Not Seen, Not Gone

 Just because I haven't seen Percy, Patience, or any of the others in the gang down in the barn doesn't mean they've left or changed their ways.  As I suspected, they come in after I've gone for the day and wreak their own brand of havoc.  Their latest caper is pulling used wipes out of the bucket and strewing them around.  This was an unusually large haul yesterday and left in the milking room.  Other wipes stick up in tufts where the squirrels are pulling them down into their burrows.  It's a right mess, that is.  Furry little thieves and vandals.

As someone who grew up at a time when one turned to encyclopedias or had to make a trip to the library (kids today will never have to learn the Dewey Decimal System) for any kind of research, I am enthralled with the internet and the enormous range of information immediately available.  As a for instance, I was watching a movie yesterday with an actor whose name I could not recall, nor the film I'd seen him in before.  No encyclopedia nor library would have provided either with no better reference, but, there at my fingertips with the merest hint, was not only his name but his biography.  Turns out that Sir David Mark Rylance is not only a celebrated actor, he is an anti-conflict activist.  Who knew?  A short while later, I wanted a recipe for dipping sauce for gyoza (Japanese dumplings) and, ta da!, there it was.  Marvelous!

It was a Saturday NASCAR race, so not much but piddly chores got done during the day.  I didn't get my bibbies in a bunch because it was too darned hot to do a lot and I'd watered the deck plants the day before.

On my way back from putting the girls to bed, I decided to stop by the feed shed to see if shutting that window had stopped the vandalism in there.  It had not.  Thing's place has been taken over by rats (eeuw!) of all sizes.  Without my nightly appearance, the creatures had run rampant. breaking more stuff and helping themselves to the lay pellets that Thing didn't care for in the plastic trash barrel.  When I turned on the light, there was a mad dash for cover, but just because I couldn't see them didn't mean they were gone.  Rats!