My eyes popped open at 5:22 this morning just like they do every morning. An alarm is not to blame. It’s just nature calling my name. For the second time in less than three weeks, the toilet gurgled after I flushed it instead of refilling with water. A very small stream came out of the faucet when I washed my hands. Instantly I knew the power to the well house was out again. Not to our house, just the well house, which meant the pump wasn’t drawing water out of the well to replace the water I used.
Once again a raccoon had climbed the power pole and met his end atop the transformer. My sister in-law said she heard a loud bang about 2:30 this morning. There are no trees surrounding this power pole. It stands about fifty feet away from the trees lining the creek (aka: the raccoon highway). It’s awfully strange to me why the raccoons would suddenly start climbing the pole this year. It’s never happened before and now this is twice in three weeks.
I’m not complaining though. These animals are absolute pests. I’m grateful there are two less and the city has been very quick about getting the power back on. Though my sister in-law who lives above the well house may disagree since gravity isn’t in her favor. When the pump loses power, they don’t just lose pressure, they lose water.
Two summers ago in my fitful pregnancy sleep I was awakened by a loud bang. Then the voices of two neighbor guys across the street drifted into my room (and my head!). I quickly turned on my bedroom light as if to signal hey! — I hear you, keep it down out there. I have enough interruptions to my sleep, I don’t need yours. I had just drifted off again when the loudest raps known to man hit my door. All this at 3:30 in the morning. I was terrified! I looked out my window to see a police car, but by the time I got dressed and nudged Jeff, it had driven away.
I was so puzzled and mad that I had been so scared that I called the police department the next morning to find out why it was important enough to bother me, but not to follow through. Turns out in response to a report of a loud noise, a patrolman stopped to talk to the neighbors out on their smoke breaks. They must have mentioned my light also being on in that timeframe, so the cop dropped by.
Can you guess where I’m going with all this? Can you guess what the police ultimately discovered caused the bang?
To get a picture of the dummy would have given me so much satisfaction!
I can’t believe they didn’t wait for you to answer the door after all the pounding.