Nightmare

The picture I have for Illustration Friday's Fortune this week is too stupid to post, so I'm posting this instead. I may post it yet. I'm not sure. It's just that after stressing for the last couple of weeks over taxes, I'm not feeling very fortunate. In fact, I'm feeling a bit like the frog in this picture.

I have this re-occurring nightmare where I'm being attacked by poisonous snakes. I'm completely surrounded by them. There's no escape. No hope of getting help. I'm dying. As they keep biting me, I become enraged. Grabbing them with bare hands, I smash their heads against the ground, and stomp on them with bare feet. I'm determined to slaughter as many of them with as I can in a violent rampage before dying. I always wake up in the middle of this rampage.

I thought the background photo of this post was fitting for this dream. Only two of the snakes in it are poisonous. They're cottonmouths/water moccasins. The other three are just garden snakes [including the one with the frog]. Because I have nothing but woods behind my house, I find snakes in my yard all the time. I nearly stepped on the cottonmouth that's shown here on the ground. Fortunately, he was in the process of moulting, and didn't move. I ran back for my camera, and didn't notice the one in the trees until I nearly ran into it photographing the other. He didn't move, either. He had just finished moulting, and was too weak to strike. I got lucky that day.