Snake in the Drain

I sit here eating mint chocolate chip ice cream and ruminating about this incredibly long day I just had.

You know, realtors encounter weird things.  We deal with all kinds of people.  Some of them are a joy and a blessing to deal with, and helping them out is a great experience.  The same thing goes for properties.  Sometimes, the properties you come across are wonderful.  You walk in and you think, Oh, this is cute, or Oh, this has great potential or Sweet Baby Moses I can't get out of this fast enough. (Sounds kind of like a woman sizing up a man, right? Heh.)  Then there's the house I encountered today.  It was vacant, but I had to take pictures of the inside of it.  I walked through, thinking, this is a really nice house, it needs a little work, but nothing that can't be done.

That's about when I walked into the hall bathroom and saw the snake coming up out of the bathtub drain.

Just to be clear, I'm not squeamish around reptiles.  My oldest son loves them and I've always been more curious than frightened of most living things.  I love spiders.  I will go to great lengths to capture them if they're in the house and put them outside.  I once had a wasp tangled in my hair. I pulled it out and let it go out the car window.  It didn't sting me.  (Not that I would get so lucky next time).  The point is, I didn't scream or run or whatever women do when they see these things.

But, it did catch me off guard, mostly because I wasn't sure if it was poisonous or not.  And I thought, that really doesn't belong there.  How in the bleep did that thing get in the drain in the first place? Because it was coming OUT of the drain, not trying to slither into it.

And I thought, I can ignore the damaged drywall and the needed paint touch-ups.  But I can't ignore this.

People are a lot like this, too.  Everyone has their idiosyncrasies, and everyone has stuff they need to work on.  Nobody is perfect.  But every now and then I run across someone who hoists a big ol' red flag and I think, I can't ignore that.

And that's when I say, Sweet Baby Moses, I am out of here. And if I can't get out of there physically, then I'm gone emotionally. Because in my experience, ignoring the snake in the drain leads to more problems and complications than it's worth.