Thursday, June 5, 2008

Pink or Blue, and an unwelcome visitor

Blule, blue, blue. We have had quite the eventful day. The ultrasound was great. We have quite the silly little guy-he doesn't like to have his picture taken. We had a clear view of the boy parts, but he didn't want us to see much else. He kept putting is arms into an X and kept them crossed whereever the tech. was trying to view things. Everything looks normal and I LOVE MY DOCTOR!!! He wont let me go overdue...I am so excited about this....all of my kids are exactly a week late. Doc even said that he would induce me before the 16th if my body was ready, and I am not due until the 18th. Love it, love it, love it!!!!

We had an unwelcome visitors tonight. I have a habit of shutting the garage door every time right after I pull in the van but for some reason tonight it got left open-might be the prego brain. Kris and I had gotten the kids to bed and the girl kept acting up, I was hearing all of these really weird noises from the side of the house that there room is on. We even hollered at them that they needed to go to bed and stop goofing off. Soon one of the neighbor girls and a friend came and knocked on the door and said that we had a raccoon in our garage. So we went to investigate and sure enough we have a baby raccoon in the garage. I guess the mom was hit by a car and now all the babies are running around the neighborhood and the neighbor's cat chased one into our garage. The raccoon ended up under the wheel well and will not come out. We have moved the car out to the driveway. We have tried a bunch of things to get this demonic thing out of the car. Seriously-the raccoon is mean, and I mean really really MEAN!!! Even called Animal Control-no luck we just have to wait it out. When I went to move the car it came after me-I image it was funny site for the neighbors to see pregnant me running across the lawn screaming because a raccoon was charging me. From everything that we gather if the raccoon is big enough to hiss and fight back it knew that we were a threat to it and it would not budge. So the car is in the driveway until we are sure that our unwelcome visit is gone. It reminded me of the squirrel story....for those who haven't read it....I will add it on to the end of this blog. If you are in the mood it is a funny read.

Squirrel Story
We always knew there was something sinister about squirrels...Neighborhood Hazard (or: Why the Cops Won't Patrol Brice Street Anymore) If you need a laugh, here it is.
Author: Daniel Meyer
I never dreamed slowly cruising on my motorcycle through a residential neighborhood could be so incredibly dangerous! Little did I suspect ...I was on Brice Street - a very nice neighborhood with perfect lawns and slow traffic. As I passed an oncoming car, a brown furry missile shot out from under it and tumbled to a stop immediately in front of me. It was a squirrel, and must have been trying to run across the road when it encountered the car. I really was not going very fast, but there was no time to brake or avoid it -- it was that close. I hate to run over animals, and I really hate it on a motorcycle, but a squirrel should pose no danger to me. I barely had time to brace for the impact. Animal lovers, never fear. Squirrels, I discovered, can take care of themselves! Inches before impact, the squirrel flipped to his feet. He was standing on his hind legs and facing my oncoming Valkyrie with steadfast resolve in his little beady eyes. His mouth opened, and at the last possible second, he screamed and leapt! I am pretty sure the scream was squirrel for, "Banzai!" or maybe, "Die you gravy-sucking, heathen scum!" The leap was nothing short of spectacular ... as he shot straight up, flew over my windshield, and impacted me squarely in the chest. Instantly, he set upon me. If I did not know better, I would have sworn he brought 20 of his little buddies along for the attack. Snarling, hissing, and tearing at my clothes, he was a frenzy of activity. As I was dressed only in a light T-shirt, summer riding gloves, and jeans this was a bit of a cause for concern. This furry little tornado was doing some damage!
Picture a large man on a huge black and chrome cruiser, dressed in jeans, a T-shirt, and leather gloves, puttering at maybe 25 mph down a quiet residential street, and in the fight of his life with a squirrel. And losing .. I grabbed for him with my left hand. After a few misses, I finally managed to snag his tail. With all my strength, I flung the evil rodent off to the left of the bike, almost running into the right curb as I recoiled from the throw. That should have done it. The matter should have ended right there. It really should have. The squirrel could have sailed into one of the pristinely kept yards and gone on about his business, and I could have headed home. No one would have been the wiser. But this was no ordinary squirrel. This was not even an ordinary angry squirrel. This was an EVIL MUTANT ATTACK SQUIRREL OF DEATH ! Somehow he caught my gloved finger with one of his little hands and, with the force of the throw, swung around and with a resounding thump and an amazing impact, he landed squarely on my back and resumed his rather antisocial and extremely distracting activities. He also managed to take my left glove with him! The situation was not improved. Not improved at all. His attacks were continuing, and now I could not reach him. I was startled to say the least. The combination of the force of the throw, only having one hand (the throttle hand) on the handlebars, and my jerking back unfortunately put a healthy twist through my right hand and into the throttle. A healthy twist on the throttle of a Valkyrie can only have one result. Torque. This is what the Valkyrie is made for, and she is very, very good at it. The engine roared and the front wheel left the pavement. The squirrel screamed in anger. The Valkyrie screamed in ecstasy. I screamed in ... well ... I just plain screamed.
Now picture a large man on a huge black and chrome cruiser, dressed in jeans, a slightly squirrel-torn-t-shirt, wearing only one leather glove, and roaring at maybe 50 mph and rapidly accelerating down a quiet residential street on one wheel and with a demonic squirrel on his back. The man and the squirrel are both screaming bloody murder. With the sudden acceleration I was forced to put my other hand back on the handlebars and try to get control of the bike. This was leaving the mutant squirrel to his own devices but I really did not want to crash into somebody's tree, house, or parked car. Also, I had not yet figured out how to release the throttle ... my brain was just simply overloaded. I did manage to mash the back brake, but it had little effect against the massive power of the big cruiser. About this time the squirrel decided that I was not paying sufficient attention to this very serious battle (maybe he is an evil mutant NAZI attack squirrel of death), and he came around my neck and got INSIDE my full-face helmet with me. As the faceplate closed part way, he began hissing in my face. I am quite sure my screaming changed intensity. It had little effect on the squirrel, however. The RPMs on The Dragon maxed out (since I was not bothering with shifting at the moment) so her front end started to drop. Now picture a large man on a huge black and chrome cruiser, dressed in jeans, a very raggedly torn T-shirt, wearing only one leather glove, roaring at probably 80 mph, still on one wheel, with a large puffy squirrel's tail sticking out of the mostly closed full-face helmet.
By now the screams are probably getting a little hoarse. Finally I got the upper hand ... I managed to grab his tail again, pulled him out of my helmet and slung him to the left as hard as I could. This time it worked ...sort-of. Spectacularly sort-of . so to speak. Picture a new scene. You are a cop. You and your partner have pulled off on a quiet residential street and parked with your windows down to do some paperwork. Suddenly a large man on a huge black and chrome cruiser, dressed in jeans, a torn T-shirt flapping in the breeze, and wearing only one leather glove, moving at probably 80 mph on one wheel, and screaming bloody murder roars by and with all his strength throws a live squirrel grenade directly into your police car. I heard screams. They weren't mine... I managed to get the big motorcycle under control and dropped the front wheel to the ground. I then used maximum braking and skidded to a stop in a cloud of tire smoke at the stop sign of a busy cross street. I would have returned to fess up (and to get my glove back). I really would have. Really. Except for two things. First, the cops did not seem interested or the slightest bit concerned about me at the moment. When I looked back, the doors on both sides of the patrol car were flung wide open. The cop from the passenger side was on his back, doing a crab walk into somebody's front yard, quickly moving away from the car. The cop who had been in the driver's seat was standing in the street and was aiming a riot shotgun at his own police car. So the cops were not interested in me. They often insist to "let the professionals handle it" anyway. That was one thing. The other? Well, I could clearly see shredded and flying pieces of foam and upholstery from the back seat. But I could also swear I saw the squirrel in the back window, shaking his little fist at me. That is one dangerous squirrel. And now he has a patrol car. A somewhat shredded patrol car ... but it was all his. I took a deep breath, turned on my turn-signal, made a gentle right turn off of Brice Street, and sedately left the neighborhood.
I decided it was best to just buy myself a new pair of gloves. And some Band-Aids.

2 comments:

Elizabeth Cranmer said...

Okay first things first! A BOY!!!!!!! Congratulations!!! Now you have just a perfect balance! You can devide and conquer. You have"the boys" and "the girls" both plural and even and wonderful! My dream family!! So maybe we'll both have Evan's!

Secondly... that story was hilarious!!!! Loved it. I went into the read sceptical, but it payed off. Your funnya nd I hope that your racoon leaves you alone!!

lance, miss, my, & finn said...

a boy, a boy, a boy! congrats! you will have a mini brady bunch!