Up All Night

Writing bad Haiku...

~light so bright at night
chases off stardust magic
moonbeams cant find me~

~magic drained by light
no darkness to recharge in
killing me slowly~

Yeah, it was a long, VERY bright night.  There's more but you get the gist.

Oh, the crazy muskrat daughter called about the light.  No details or I'll be angry all over again but it ended with me hanging up on her.  You get the gist of that too I'm sure.

Happy weekend all!

So Tired!

~white light, shining bright

in my bedroom window pane

sleep no more again~

Last night I went up to bed fairly early in order to relax and read before going to sleep.  It was still semi-light.  When I finished my book hours later it was full dark.  I turned the light on my bedside table off.  And it stayed just as bright in my room.

The neighbor installed a dusk to dawn light.  Twice the size of a streetlight and three times brighter.  Seriously.  It’s brighter than those annoying super bright halogen headlights.  And it’s positioned right at eyelevel when I crawl into bed.  No, I can’t close the blinds.  If I do that it will block the fan and I will suffocate.  There’s only one window in the bedroom so the fan must stay where it is.

I prowled my house most of the night since it was impossible to sleep.  With where they placed the light I will never need to turn on lights in my kitchen again either.  Even though there is a potential savings in electrical consumption for me and I would now be able to harvest strawberries in the middle of the night next spring, I find the situation intolerable.

This morning I called my neighbor and asked that something be done about it.  She wasn’t sure if it was possible as her grandson arranged the installation for her.  I requested that she speak with him and find out.  I really need to sleep at least a little bit now and then.  If his response is no, deal with it I suppose I could always contract the boys who were having target practice in my alley last week to shoot it out every time it’s repaired.  Perhaps.  We’ll see what he says.

Caught!

Just as I was dozing off last night I heard a clink.  Something had triggered the trap.  Of course I got up to look.  As expected it was a nice-sized possum.

My cats were lining the window peering out with me.  I decided it would not do to have them spend the entire night staring at the poor creature so I called my neighbor.  She doesn’t hear all that well and had her air conditioner running so I was sure she hadn’t heard it.

I informed her that the possum was caught and she really shouldn’t leave her little dog out on his own because I was certain he’d be yapping at the fence, trying to get to it and would be difficult for her to coax back inside.  Yes, don’t you like the way I put that?  Concern for her and her dog?

Half an hour later her grandson shows up with his mom, the daughter who went on and on about it being a muskrat.  The first thing he said was, “Mom, that’s not a muskrat, it’s a possum, just like I told you it probably would be.”  Ha!  Seems I’m not the only one that disagreed with her.

They took it away to release it up in the woods bordering the park where it supposedly won’t disturb anyone.  Possums are scavengers so I think it’s more likely to take up residence in a shelter near the trash cans in the park but I didn’t stick my head out and say that.  It’s gone.  The trap is gone.  They’re happy.

But it got me thinking.  Here was this critter, minding its own business, foraging for food in its home area and suddenly it’s snatched away and dumped somewhere unfamiliar.  I’m sure it will adapt and survive even though absolutely everything about its existence has changed in an instant.  Can we say the same about ourselves?

Apparently...

It was easier for the game warden to appease my neighbor’s daughter than to reason with her.

Now that Howie’s fixed I went off to do some adventuring.  I came home to find a muskrat trap set in my yard.

Yeah.

I’ll let you know how it turns out though I suspect they’re much more likely to snare a snipe than they are a muskrat.  Just as soon as the full moon fades.

Once Again

It is time to move.

My neighbor called yesterday.  She was all upset because her daughter who was visiting was outside the other night, cleaning up something in the yard, saw a possum in my yard.  It was night.  As far as I’m concerned it’s part of life.

Doesn’t matter that we live in the city.  Possums adapt and can survive just about anywhere.

Apparently I wasn’t upset enough.  My non-response of oh well, I’m sure it doesn’t actually live here and was just passing through didn’t satisfy them.  Today her daughter called.  She was bordering on hysteria as she begged my permission to try and have the muskrat trapped.  Muskrat?  How did we go from possum to muskrat?

She continued, telling me that when they are friendly like that, they are sick and very dangerous.  Friendly?  When I spoke with her mom the creature ran and hide from them.  Again, it was night.  Nocturnal creatures roam, looking for food.  It ran from them so I’m still not overly concerned.

She proceeded to blame my strawberries for drawing it.  Yeah, okay, it could very easily have stopped for a snack but so does the skunk that wanders down the alley every night in the wee hours of the morning.  Don’t hear them wanting to trap that and skunks are just as capable of carrying rabies as any other wild critter.

Now this woman is calling the game warden to come trap it.  Trap it from where?  I’ve lived here 25 years and this is the only sighting of such a thing in my yard.  I’m certain it doesn’t live there. I poke through it often enough that I would have noticed.  Not to mention that there is no suitable shelter that would be adequate for it.  Come to think of it my neighbor’s falling down garage is much more likely a residence for creatures of that nature than my yard.  Perhaps they should check there first.

I did mention that although I am willing to allow someone to come set a trap I will not be happy if they destroy my flowers and that they shouldn’t be surprised if they catch every cat in the neighborhood instead.  Or maybe, if they’re really lucky, they’ll get the skunk.

By the way, the possum in the pic worries me much more than the one I've never seen in my yard.  It has visited the courtyard where I work twice in five years.  Yes, it's in the city too.  (And yes, in case you can't tell I'm being sarcastic by saying it worries me.)

New Neighbors

New people moved on to my block Friday. Two houses away from me. I have nothing against new people in general but these have already managed to be annoying two out of the three days they were here.

One of the first things they did was set up a table and chair set outside. Nothing wrong with that. But then they proceeded to hang out all night. Very loudly. With small children who were obviously tired. You know that obnoxious half-whine, half-sob they do. Yeah, the kids were doing that. For hours. While the so-called adults drank and ignored them as they set off fireworks within ten feet of the house. Thank goodness we’ve been having a lot of rain lately. I’m not going to like them much if they burn down my house.

Perhaps it was just a moving in bash that went on for two nights. Don’t get me wrong. I agree you must feed the people who help move you. But, since they have this nice table and chair set, I suspect it’s not an isolated weekend. Hmm, it is a nice table and chair set. And it’s not chained down so there’s a good chance it’ll vanish. Hopefully soon.

Two things I’m not sure of. One, how many of the motley crew actually live there. Two, how their presence in the yard at night will go over with the guys who shoot in the alley. Could be a very interesting summer.

I so need to move!