Funny about Money

Did you know a corgi can go on point? And will, enthusiastically!

It’s the weirdest silly thing you ever saw: A tiny, furry, little pointy-eared dog standing on point outside the shrubbery that Ratty just ran into. She also knows when Ratty is residing in the marjoram bed and occasionally will go on point without a chase.

In fact, the corgi apparently was bred specifically as a ratter: to harry the incidental wildlife that would take up residence on sailing ships.

She will not enter the shrubbery, though she probably would if I encouraged it. When Ratty decides to make a run for it, she chases the little gal like a rocket across the yard and into the cat’s claw vines.

It’s not clear that Ratty’s first instinct is to run or to hide. Roof rats are spectacular climbers. They will go right straight up a vertical wall at a dead run, without even slowing down. And that would be why the attic needs to be sealed thoroughly, or why poison baits should be scattered around the attic.

I’m not at all comfortable putting out poison, because…well, frankly, I’m afraid if Ruby finds a Ratty corpse and decides to chew on it, that will be the end of Ruby. Guess I’d druther have Ratty in the shrubbery than have no Ruby around the house.

One wonders, though…  Why do we think birds and chipmunks and squirrels are so cute around the backyard, but have such a phobia about roof rats? I mean…the critters really are just another species of wildlife. If they’re not chewing on the electric wiring (hey! seal up that attic, f’r hevvinsake), who cares if they’re ambling around the back yard, stealing birdseed and eating the cat food?

Heh…I failed to post yesterday’s fine entry. So that just went online. This one will, too, in a few minutes…assuming I don’t faint and fall on the floor first.

{boyoboy, how d’ye like that alliteration! Shoulda been a poet!}

It’s 7 in the morning. Ninety degrees in the shade of the back porch overhang. Ruby and I just got back from the morning doggywalk, an hour-long stroll through the outer reaches of Hell.

It would like to rain out there, evidently. The clouds are low enough…but they’re wayyyy too thin. If we get rain today, it won’t be till late afternoon. When it’s even hotter than it is now. Wunderground sez that’s 96 degrees — at seven in the morning!! — and predicts a high of 114.

Forest fires along State Route 87, the road to Payson — whereinat KJG and Mr. Fireman repaired for their retirement. Their kids are down here, so it’s possible that they’ve come down from the mountain and are staying with them. I hope.

Meanwhile, the town of Sunflower has been evacuated — the residents moved to a center out in Fountain Hills.

This morning when I let Ruby out for her first frolic around the back yard, what should I find but a RAT, caught in the trap I’d left unbaited on the back porch.

Since, unlike my son, I can’t bring myself to drown the poor little thang, I hiked him down the alley and tossed him out near a fine pile of debris. Now, as my son is given to saying angrily, he’s someone else’s problem.

b-a-a-a-a-a-a-d human!

Gerardo just called to inform me that he and his crew are on the way over here to fix a leaking pipe.

?????????

Thought they’d already done that! They dug up the ground on the east side and repaired the leaking pipe under there.

But…well…it looks like there’s some other leak out there. So let’s see if they can figure out what it is and fix it.

Meanwhile, I’ve had no breakfast and the cleaning lady will be here this morning and the last thing I need is Gerardo banging around all morning.

Let’s put this post on “hold” for a couple hours… Maybe I can at least bolt down a piece of toast before the guys show up. Ugh!

*****

Ehhh…just barely.

You have not seen a human being work until you’ve watched a Mexican trabajador work. My GOD, that man is just astonishing.

He dug and wrestled and wrestled and dug and dug and wrestled…all this digging and wrestling was going on in soggy, sticky mud. He found a stretch of busted pipe, which by dint of sheer strength he replaced.

Looks like the system is working now, at least in back. But as he pointed out, it’s old. Satan and Proserpine put in the system when they were here and doing their Happy Handyman thing. Gerardo pointed out that I’ve been in this house a good 10 or 15 years, meaning the system is older than that.

He thinks the whole system is gonna have to be replaced. And THAT is gonna be an expensive proposition.

Speaking of expensive propositions, AMEX called late last week to harass me. They claimed last month’s bill hadn’t been paid. I said it certainly had. They said it certainly hadn’t.

And NATCHERLY the credit union’s system wouldn’t let me into my account!!!!

So, goddammit, now I’ve got to get dressed and traipse across the city to the CU — in 115-degree heat — to try to find out WTF happened there.

I pay the American Express bills electronically. And assuredly I DID pay that statement — or at least tried to.

When the system blocked me from my account while I had the AMEX representative on the phone, it made me look like a shifty fool. So needless to say, I’m a bit peeved by this bit of bullshit.

After this, I’ll pay those bills with paper checks.