safety blip

I took this in case I didn't like any of my other pictures. 

Except for cleaning under the carpet in the closet where I cornered the mouse the other night and finding a new, gigantic hole with a blinking neon sign promising good times in my garage, I had a perfectly lovely day. I offset the cleaning with some peaceful garden work, but I discovered the gigantic hole too late and now I'm just sitting here wondering why our handymen haven't repaired the area I did know about in the garage yet. 

Now that the mice know to avoid traps you enter, bait, and glue traps, I'm roaming the streets asking strangers about cats and looking for weasels and large snakes. 

Someone at the driveway happy hour told me that he had fabulous success with a service called Ecoshield. Every online review of them is bad. 

<approximately one hour interlude>

You know what helps get you out of that funk? Driving and singing and dancing to "Crazy" and "Feel Good" in the middle of the night. In the middle of the night? Yes, after you have successfully chauffeured an unwelcome, thoughtless, rude little guest that you and your wife have successfully captured. 

But didn't I just say the glue traps don't work anymore? 
Ah, well, you see, when we are stressed and upset past our point of dealing, we make stupid decisions. Sometimes we dig a hole and break the internet. Sometimes, when someone has put out mint smell and someone else has run the most powerful vacuum and then someone starts moving books from the shelf above your head, you leap and you fall in a glue trap.   

I have a picture of the little mouse eating nuts while stuck to the glue trap, on the forest floor, in the park, before I poured vegetable oil on the trap, but I suspect you prefer the cherry blossoms.  

My unexpected violets are putting forth little blooms. I still have daffodils all over. My Japanese silver leaf ferns are coming out. I spread my shredded leaves on exposed soil and began covering it with some mulch. Tomorrow I will continue this and finally plant my new chives and I will dig a new hole (carefully!!) by the internet line in prep for the new tree. 

NATO members have agreed to increase their supply of arms to Ukraine.

Ukrainian singer Andriy Khlyvnyuk was on a US tour when Russia invaded Ukraine. He went home and took up a rifle. He sang a song for social media in the complete silence in a square in Kyiv with no traffic or other background noise and posted it on Instagram. The song is, "The Red Viburnum in the Meadow," a Ukrainian protest song written during WWI. Pink Floyd (!!!) took his vocals and composed a charity single around it, their first new original music since 1994's Division Bell. It is, "Hey Hey Rise Up."They got Khlyvnyuk's blessing. Proceeds will go to Ukrainian humanitarian relief. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRqE5al45cg

Europe is experiencing a wave of new street art dedicated to Ukraine. They are created by Europe's most prominent street artists. 

Hundreds of drones were flown in the form of Ukrainian flags and peace messages in South Korea.

The EU is banning imports of Russian caviar and vodka. 

Ukraine blew up some Russian ships causing a major logistical problem for Russian plans for Donbas. It is the first major strike on the Russian fleet. It will now be harder for Russia to attack Ukraine's cities and support ground forces. 

There are Belarusians and Russians joining the Ukrainian military. Under Ukrainian law, foreigners who serve in its armed forces are eligible for Ukrainian citizenship. This might help the countries heal in the future. It is a way to fight Belarusian leader Lukashenko and Putin. 

The biggest aluminum producer outside China has become the first Russian company to call for an end to the war and an investigation into war crimes. 

How did Nessy get reconnected with her owner? She was roaming Bucha alone. Ukrainian soldiers assumed she was a stray and decided to save her. They posted about it on social media. They learned the dog had a family, tracked down the owners, and arranged and filmed the reunion.

Welcome to the weekend.