TheBanyanTree: Rabbit Run

[Margaret R. Kramer]

It was cloudy and we had periods of rain yesterday, but it stayed relatively
warm, in the 70s.  I needed to keep the windows open as I was had the self
cleaning oven going and it was getting quite warm in the house.

Ray was chiseling away at the ceramic tile floor in the foyer.  We had a few
cracked tiles and he wanted to replace them.

I was just finishing up with a shower and I heard a lot of thumping, not
chiseling.  I opened the door and asked Ray what was going on.  Well, the
black cat had brought in his latest trophy, a baby rabbit.  There is a hole
in the screen of our downstairs patio door that our cat can slip through and
he must have decided to show us his prize.  Ray was trying to chase him and
his rabbit (it was still alive) out of the house.  There were small blood
spots on the floor.  The black cat finally left the house with the rabbit.
Its body is now on the pathway by the deck.  Ray is the “dead animal picker
upper,” so I’ll ask him to dispose of the rabbit later.  Evidently, now that
it’s dead, the black cat has no use for it.

You know, that black was running all over the house with that rabbit, and
the dogs didn’t move a muscle.  What kind of dogs are those?  Obviously,
they have no hunting genes in them.

We got lots of work done yesterday.  Besides doing our regular chores of
laundry and taking out the trash and working on the garden, we got the boxes
and excess furniture in the garage reorganized.  I got Ray’s office cleaned
out and the dog kennels moved in there.  We have to have our dogs kenneled
while people are looking at the house.  CoCo is a 120 pound overly friendly
dog and Saydi is an 85 pound overly suspicious German Shepherd mix, and not
everyone is comfortable with or likes dogs.  The older cat will hide and
hopefully, the wild black cat won’t be parading around with a small dead
rodent in his jaws.  Although he usually hides, too, when strange people are
over.

With the dog kennels out of the family room, I was able to spread out the
furniture, and now the room looks more spacious.  I dusted and vacuumed the
other rooms.  I washed the glass bowls from the light fixtures.  I washed
the bathroom rugs.  After the self-cleaning oven was done, I scrubbed out
the charred contents and now the oven looks new again.  Ray got the tiles
laid out in the foyer and laid about half of the new kitchen tiles.  I used
our carpet cleaning machine on my office carpet and our family room carpet.

We had tickets to the Twins/Yankees game last night, so I wasn’t able to
clean out the refrigerator.  I’ll get to that today.  I think Ray can work
on the floor while I’m at workout and I’ll see if he would like to go to the
open houses today.  I got some small last minute cleaning things to do and
then I think we’ll be ready.  Ray can take some pictures of the house and
put them on a CD for our agent to post on the MLS web site.

The Twins game was fun.  There were over 45,000 people there and the Dome
was rocking.  It was surprising to me how many Yankee fans there are.  The
Yankees don’t seem like a real team to me, they’re just a lot of overly
compensated ball payers brought together to buy a championship.  Although
this year they won’t get one; they’re pretty bad, but they beat the Twins
last night in a good 10 inning thriller.

The Twins inducted former pitcher Frank Viola into their Hall of Fame last
night.  Frank Viola won the Cy Young award in 1988 and two World Series
games in 1987.  Every time he pitched in the 1987 season a fan hung a
homemade sign from the second deck, “Frankie ‘Sweet Music’ Viola.”  That fan
donated the sign to the Minnesota Historical Society after the Twins won the
1987 series.  Well, they had that sign hanging from the second deck again
last night.  I almost started crying when Tom Kelly, the manager from 1987,
Bert Blyleven, a pitcher from 1987, and others talked about that special
team.  That year was so fun.  Even if the Twins won a million World Series,
there will never be a team like that one.

My dad gave me my love of baseball when the Twins came to town in 1961.  I
took my son to games, although he loves football and basketball more than
baseball, and now it’s time for the grandsons to go to a game.  We’ll
probably do that in July.  We’ll sit in general admission on a Sunday,
because kids can get in free, and then we won’t be upset if they can’t make
it through a whole game.  Baseball can be pretty boring if you’re a kid.  My
son used to run around and collect those plastic souvenir cups to kill time
and we’d end up with thousands of those babies stacked in our cupboard.

After working our butts off, summer is finally stretching out ahead like it
should.  Days of sun and hopefully, some heat.  Enjoying the greens and the
flowers.  Going fishing.  Running.  And if our house sells, then it will be
back to work again.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net

http://www.bpwmn.org
Business and Professional Women of Minnesota

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.  ~Cicero