The Midnight Visitor

So, we have been having problems with a raccoon getting into the dog food at nights.  I try to remember to close the side door to the garage at nights, but I am not 100% faithful.  A neighbor loaned me a live trap some time ago, but the raccoon was able to open the back of the trap and escape.  Nevertheless, I left food in the trap just because.  Well, Saturday morning I went outside and discovered:

Now, this little (!) guy was not necessarily friendly.  I had the idea of trying to push him back into the trap, so I grabbed the broom you can see to the left of the door frame and poked at him.  It now has teeth marks on the end of it.  Just moments after I shot this picture the raccoon managed to pull himself completely out of the trap and ran off.

Just for reference, this is what the trap looks like "after":

He actually managed to break some spot-welds and some clips that were holding the mesh on the front of the trap.  I have no idea how long he was there before I found him, but I suspect this will not discourage him from future midnight forays into my dog food.

Life Is Stranger than Life

So here I am, anxiously watching the lawn, willing it to grow, so that I will need to go cut it...

Wait a minute!  Is this John Reading, who hates yard work of every form, and who has never in his life wanted to mow the lawn?  Yes, it is, but as usual, there is an additional detail that makes the story make sense.

Last Friday the lawn was ridiculously long, so I went out and mowed it and it all looked nice and pretty.  However, on Saturday while I was at Home Depot I decided to buy a new electric lawn mower.  Self-propelled, no less.  So now I have a beautiful new toy with no reason to use it until the lawn gets a little longer.  Life is so tough.  I believe the technical term for this is "First-World Problems".

Incidentally, I bought the old mower in Southern California, so it is at least 21 years old, and probably a few years older than that.  Although various pieces have fallen off over the years it still works just fine.  I feel a little bad for having bought a new one when the old one still works, but I suppose I will survive.