So I guess my last post was a little obtuse. Here’s the clarity. Some time over the past couple of weeks a family of mice had taken up residence in our kitchen. Most likely somewhere underneath our lower cabinets as that’s where we’d occasionally catch sight of a disappearing tail. It wasn’t so bad at first. We’d stumble across a nibbled-on potato or a few out-of-way droppings. But lately they seemed to be becoming bolder and were obviously were having little mouse parties with all the neighborhood mice on our counter tops and in our pantry. They were gnawing into bags of food and started to show themselves during daylight.

The last straw broke when Mary walked into the kitchen one afternoon and found a mouse looking up at her on top of the stove. He scampered off into the stove and probably later had a good laugh with his buddies. Mary promptly purchased enough mousetraps to qualify as a genocide and the next morning we found three of those buggers snapped off. Mary seemed almost giddy as she unloaded the corpses into a plastic grocery bag, but I felt bad for the little guys and sat up listening for the snaps on night two. *Snap* Twice, I raced into the kitchen to find a struggling mouse. And twice I scooped up the whole trap and let the mouse go outside. They each hopped off a bit off kilter, but hopefully that beat slowly suffocating to death. Or maybe now they’ll just suffer longer, dying slowly of internal injuries.

So you see, the morbidity of the story is actually expressing a respect for the mouse livelihood. Fight on rodents, fight on!

Felton shuddered as he peered out from his darkened hiding place. Something was very wrong. There had been strange noises and smells that evening. Snaps and thuds, a scream, and then far, far too much silence.

As Felton strained his ears for sounds of his parent’s return, his stomach began to churn. He had not yet eaten that day and as the pangs of hunger mingled with the fear creeping through his body, Felton knew it was time to move.

Felton unfurled his trembling body from its crouch and took several cautious steps into the open. He stopped. Sniffed. Wrinkled up his nose and sniffed again. No longer encumbered by barriers, the strange smells swirled and danced, rolling through Felton like an Oregon fog. There were smells that tugged at his tastebuds, rich, nutty, and sweet, and Felton’s mouth watered. Oh, to end that hunger! And there was a smell that stood his hair on end, organic and pungent, reminding him of the day he was born, the smell of vitality coalescing with finality. And stand on end did Felton’s hair. He wanted to run, to escape that smell, to curl up again in his hiding place, but a final smell drew him on. A smell that yanked at Felton’s heart. Somewhere near, his parents!

Felton raced into the darkness. Hunger momentarily forgotten, he pressed toward the smell of his mother, eyes adjusting and gathering more light with every step. And then he saw her. Or rather, he saw half of her. Her legs and tail lay exposed and contorted hanging from the jaws of an unmoving beast. Felton took a step back and then with his heart leaping into his throat he raced to his mother’s side. The beast didn’t move. Neither did Felton’s mother.

Her body was still warm, but as Felton nuzzled against her hind legs he knew the warmth was fading. He sniffed her body and smelled her fear, fading like her warmth. He sniffed the crescent of drying blood, arcing away from his mother’s hidden torso and head, and smelled the finality. Felton’s adrenaline surged and as the visceralness of the scene washed over him, Felton raced away blindly into the blackness. Away from the place where his mother had last screamed. Away from the moment where his mother would no longer be fading warmth and only be gathering cold. Away from the finality.

He raced on and on until he came to a place where the smell of richness and nuttiness and sweetness took a hold of his senses, pushing out the adrenaline, overwhelming the fear. He stopped and crept toward that smell. There was something oh so familiar about this.

And then Felton let out his own scream.

The clouds finally broke enough yesterday afternoon to get a good look at the surrounding mountains around here. And what do you know? Snow! Not Rainier/Adams peak snow (because that’s always there), but lower foothills peak snow. I think I’m more excited these days about the white stuff than I used to be, secure in the knowledge that I’m not headed toward a winter of slush and salt.

What a lazy weekend. We had a cloudy, drizzly weekend for a change the past few days. And I took full advantage: playing video games, wrestling with the dogs, and just doing some good quality all-around puttering. It also would’ve been a great time to knock out a few more projects around the house, but I just wasn’t feeling that. I did get out to play a little flag football on Saturday morning though and was surprised to find frost on the ground when Mary and I wandered over to the park at 8:30 in the morning. Winter’s on the prowl.

If you have never watched Friday Night Lights (the TV show on NBC, not the movie), please, please, please do your self a favor and check this show out. I (like just about everyone else) missed out on all of the live runs of the show, but have been catching up with all of season one (available on DVD as of about a month ago). Even if you don’t care a lick for football, I guarantee you’ll find something to love about this show. The acting is superb and the show itself really is more about the striving of the human spirit then the action on the field (though that too is very well done even if a bit overly dramatic at times). And if you do love football or even understand the world of sports in general, all the better. So go rent or Netflix Season One or better yet go buy it for $20 on Amazon. Episode one is probably the weakest episode of the season (though not bad) so give it at least a couple episodes for the full effect. Season 2 premieres on October 5. Don’t let this show die! I’m a big Lost fan, but until that returns to the air, this is the best TV drama out there. Oh, and Explosions in the Sky on the soundtrack, so what’s not to love?