Rodent in the Trunk

trunk

The day of reckoning had arrived for the furry little brown groundhog that had been wrecking my garden. After weeks of chasing him out of my garden and discovering row after row of demolished vegetable plants, I had finally set a live trap. Within hours, the hungry rodent had entered the cage in search of his previously half-eaten zucchini dinner.

I grabbed my green gardening gloves and headed out to collect my capture. Even though some intelligent trap-engineer had made the portion of the cage underneath the

Continue reading Rodent in the Trunk

New Clothes

I recently was shopping for a belated birthday present for my five-year-old niece. I picked up a hooded sweatshirt and jeans and thought to myself, “Oh, no. I’m turning into one of those boring aunts who buys clothes and not something fun.” I comforted my ego with the fact that at least the clothes had sparkles and embroidery. I had no idea if they were the right size or if she would even like them. I kept the receipt just in case the gift totally bombed.

A few days later,

Continue reading New Clothes

Caught

photo

The rain streamed in cold, miserable lines down my windshield as I drove home from Bible study a couple weeks ago. The sun hid behind clouds that threatened to stay all winter. I fussed with the windshield wipers – too slow, too fast – unable to find the happy medium that kept the windshield clear at an appropriate pace.

I watched as a leaf’s life ended and it lazily floated to its final resting place, which turned out to be my driver’s side windshield wiper. The leaf couldn’t

Continue reading Caught

Steam Burn

A few weeks ago, while I was canning applesauce, I lifted the lid of the stockpot to scoop out a batch of apples, and steam rolled out of the pot and burned my fore arm. I yelped, dropped the lid and watched a large red spot grow on my arm. It stung for the rest of the day, leaving a nice purple stripe.

Steam burns seem so unfair. I was extra careful not to touch the stove or the boiling water

Continue reading Steam Burn