Unexpected guest

We occasionally get a mouse in our crawl space. Until yesterday, I was pretty sure that, after years of work, I had finally plugged the "last" hole. I checked the four traps I had set and saw that all four had been tripped. Looking closer, I saw that two traps were moving and they were clamped onto a hissing and striking foot-and-a-half snake. Successful snake removal and inspection found that it was a Bull snake. Extracting the snake from the traps was interesting. I last saw it crawling toward my neighbors. Steven King could use this material. Back to searching for the "last" hole...

Genna's summer visit

 It is dawn; the temperature is in the fifties. I sit by the fire pit on the deck, reading the paper, drinking coffee and waiting... Genna sneaks up behind me and switches on the garden fountains, then pops out with a grin. I fix hot chocolate and wrap her in Grandma's fleece. We sit by the fire. We have an hour alone to discuss everything that a grandfather and a seven-year-old granddaughter should discuss.

 

Too soon, she will be gone.