Masks
Saturday's funeral went as well as one could hope. My friend's eulogy for his dad went smoothly, and I was surrounded by tons of family--some of whom I haven't seen in years. Kind of fitting for Memorial Day weekend, I suppose. After the banquet, a few of us walked through Chinatown to a coffee place where we looked at my brother's pics of his latest surfing vacation and I played with my 3 1/2-year-old niece. (We've become best buds.) The melancholy turned into appreciating the pleasures and details of life, as it should.
---
That evening, Wendy and I pulled into the driveway and saw the raccoon again. It darted across our headlights and into a once-screened off entry into the crawlspace. Crap--our nemesis had returned! He was at least one yard long.
I grabbed a flashlight, shined it under the house, and saw the reflections of two red eyes staring back at us before it ducked away. I jiggled the Surefire torch to create some havoc, and saw the striped tail vanish as it exited from the other side of the house.
After piling bricks and panels on every possible entryway, we retired. Wendy's last words were, "Be ready for some noise tonight." Sure enough, we heard the sounds of a desperate animal about an hour later. Yes, it has opposable thumbs but we had bricks and brains. In the morning, our barriers were intact. I wonder where it will go next? I wonder if we trapped any offspring in there?
---
Yesterday was Wendy's cousin Michael's birthday. We attended the afternoon Dodgers game, and saw the Blue Crew win a low-scoring game against the Cubs. There was a row of Chicago fans behind us and the Reserved Level wall behind them. They were lucky to be sitting where they were, because they would have been beat down by cholos if they were sitting by less tolerant fans. Dodgers won in the 11th inning without a hit. The bases were loaded via walks, and the winning run scored when a crummy pitch hit Juan Pierre. We thought it was a strike and a passed ball, but whatever.
After that, we ate at a Malaysian place in Alhambra and went to karaoke in Little Tokyo. I haven't done the latter in a long time, and was stoked that the place has been restocked with new songs, which I dipped into and trashed. Among the tracks I mangled:
The Clash - Train in Vain
Adam and the Ants - Stand & Deliver
The Plimsouls - Million Miles Away
Billy Bragg - A New England
XTC - Senses Working Overtime
Boomtown Rats - I Don't Like Mondays
It's funny how it was someone else's 30th birthday but I was the one who revealed my age by choosing oldies. Old enough to outsmart a big rodent? We'll see.
---
That evening, Wendy and I pulled into the driveway and saw the raccoon again. It darted across our headlights and into a once-screened off entry into the crawlspace. Crap--our nemesis had returned! He was at least one yard long.
I grabbed a flashlight, shined it under the house, and saw the reflections of two red eyes staring back at us before it ducked away. I jiggled the Surefire torch to create some havoc, and saw the striped tail vanish as it exited from the other side of the house.
After piling bricks and panels on every possible entryway, we retired. Wendy's last words were, "Be ready for some noise tonight." Sure enough, we heard the sounds of a desperate animal about an hour later. Yes, it has opposable thumbs but we had bricks and brains. In the morning, our barriers were intact. I wonder where it will go next? I wonder if we trapped any offspring in there?
---
Yesterday was Wendy's cousin Michael's birthday. We attended the afternoon Dodgers game, and saw the Blue Crew win a low-scoring game against the Cubs. There was a row of Chicago fans behind us and the Reserved Level wall behind them. They were lucky to be sitting where they were, because they would have been beat down by cholos if they were sitting by less tolerant fans. Dodgers won in the 11th inning without a hit. The bases were loaded via walks, and the winning run scored when a crummy pitch hit Juan Pierre. We thought it was a strike and a passed ball, but whatever.
After that, we ate at a Malaysian place in Alhambra and went to karaoke in Little Tokyo. I haven't done the latter in a long time, and was stoked that the place has been restocked with new songs, which I dipped into and trashed. Among the tracks I mangled:
The Clash - Train in Vain
Adam and the Ants - Stand & Deliver
The Plimsouls - Million Miles Away
Billy Bragg - A New England
XTC - Senses Working Overtime
Boomtown Rats - I Don't Like Mondays
It's funny how it was someone else's 30th birthday but I was the one who revealed my age by choosing oldies. Old enough to outsmart a big rodent? We'll see.
posted by gr at
3:46 PM
train in vain is one of my fave karaoke songs
sorry to hear about your friend.
i've got a raccoon problem, too. it's terrifying the crap out of my stray cat who lives in my backyard. the problem with the raccoon is that he is so unafraid of me. when i step outside and shout at him to leave the cat alone he just stands on his hind legs and looks at me like he's ready to spar.
The Clash version, and not Annie Lennox, right? It was really hard to resist Danzig's "Mother"...
-mw
Oh, yeah. Saw a possum this morning while running around the reservoir. I seriously think the Griffith Park fire that has displaced a ton of animals in the neighborhood.
-mw
Post a Comment
<< Home