Wild Kingdom

When I was a kid I never missed an episode of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom with Marlin Perkins. Does any one remember him? My love of animals began with him, I think. Anyway, it's been feeling a bit like wild kingdom here at my house. More bumps in the night and a few squeals during the wee hours of the morning have made getting a full nights rest rather challenging. So, I called in a wildlife wrangler (actually a pest control guy, but the other term sounds more exciting).

I told him I saw a raccoon on the telephone pole a few nights ago and after he looked around he confirmed that we do have raccoon activity in the attic and around the house. He specializes in catch and release so he put a cage in the attic. Now we wait and see what we catch. The little buggers will be released somewhere north of Houston in a nice location with water nearby and lots of trees. I hope we get them soon.

The picture isn't great, but here's the little critter on the telephone pole.

Here's his/her little footprint.

Of course, the reason they've been able to get into my attic is because I have procrastinated about getting the screens replaced in the soffits and my attic has become grand central for anything wearing fur. The wildlife wrangler will begin to replace the rotted screen with something more durable as soon as we catch a couple of critters. Then when the attic is free of the little varmints, all the soffits will be neatly covered and they will no longer be able to get in. Yay!

Now that we are two weeks into the new year, it seems I've hit a few speed bumps in my intentions for 2011. I wanted to start doing more with my life besides working and sitting at home. But living with my mom has it's own circumstances and I don't always have control. She fell last week and had a terrible wound on her leg that became infected. The antibiotics (two rounds) are working but she's had to be off her feet (which is difficult for her since she's a mover and a shaker) and so I've had to be close by to help her more. Which is fine, I'm glad I'm available. Then she fell again Wednesday and it took us 25 minutes to get her up. Of course after we assessed that nothing was broken, we got tickled and laughed for about 5 minutes at the situation. Still, I'm worried that something like this could happen when I'm not here. I think we need one of those things you wear around your neck for times when someone has (help me, I've) fallen and can't get up. Sorry, but humor is how we get through somethings in this family. I'm thankful we can laugh :)

I've tried to be low-carb, but haven't really succeeded in keeping it low enough to make a difference. Now, tomorrow is my birthday and I'll probably go out to eat and will just eat whatever I want because, again, I have no control over the days events. My mom's friend hasn't made in town yet, but miraculously he will be here tomorrow. I think she planned it that way thinking I'd be excited about his being here for my birthday. I mentioned this to her (that he'd be here on my birthday) and she got all freaked out that I wasn't exactly keen on it. (don't be jealous of him, she said) Really, jealous has nothing to do with it. It's just that it's my birthday. Maybe I'm being selfish or anti-social. Or maybe this is part of the "doing more with my life" thing and I'm just uncomfortable with it. Oh, well. It will be a good day regardless, as long as no one falls down.

Have a great weekend. Don't procrastinate on the big things in life.