Enough with the wild animals already!

Relocated another raccoon yesterday morning. But this morning for the first time the trap is empty. Fingers crossed that they are all gone and we can fix the screen and replace about eight feet of carpet and be done with it. To discourage further animals we’ve changed the bird feeder out back. No longer have a big platform with feed in it. Instead have a metal feeder which has a weight sensitive bar on it that closes up if anything bigger than a bird tries to get to the seed. Hope it works cause I love watching all the birds out there.

The revolt of electronics is still on. Have the computer fixed with wireless adaptor working fine. Bill’s shower fixed (it was only giving HOT water no cold), a new speaker phone, and one new garage door opener – getting two more then have to program them. Monday I have to call the home warranty service because our “on demand” water heater keeps shutting itself off. To get hot water someone – Bill– has to go down to the basement and turn it back on. It has given us trouble since we bought it when we moved in. But thought all the problems were finally fixed. Guess not.

The Fourth of July was a different weather day. Last year it was 105 – this year 75 and cloudy and muggy. Lots and lots of water in the air. No rain though. I was watching the fireworks from Indianapolis on TV until just before the end – that part I went outside to watch. From our back porch we can see across the valley and farmland clear to Indy 35 miles away. The ending was spectacular. We are living at just about the highest point in Indiana around 1000 feet.

Last night we were sitting watching the NASCAR race on TV when Bill looked at me and said, “There’s a snake on the porch.” “What do you mean?” “There’s a snake out there,” pointing towards the back porch. I got up to look. “Where?” “Right there in front of the chair.” Opening the door and going out, “That’s not a snake it’s a piece of rope.” “It’s a snake”, he insisted. Then the piece of rope moved. Lovely a snake. He was about 2 ½ feet long and about as big around as one of my fingers. But I haven’t seen one like him before – kind of black and gray. Any way I got the broom and shoved him with the handle. Made him a little mad but kept shoving him until I got him out the door and over the side of the deck. Bill sat and watched and laughed from inside. Enough with the animals okay?!

Did you know there are four verses of the Star Spangled Banner? I didn’t. The last verse is pretty interesting. Why is it never sung?

The Star Spangled Banner

Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wiped out their foul footstep's pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.


Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!