Word of the Day

CADENZA - Something that happens when you forget what the composer wrote.

We probably wouldn't have received over 1/2 inch of rain last night if I hadn't watered the lawn. Oh well...at least I thwarted the raccoons last night. I brought the bird-feeders inside for the night. I heard the raccoons out on the deck last night. Hopefully, taking the feeders in at night will train them and their little family to hunt for food in the wild. We won't be here this winter, I'd hate to have these raccoons depend on me as their only food source. I did feel a bit bad for the birds that came looking for feeders that weren't there. I'll put them back out right after I blog.

The Great Escape

Yesterday, I emptied and re-baited my crayfish traps. I brought the crayfish up to the house in a covered bucket. This is routine for me. I filled a pot with water and a fistful of salt and put it on to boil. As we all know, a watched pot never boils so I went outside to put away the sprinkler and hose and check the garden.In the meantime, HTP came home. He'd gone into town to pick up the mail. It wasn't long before I heard HTP's voice, loud, calling for me. I have to admit that I didn't exactly run back into the house to check to find out what the problem was. I figured that HTP hadn't checked the mail and found that we'd won a huge jackpot. And...HTP didn't sound too urgent. And so, why rush? And so, the following conversation:

HTP - "Where were you? I looked everywhere for you?"

Me- "I was outside putting away the hoses."

HTP - "Your water was boiling on the stove."

Me- "Oh good, it wasn't boiling when I went outside a minute or so ago."

HTP- "Well...it's boiling now and one of your crayfish escaped."

Me- "What?!"

HTP- "He was crawling around on the floor. I had to pick him up and put him back in your bucket. "

Me- "One of them escaped?"

HTP-"Maybe next time you should put something heavy on that lid."

OK...so I boiled up the crayfish. And so ended The Great Escape. Or so I thought. I made hamburgers on the grill for supper. This was hours after The Great Escape. After supper HTP and I cleaned up the kitchen and then.... out of the corner of my eye I see something creeping on the carpet of our living room. It was a crayfish! A very alive crayfish. One very large living, creeping, crayfish. Blink? Where did he come from? I looked around to see if there might be others. I started humming the Jaws theme. Attack of the Crayfish! But, there was only the one...I hope. I grabbed it with a tongs and headed for the door. HTP told me that I should just toss it out the door but I figured this little bugger deserved a bit of respect. NEMO came to mind. He deserved a good ending to his Great Escape plan. I took him back down to the lake. He deserved another chance.

So, while I was there I checked my traps. OMG! They were almost full of crayfish. Hundreds of crayfish. I called up to HTP.

Me- "I need to empty the traps again."

HTP- "Should I start a pot boiling for you?"

Me- "Sure, can you throw me my crayfish bucket?"

Needless to say, I ended up with a huge bucket of crayfish, a pot on the stove (a watched pot never boils so I sat down and watched Ghostbusters while I waited), and a heavy object securing the lid of the crayfish bucket. The crayfish are all boiled up and ready for cleaning. I'll have to go and check the traps again after breakfast. However, I still can't help but think...are there any more escapees waiting in some hidden corner of the house? HTP pointed out that they look like big scorpions. And you know? They do.

Murphyism of the Day

The Schainker Converse of Hoare's Law of Large Problems

Inside every small problem is a larger problem struggling to get out.