Commando 2, Squirrels 0

I was pottering around the house wondering if it was going to stop raining long enough to get up to the mountains for some snowshoeing. Suddenly, I noticed Herkeimer trotting around with a limp and very dead squirrel in his mouth.

I swept the squirrel into a grocery bag and dumped him in the trash. It's not like I touched him or anything, but the squirrel looked dry, well, aside from the dog drool. Commando was also dry.

The reason I'm so interested in the dryness of the critters? It's been raining for hours and hours and hours. That means he's stashed the squirrel somewhere in the house until both dried off.

Eeew. I tried to indicate to him that my desire for dead squirrels was less than zero, but he just seemed to think I was being a spoil sport and maybe if I just tried tossing the squirrel up the air so he could catch it I might see how fun a dead squirrel could be.

This is the second squirrel. Should I be looking for some recipes?

Commando and the Arachnid

Early this morning I was trying to decide whether or not to get up and Commando started a low, vicious growling. He kept it up for a while and then went outside. He came back in almost immediately.

He was soon growling again, and looking at the glass door to the outside. It was a really scary growl and he was even shaking a little. I figured it was time to get up and see what the problem was.

There was a huge, ugly, black spider on the ceiling near my computer chair. Commando was really growling at it.

One good thing about being over 20 is that I couldn't really see the spider. It was just a dark spot on the wall. It wasn't moving so it didn't trigger my arachnophobia. I moved the chair and got the broom and dispatched the spider.

So, Commando has arachnophobia too!

Blizzard Defiance

I was not going to let the great storm of January 2008 keep me housebound all weekend, especially with reports of up to 10 feet of expected snow falling in the Sierras. Saturday I was grounded. Sunday there was a little bit of sun in late morning and Commando and I hastily drove up to Foresthill.

It was beautiful but overcast. Everything...trees, powerlines, mailboxes...was covered with fresh, powdery snow.

We stopped at Chicken Hawk road a little bit past the Michigan Bar road. It had started snowing and my car isn't equipped for that. Also, there really isn't a place to pull off and the signs (and common sense) warn you not to park at the road side lest one impede the snow plows. Someone had driven down CH road and left nice deep ruts to follow. These were filled in and softened with a good 6 inches of powder. I didn't even bother putting on the snow shoes as the walking was so easy.

We didn't stay out long. I really didn't want to get stranded and snowed in. Commando and I played several games of "toss the snow" where I flick loose snow at him and he leaps up to catch it. This is one of his favorite snow games. He also loves catching mini-snowballs.

Can't wait for next weekend!