The Snake

When we lived in Alta Sierra in Grass Valley, we rented a home on a street called Agnes and were across from the Alta Sierra Golf Course.  That didn’t seem like a big deal until the following event happened.   One day I arrived at home around 3PM.  Kathy is sitting out front.  She tells me there is a big snake in the house.  I really don’t know what she meant by big, but we will just leave it at that.  I am not a snake person…period.  Clearly the snake had come from the open areas around the golf course.  I opened the front door and peered inside.  I did see the snake on the floor in the living room.  Kathy said that I had to remove it.  Seriously!!  There was no way that I was capable of collecting and taking that snake out of the house.  We couldn’t stay outside the house so something had to be done.   Just about that time Jeff came home from school.   He was in high school at Bear River.  The bus had just dropped him off.   We told him about the snake.  We had a brief discussion about the situation and tried to come up with a solution.  I told him that I didn’t think I could get the snake out of the house.   He stepped up and volunteered to get the snake out of the house.  I reluctantly offered to help although my heart wasn’t in it.  I think he must have picked up on that.  He grabs a tree branch and goes into the house.  Kathy and I are on the front porch and we hear all kinds of sounds inside the house.  Obviously, Jeff had no fear of the snake…I don’t know why.  After some time passed Jeff comes out of the house with the snake.  The good news was that the snake wasn’t poisonous.  According to Jeff it was a corn snake.  The thing was about 5 feet long.  He was holding it by its neck.  He took it across the street and let it go.  If it had been left up to me, we would still be standing outside the house.  Jeff was amazing.  He took over and got the snake out.  Problem solved.  To Kathy and I it was one of the greatest things that ever happened.  Thank you, Jeff, for reclaiming our house and ridding it of that snake.   

The Accelerator Cable 

This falls in the category of fortunate coincidence if that is a thing.  This happened when I lived in Alta Sierra in Grass Valley, CA.  At that time, I was working for a foodservice distributor named Ralph’s and Farber’s.  They were based in Sacramento.  My territory was in the foothills.  My customers were all over the foothills, Auburn, Grass Valley, Nevada City and Colfax.  I drove a VW Bug Convertible.  It was extremely reliable and never let me down.  Each morning I would leave home and travel all over the foothills, making calls on my customers.  It wasn’t unusual for me to travel over a hundred miles in an average day.  On this particular day it was pretty much like all the rest.  I left around 7:30 in the morning, made calls all day and returned home.  The last half mile of my trip home was a gentle downgrade.  At the end of the downgrade, you would turn on Agnes and into my driveway.  On this day as I reached the top of the downgrade the accelerator cable broke.  I had no way to get any gas or power to the car.  Pushing on the gas had no effect.  I coasted down the downgrade, turned on Agnes and pulled into my driveway.  A fortunate coincidence.  That cable could have broken at any time, on any day, in any location, but it didn’t break until that downgrade, and I was allowed to literally coast into my driveway.  Absolutely incredible.  I was able to get the cable fixed and never had an issue after that.  I can only believe that this was good luck.  Very good luck.  I am not a religious person but there are times when you think someone or something is looking out for you.