It’s a beautiful sunny morning, temps in the 60°s, but rain’s a-comin’…two days worth of rain. 
I go over to the park for a run. Instead of going to the end near my house, I drive to the middle because I’m breaking in a pair of shoes & don’t want to run that far in them & this way I can run a few miles in one pair, come back to the car & then swap out & go the last few miles in the other pair & not have to do the same route twice. It’s a 15-20’ wide dirt/stone bridle path with a creek on one side & steep, tree-lined hills on the other side. No motorized traffic allowed; very peaceful place & even when it’s ‘busy’ (with walkers, runners, baby strollers, & cyclists) it’s still open. You can’t even see parts of the path because there are so many fallen leaves in places. I usually walk a bit to/from the car as a warm-up/cool down. I’m walking back to my car which is just on the other side of the historic inn with about 1½ dozen people eating lunch at various tables on the porch. Because this area is open, there are just a handful leaves on the ground on most of the path. I go to step in front of a downed branch when I think it moves. When I look again, it’s a snake that has now coiled up to strike. A closer look (from behind it) & it’s a 2½-3’ RATTLESNAKE!!! :eek: Yeah, I just had a rattlesnake coil up to strike me when I stepped in front of it! :eek: A couple comes up, the woman sees it & runs past screaming but the man doesn’t break stride from 10’ away. Another couple comes up & he confirms I’m not seeing things.
Since it appears to be just sunning itself, I run back to my car, which is maybe 50 yards away to get my phone/camera. However, when I get back it’s gone. I can’t find it, but to tell the truth, I don’t really feel like going thru the leaves to see if he’s hiding given that he’s, ummm, what’s the word, oh yeah, poisonous. I flag the waiter down & motion him over to me & discretely tell him that there was a rattlesnake about 15’ away from the end of the building. He goes up the couple of steps onto & crosses the porch & obviously says something to someone inside because he turns back to me & says, “You said a rattlesnake, right?” You can hear the silverware dropping onto the plates, & everyone looks at him, sees him looking at me & then there are 40 eyeballs on me.
Yeah, ummm, the reason I called you over to me & said something quietly to you is that I didn’t want to alarm your guests. :smack:
I’m typing this with an empty shot glass next to me, the nerves are slowing relaxing now. First I was like, “Cool”, then on the car ride home, it hit me, you know, that pucker factor!
