal door and saw even bigger and more slugs and convinced myself that meant there had to be a snake… so I lifted the foam and… Praise Jesus, no snake! I think he knew that would have really put me over the edge that day.