Thursday

There was a moment this afternoon when I completely forgot what day it was. But, you know, in a good way. Three-day work weeks can be like that.

It helps that, while I still have lots of work to do, the mad, am-I-ever-going-to-finish-these projects have been finished, or near enough to let me breathe a little easier. Lots to do, and more projects coming my way, but I’m hoping for a quieter calmer summer — spring? what’s that? — than my winter.

Meanwhile, with the warmer weather apparently also come raccoons. I’d heard what the internet seemed to confirm were raccoons the other night when I was out with the dog, and then last night before I went to bed I heard it again. It’s not a cute or comforting sound. I opened my bedroom window and observed two of them in a driveway across the street, and then climbing a tree next to that driveway. One of neighbors came home then, and I could hear her talking on her cell phone, saying she didn’t know what that weird noise was. Another neighbor crossed the street to say it was raccoons (or may possums), which was good, because I was beginning to feel like I was watching the start to a horror movie from my window. It saved me from having to shout, “For god’s sake run!” After looking around the tree for a while, they both went inside, and I went to bed.

Except for the raccoons (most likely not possums) themselves, we haven’t seen any evidence of them, or least I haven’t. We haven’t seen them in the daytime, which is good, and while they do make a horrible angry chittering noise, there’s less concern over rabies. Not no concern — and the neighbors across the street have (relatively) small and (fairly) aggressive dogs, so I don’t think anybody necessarily wants raccoons taking up residence.

They are less cute and cuddly than the stuffed animals of my youth led me to believe.