In a completely gratuitous demonstration of the pathetic fallacy, the weather appears to be mirroring my response to a weekend of marking papers. Gloomy!
Heck, I’m even close to assuming that these ships sulk on the horizon because they share the pain of my right wrist, inflamed from hours of wielding a green marking pen.
No doubt, like me, they’d rather be doing something else . . . reading a juicy mystery novel, thumbing through a colourful magazine, having lunch with a friend.
Alas, we’re condemned to suffer our gloomy lot . . .
Those freighters might stop sulking though — after all, their husband hasn’t discovered that sizeable mammals have been nesting in their roof. We suspect mink, otters being a bit too large and possibly less likely to climb. Raccoons are also a possibility, but the scat are very fishy. . . In fact, Paul recovered a fairly fresh crab, about 4 inches across its shell. (Explains the sporadic fishy smell I’ve tried to track down in the bathroom, which has otherwise seemed a weird olfactory hallucination) He’s frustrated and bewildered, trying to discover where the convenient mink door might be. He’d like to close it, quickly, and preferably while no one is at home. . .
If anyone has any suggestions for mink-shifting OR for mood-lifting, please share! (although for the latter, I only have to look at the latest pictures of mynewest granddaughter, or remember a conversation with my older one.
I don't think a sore wrist counts as pathos, does it? Humans are engineered to hate pain and back away from it, right? That's the point of pain.
So I think you are working hard and it's hard and it hurts. I hope your marking is soon done.
Thanks for the understanding and the sympathy — it helps!
Ugh mink – soft but feisty 🙁
Yup! and don't forget smelly!
Glad to hear your marking pen is not the dreaded red.
The sight of large vessels sends my fingers to a ship tracking web site to see who they are and where they're going, and then threatens to make an ear worm out of that old tune: "Far away places with strange sounding names, far away over the sea…." A pleasant mini mood lifter.
I don't know the habits of mink, but I vote for the omnivorous and happily crab-eating raccoon over the otter, which seems to have a pungent odor way beyond fishy.
Elle
It really can be fascinating to track where these freighters come from. They anchor for days, sometimes weeks, in front of us during the winter. Their foghorns can be annoying, but still, the romance of faraway places is always there.
We suspect mink because the opening they must have found can't be bigger than 4 inches wide. We've had otters in our crawlspace before our reno, many years ago, and they're tougher to deal with. And having had a Golden Retriever who loved to roll in otter poop, I agree with you about that odor — way beyond fishy!
For moodlifting I recommend watching hens. Always works for me! I appreciate that this might not be easily available!
D'you know, I keep speculating about keeping chickens — we would be allowed up to 4 hens. First, we'll have to figure out how to deter the raccoons and the mink . . . .
I'm late to reading this post so I hope your mood has lifted somewhat. Mink are smelly creatures and difficult to track down. Hope you have success with that.
The freighters, the rain, the pain in your wrist, the marking – they all contribute to gloominess. When I feel that way, I make a cup of tea, look at photos of my granddaughters, or read an escapist novel for an hour.
I think your weather has come down here to Los Angeles, because your skies look remarkably like mine do today!