Not Just Eggs At The Hunt

The warnings over local media were going out loudly and often all last week to all the parents and other folks organizing Easter Egg Hunts. Down here where the temperatures are typically in the 70s and 80s for this holiday, egg hunts outside seem to be the norm. That's a change from my experiences with 3 generations of Minnesota Easter Egg hunts where inside hunts are the rule. Piles of snow being not the best spots for eggs and candies, cupboards, closets, and behind and under furniture are the favored locations that I recall. If you want to get really tricky, try inside a shoe, or the heavy boots still sitting by the door.

Hey, they are wrapped, right?

Outside hunts have a whole different set of parameters. You don't just take pets and traffic into consideration, or find an enclosed area for your hunt. Rain isn't an issue except in the rarest year. But none of the warnings were about any of that stuff.

We were being warned not to place goodies under bushes, or in/next to holes in the ground. Never mind that around Phoenix yards and parks there aren't a whole lot of other places where one can actually hide something the size of an Easter egg,  just don't do it in any of those good spaces.

Why not?

Rattlesnakes.

Scorpions.

Black widows.

They are awake, and apparently ornery about all the incursions into their territories when nobody invited them to have any of the goodies but just want to carelessly run around, make lots of noise, chase their food away, and step on them.

Hey, inside, anyone?