Now We're Going To the Pond To Poke At Frogs

Oh hi! Surprise! We are still in Vermont, and I am stealing a moment on my brother in law's computer. They just got internet here this morning so technology is creeping in. I think Eugene put on his overalls to counteract the fact that they are now wired here. Still no cell service though. You know that makes me all itchy.

The other thing that has me all itchy is the critters out here. Mosquitos, of course, but I've managed to avoid those by staying on the couch in the cabin and reading nearly half of Virginia Woolf's The Years during those twilit hours when the bugs will really get you. The critter I couldn't avoid was the one who woke me up last night in the middle of the night. I was in the sleeping loft and woke to hear little scrabbling downstairs, like someone was trying to get into the bags of penny candy we've been buying at all of Vermont's old-timey general stores. When I turned on the light, the scrabbling stopped, so I turned off the light and tried to sleep again. A few minutes later, scrabble scrabble scrabble. And whoever it was sounded like he had hands! He sounded like a bear! So I turned the light on again. No bear, as far as my blind eyes could see, looking down into the kitchen from my perch.

Then I got the genius idea to take a photo in the dark, and CATCH HIM! that way. So I did that once, examined the photo (taken with flash for a change), didn't really see anything. Tried to sleep again. Scrabble scrabble. Another flash. This time there was something that looked like maybe a plastic bag but might have been something else. A little possum? On the floor was the candy bar I had carefully set on the counter before I went to bed. So I waited a few minutes for the scrabbling. Then I took another flash photo.

AHA! This time, there he was!! Little mouse, on the floor trying to eat the candy bar! Now what was I gonna' do? I was scared to go downstairs, what if he ran over my toes? I don't mind bugs (that much) but rodents. Yeyew. Since I had proof I felt I had just cause to wake the landlords, so I scrambled down the ladder in my PJs and ran to Allison's bedroom door - "Ali Ali there's a mouse! Help me help me!"

She laughed at me. She laughed harder when I brought her my camera, saying "See, I have evidence! Look! This photo... no mouse. This photo... MOUSE!!"

Then she said "What do you want? It's the country." And she made me go back to bed.

Where I dreamed of mice.

See? Do you see???