The opossum story ...the long version

My cell phone rings, it’s 8:02PM Saturday night, I’m reading a book I just got at Barnes & Noble.

“There’s something in the house! It’s big and on the first floor it was just walking down the hall”

As I was putting on my sneakers I said “Okay”

“I don’t want to go downstairs. It’s a white grey in color”

“Is the back door unlocked?”

“I don’t want to go downstairs” I took this to mean possibly the door is locked. “Where are you?” she asked.

“At home”

“What can I do?” from the tone in her voice - nothing, I think.

“I’ll head right over”

“When are you coming?”

“Right now”

I grabbed my blue mini mag-lite, from beside my TV and a beach towel that I haven’t put away yet from my room. I go to the basement and get a pair of leather gloves, a moving blanket, and a drop cloth.

I got to the house in seven minutes, the back door was locked. I walk back to the front and try to call from my cell phone but her phone is busy, so I ring the bell.

I’m let in and I’m told “It’s on the second floor, in the family room, I shut the door to trap it in”

So I started to head upstairs after I untied the moving blanket and the drop cloth which had been tied and I’m asked “What are you going to do?” I saved the smart remark and just said “Get it out of the house.”

“What do you think it is?” I was asked.

“Well if it’s just walking about, it’s probably a opossum.”

“What if it’s a rat? You could be killed!” Again, I saved the smart remark.

“A rat isn’t going to kill me,” I said. If I were to be bitten by rat I would get to the hospital before the onslaught of death.

It was a opossum and a young one at that, I caught it using the beach towel. The towel was the most pliable so it could be moved around easily. I wrapped it up tight in the towel so it couldn’t move so it couldn’t bite me or squirm to get out, and I walked back down the stairs.

The house’s owner heard me coming down the stairs and asked “What are you doing?”

“I’m walking down the stairs.”

“Do you have anything?”

“Yes, …It’s a opossum.”

I tried to explain that I needed something to put the towel into that would hold the towel tightly so I could transport the little fellow to a different location. There was still this state of panic so I grabbed an emptied out file box walked back upstairs and put the drop cloth in the box to hold things secure, and tried to grab all the stuff I walked in with.

I was asked to call to let her know what I ended up doing.

I started to drive away to some far location and I started to worry that the opossum couldn’t breath too much longer the way I had it packed so I drove home. I thought a death sentence for just wandering into someone's home was a little severe.

My tenant has a small animal trap she uses for catching stray cats so she can get them fixed. The cage is kept in the yard by her trash barrels, I grabbed it and gently dumped the opossum into it. The opossum was fine but it wasn’t digging the cage. I didn’t want to spook it anymore than I already had so I pointed the cage away from my house and opened the door. He disappeared into the dark of my yard. The time was 8:26PM.

I called my friend back to let her know what I did and to let her know that I left my mini mag-lite at her house.

“What if it gets into your house? Now that it has your scent?” I was asked.

“I don’t think he going to be dropping by for any visits”

...

I took a bat, the flying little animal kind, from her house once, when she lived in a different house. That’s was scary because you can’t hear a bat coming and you know ...they fly. I caught the bat with a trout net.

Opossum is spelled with an 'o'...

Friday - hung out with Miss Y, Miss J and her boyfriend, watched the Red Sox win, the barkeep bought me a shot

Saturday - got a haircut, didn't mow the lawn, caught a opossum in a panicked friend's house with a beach towel.

I'll type out the opossum story tomorrow

Columbus Day

Lady G called to find out what's up.

"I'm working Monday so we can't do anything for your birthday on your birthday, but keep Wednesday open" she said.

I have Monday off for the hallowed day of honoring Columbus. I think I'll sleep in.

evening last...

My cell phone ran, it was my sister. I was holding pint number four and in the middle of a bitch session with five co-workers. She wanted to know if I wanted to go see Kim Richey at some club in Cambridge called Johnny D's. I said I couldn't make it because I still had the second job to go to and left soon after.

When I got to the second job there was nothing pressing to do, so I called my sister and asked if you can wear sneakers at the club because I was wearing my Chuck Taylor's. My sister was at the club recently with one of my other sisters who was playing the sax there, so she should know.

Sneakers where okay so I went, had some food and saw the show. Kim played two sets because the lady that was to preform before her didn't show.

I picked up her lastest CD, which I'm not certain is her best work and I don't like the cover art but what the heck I had a good time.

I read in the paper today something I guessed was the case. Driving from the second job to my house I pass a housing development. Last night there were about thirty police vehicles and a section of grass area that was marked off with that yellow crime scene tape. I casually mentioned to others someone must have been shot. That someone was a twenty-two year old Hess gas station employee, my city's 55th murder on the year.

Meeting about attitudes today...

My tie is actually a little thinner.

There is too much quiet

I think our sense of patriotism sometimes gets in our way.

It's like the last four years American's fly has been down and nobody wants to say "Hey, your fly is down" and when someone finally says something they are told "I know my fly is down, I like it that way."

Kerry will get labeled a tax and spend liberal and some of the gains he made will be lost. Because a lot of the undecided don't like tax and spend liberals. Kerry will have to play a card better than the tax and spend liberal card, maybe the deficit, maybe the unfulfilled promises for social programs, the sour economy, he'll probably use the war, again.

Bush says it's a hard job but we're making progress. That's what I tell my boss when I'm dragging my feet and don't want to do the job.

I smell plenty..

“Timmy, you need to stop and smell the roses” one of the sisters told me.

“He smells plenty” the other sister said.

Thanks, I guess, for getting my back but could you rephrase that in the future.

I always think that bloggers are forever even though I know this to be untrue.

Rabbits and me...

I know that rabbits scream because I've heard it through no fault of my own.

My sister used to have a rabbit as a pet and she bought this harness that was made for walking rabbits on a lease or some other foolishness not dissimilar. One day she left the rabbit out in the yard and it got entangled in some bush and screamed it's head off. It was almost pissed-off-cat-like but scared.

That's how I know rabbits scream. It's not like I go around tormenting rabbits.

the memo

the memo pretty much was letting some fuck-up, who is always calling in sick, off the hook for some fuck-up, he fucked up and now if was fucking up my sechedule.

The memo pissed me off and I let everyone know about with loudly delivered expletives. Loud enough for the memo's author to hear, the author, all my supervisors and all of the front office. Towards the end of my diatribe, I announce that I don't feel well and might have to call in sick tomorrow for the first time in eight years.

After I sat down, a supervisor came over and asked me a question that truly isn't my job title. I explained to him that I didn't know and that I'm choosing to be a moron because morons have no responsibilities and can fuck-up whenever they want without any recourse. The supervisor just stood there, I'm not certain why because he could get the info elsewhere but he chose to stay.

He stayed longer than I could, in good conscience, wait him out so I said what I thought and then pulled out a map to correct the information I gave originally.

The next day I'm asked to do something and I said if you asked me that yesterday morning I would have helped but today I'm a different person, no more candy, no more bringing stuff in for the bake sale, no more nothing. Then I am asked to talk to someone about getting the department free paper, and like the sucker I am, I not only negotiate the transfer of the paper but I went and picked it up too.

Being a selfish bastard is harder than I thought, but I am going to give it a harder try.

memorandum

So, there was this memo, left on someone's desk while they were at lunch. When the someone returned, the memo caused offense. There was some swearing.

The memo didn't make it.

oil and water

My thoughts, as of late, are like drops of oil on a pool of water.

Yeah, not very deep.

There are a lot of drops but they just aren't going anywhere.

the usual

Friday, we were given a schedule to cover four days worth of lunch breaks that are usually covered by someone else. The schedule assigns a primary and an alternate.

Once I'm the primary and three times I'm the alternate. The one time I'm the primary, I'm also the alternate.

I've got my own back. …Which is usually the case.

Oh, yeah...

The debate – Kerry won, but it was a debate against someone who few think is a good debater.

I think Kerry kept the game alive. That’s it. He held onto or grabbed a chance to win.

If it were a football game, it was past the two minute warning and Kerry was down a touchdown, he tied it up. He won some fans. What he has to do now is keep the other team from scoring. There is still a lot of time on the clock and the other team is going to get the ball back.

...

The Poker Game Friday night

(previously delivered my poker chips and 36 bottles of beer)

Start time 5:30PM

Arrived with $112.00

Threw in $20.00 for pizza and beer, and the cab ride home with tip was $15.00

Got back home with $135.00

End Time 1:30AM