Starting Over is Scary

For Adriane...

You have inspired me to share vermin stories. Living in the country here is a bit different than in Idaho but the idea is the same. I continually swerve to avoid squirrels, raccoons, turtles, frogs and possums in the road. Yeah, possums are weird looking animals. They walk funny too. The real trouble, like Adriane's troubles, are the creatures in the house. Some of the biggest and nastiest bugs I have ever seen. Seems to be the year for June bugs. Those are scary when they swarm. We had a very clever raccoon who figured out how to get the trash lid open. Then he figured out how to get the bungee cord off the lid so he could get the lid off. Then he figured out how to shimmy up a plastic pole so he could get into the bird seed. But he sure was cute looking when my uncle finally caught him in a (humane) trap. He is now bothering some other house several miles down the road. Yesterday I went out to water the flowers in my bare feet and after nearly squishing several toads, a spider, and a dead mouse, I decided that barefoot travel was not for me. Speaking of mice, Quicksilver (the cat) came running into my room the other day. First of all, she does not run. So I was immediately suspicious. Plus she was meowing something terrible. I got closer and low and behold she was carrying a mouse. Not big deal right? Ha. Quicksilver is so old that she does not have teeth. So the (young) mouse she was carrying was not dead. As soon as she set down her lovely gift to me, it got up and started running. Yes I screeched. There was a mouse running around in my bedroom! She tried to pounce on it again and managed to slow it down enough so that I could catch it in a large cup that was a souvenir from a baseball game. Such a lovely present from the cat. But hey at least the cat is good for something. She can still "mouse" although not quite as effectively as one would hope. One of the best bugs in this area is the lightning bug or firefly. I never thought I would have anything positive to say about a bug but I really do like these. I love to sit (inside) and watch them in the yard. I sit inside because the mosquitoes are so bad that I even get bit in the heat of the day if I am outside too long. But the fireflies are so pretty in the dark.

posted by Erin @ 9:42 PM 9 comments

It's been a while

I feel like I have been really busy lately. I have been working a lot more since the fire and hence been a lot more tired after work. But I have also had a lot of fun lately. My parents came to visit for a week and we did some interesting things like a Tigers vs Houston game (Roger Clemens pitched for all you baseball fans out there) a visit to Michigan State University (a memory walk for both of my parents, they graduated umpteen years ago) some shopping and a couple of family get togethers. Then we headed down to Cleveland to see Chris and my uncle and family from New Mexico flew up for the long weekend. It was great to see my cousins because it has been over three years since I last saw them. Will turned 15 on the 4th so we celebrated by going to the pathetic Indians vs Yankees game. I say pathetic because the score ended up being 19-1 for the Indians. We also went to the Cleveland Zoo, Cedar Point (the best amusement park ever!) the Rock and Roll of Hall of Fame and got a tour of the baseball field. I think that I had a summer's worth of activities in the last week and a half. And I loved it. But now we are back to the routine. With a few highlights like going to Lake Michigan this weekend.

posted by Erin @ 10:19 PM 5 comments