Journal entry for August 24, 2012 (the hotwire sensor and the snake)

The other day the hotwire light came on, indicating a problem with the fence grounding out. I headed out to check out the usual places where deer hit it and cause it to wrap around the barbwire at the top of the fence.

After going 3/4 of the way around the property and not finding any problems, I found myself on the west side by Jeff's garage. For an unknown reason, probably avoiding poison oak, I looked down and saw a black and yellow snake (long stripes, not bands).

I stopped and instinctively put my hand out to steady myself. Unfortunately, I put it out and grabbed the barbwire. When I pulled my hand back, I saw the hotwire was wrapped around it. I didn't doubt that I had just caused that to wrap around, since my hand was on both wires.

I continued to look for more problems after unhooking the wire, but found none. I plugged the box back in and the light stayed off. Yeah.

My wife says "there are no coincidences." What she really means is all there is are coincidences. Random, unconnected events occurring simultaneously. There is no divine plan is what she means. There is no conspiracy, no fate.

What really happened was that the sensor had an intermittent fault and the light was flashing/not flashing irrespective of the condition of the fence. When I put my hand down on the fence because of the snake, I caused the wire to be wrapped, creating a problem and fixing it. That the light stayed off was a coincidence.