LOST SNAKE!!!!!

8:45 am
    Crapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrap
Well I wish I could say that that got “it” out of my system. But it did not. “It” is the terrible awful stupid horrible fact that I lost G’s Snakey. I can’t believe I did something so boneheaded. I was holding him (she asked me to because he looked like he needed some attention and she was so busy with homework), and paying bills at the computer. He was sliding around inside my shirt, and then I suddenly didn’t feel him anymore and I felt in my shirt and he was gone. Just plain gone. I searched and searched, trying to be very deliberate and not panicked. I didn’t tell G until I heard her stop playing her clarinet, because I knew she’d be so upset. When I did tell her, surprise surprise she was upset and started hunting rather frantically. We tore the living room apart – no snake. Since then I have torn L’s room apart – no snake. I realize it is all rather futile. He has gone somewhere and will stay there until he feels ready to emerge. Which might be never. Our current strategy is to keep the house really cold (no heat, no woodstove) and put heating pads here and there in hopes of coaxing him to one of them. My biggest fear is that he has gotten into the woodwork of the house somehow. Or slipped in behind the dishwasher or stove. One advantage – the living room is now cleaner than it has been in years (I vacuumed as I tore everything apart). I even had a bad dream this morning in which K was telling me how nice the house looked with it so clean, and I got really mad and said he’d better not get used to it because cleaning dust bunnies is NOT my highest priority.
    So now it is cold, and G, who alternately is grumpy to me, silent with me, and occasionally fairly pleasant, basically hates me. One good part – she seems to be talking to L about it all a lot, maybe it will open communications between them about stuff in general. She is really upset about it, less because of losing her snake and more because she is worried that he will starve. As he may well. Only it may take quite a while, and we would never really know. At least with the gerbils, when they escaped, one would eventually see then running around somewhere. It still meant tearing the house apart to get them back, which I did several times. Man this sucks royally. And today I have to really get a move on with some grading because I have been doing all this hunting instead (I lost him Sunday afternoon).  And I could definitely be using all the time I have been spending on all the other stuff that needs doing. I had actually started in to tackle my pile on Sunday and was feeling pretty good about it.
    One “funny” thing – when I tell people about it, there are 2 possible reactions. Most of the folks at work are very sorry and sympathetic and immediately understand the problem. But many of the students, and other folks, think that the problem is that I am afraid because of having a snake loose in my house. That is the absolutely last thing that concerns me. He can live in the house forever if I knew he was fine and he would appear every now and then so we could check on him.
    Well, I have skipped everything else this morning, and soon my friend is coming to do some carding, so I think I’d better eat breakfast and grade papers.
Visit my new Etsy Shop!! http://www.etsy.com/shop/twistedmysteries