Tweaked back, character bios, and the return of Squirrel Wars
Well, another Saturday blog.
Couple big news items this week: first, I somehow tweaked my back on Thursday. No clue how; everything was fine and normal for the first half of Thursday, then about 2:30 I decided to go for a quick walk before my Zoom clarinet lesson and when I got up from my chair, it felt like I pulled my right hamstring and hip.
I went for the walk anyway, and it felt fine when on the walk, but then was stiff and sore when I got back to the point where it ached just sitting down.
Then it got worse throughout the evening. Friday morning it seemed better but was more in the lower back… and again got worse throughout the day.
Earlier today it seemed fine when I got up, but I could only sit at my audio workstation computer for long enough to record the voice-overs for this week’s Vampire’s Ball and not long enough to actually edit the show.
I had to take a few lie-downs, each time the hip/back was better after an hour of lying down.
I’m thinking it’ll be fine by Monday, but of course I can’t get the Vampire’s Ball done on time today. Hopefully I can finish the edits and post it tomorrow.
I did manage to get some content written for the Nick White Show‘s website, specifically character bios and an about the creator page:
I think the bio page for mix engineer Richard Browne might be my favorite:
(starting conversation is between Nick and his receptionist Sally.)
Anyway, the other big news of the week is Squirrel Wars 2.0.
I wrote about my battles with the squirrels who found their way into the house (attic and between the floor joists) last spring, and we managed to get them evicted, but last week I thought I heard the sounds of scratching in the attic. But only briefly and then I didn’t hear it.
Monday, however, brought loads of squirrel noises, and so on Tuesday my father came and we figured out the little shit was coming in via the power lines and had chewed through the plastic mesh covering the gable vent.
Why the fuck a previous owner used plastic mesh over a vulnerable place in a town overrun by squirrels, I’ll never know.
So on Monday night I got no sleep due to the squirrel and me thumping my ceiling in my bedroom and trying to scare it out. Dad wasn’t able to get up to the peak to block access on Tuesday so all day and night I blasted bellydance music on the premise that I heard squirrels don’t like human noises, and bellydance music is both erratic enough to startle vermin and familiar enough to me that I hoped to sleep through it… well, I guess I sorta slept on Tuesday night.
Wednesday got the squirrel blocked out.
About 4:30pm I was in the upstairs bedroom and heard the little bitch going insane trying to scratch her way back in. I kept thumping the ceiling and lunging at the squirrel through the window and she kept running away but coming back a moment later.
I tried to get a photo but only got the fuzzy tail:
And I’ve heard her come back and run around the roof looking for access since. Today when I was out about to go on a short walk, I saw her on the roof and decided it was time to be a bitch and huck rocks at her.
I have terrible aim, though, so she soon figured out I couldn’t hit her and she refused to budge from the peak:
Well, I have 7 spike strips left over from last spring’s squirrel proofing, and tomorrow Dad will pop by and put one on the peak where she’s sitting in the above pic and 3 on each side of the fascia board blocking the access to the roof from the power lines.
Also, this has me thinking yet again about getting a dog. Not just to chase the squirrel, but I’ve been thinking about getting a mutt for a few years and it seems I’m always waiting for some later more convenient date and time passes and I still have no dog.
And I looked into the rules about moving to the US with a dog and it seems all I need is a letter from the vet since I would have to have the dog’s shots up to date anyway and nothing special is required beyond the usual.
So… we’ll see. Maybe by April I’ll have mutt pics here.
I didn’t manage to get out and take any flower pics today, but earlier this week I did find something tragic:
Those are winter-killed flower buds on one of my camellias. Shit. The bush will survive, and I will probably plant it in the backyard later in the spring, but there’s a fair amount of damage that wasn’t there in December, so I guess this is from the January snowfall and freeze.
