WDM, IA - Who Cuts Your Hair?

Aha, it’s Saturday. Yesterday, Gary asked if I wanted to boogie. ‘You know, it’s Friday night and we always boogie on Friday night.’ News to me. I thought we sat at our computers in the evening as usual. Where does he get this boogie idea? Then he described a perfect night of boogieing - maybe we’d go to Barnes and Noble and he’d sit drinking coffee, working on his computer and I could run around looking at new books. Yep, that’s my sweet honey bunch’s idea of a fun night of boogieing. Must be why I married him. Well, I can do him one better - I turned him down. I told him I could get more done at home - and, isn’t that the point of a Friday night - getting something productive done?

So we stayed home but today we went out to Panera for breakfast. A leisurely breakfast, hot coffee, news on our I Pads and classical music playing in the background. Yep, we sure know how to boogie. But, of course, ‘boogie’ is such a passé term that you know we’re too out of style to know how to do it. 

But, if you think we’re exciting by starting our day at Panera, you’re going to really think we’re party animals when you hear what we did next. Ready for this? It’s big, really BIG - we went to the grocery store. Whoo - eee. Actually, since we retired, we’ve been going on weekdays since it’s less frantic then but today, we’re out of sync, out of our comfort zone and living on the edge.

And, here’s where it gets really strange. I was cruising the aisles looking for a bag of lentils when a woman accosted me and asked where I get my hair cut. You’ve got to be kidding, of course. No one asks ME where I get my hair cut. Incredible. I laughed in her face and told her that she didn’t want to know. Great Clips, the one on Ashworth and 60th, I told her. She then asked if I had anyone special do it. Nope, I just go in and take pot luck. She’s looking for someone to do her hair since the last cut she had was a ‘disaster.’ I didn’t touch that one. Then to further blow her mind, I told her that I trim my own hair when my original cut gets feeling kinda shaggy. I just take a pair of scissors, start at one ear lobe, cut up over my forehead and down to the other ear lobe - and, amazingly I had done it today - just when she thought it looked so good.

Back at home we started in on the main project of the day: trying to solve our bunny problem. We have hostas planted in front of our home - a simple collection of home plantings. Easy to care for. But, we have rabbits somewhere around here and they eat the living daylights out of them. I’ve tried coyote blood around them (although these are city rabbits and how in the world they learned to be afraid of coyotes, I’ll never know - but this is supposed to be a common repellant) but, sure enough, since they are truly city rabbits this did not repel them. I’ve tried hiring the 2 little poochies next door but all they want to do is poop around our hostas. Last year I covered them with a black netting which worked but looked a bit strange and, because it was close to the plants, probably prevented them from reaching their full potential.

Last year we didn’t get home til mid-May, too late to prevent the rabbits from munching on the buffet table we had planted for them. This year is going to be different. We’re back home early this year, before the hostas have even started to peek through the mulch. We’ve in time to save them and have them flourish. We have already bought our chocolate bunnies and now it’s time to get rid of the real thing. Chocolate bunnies are cute, real bunnies are not.

We knew the rabbits lived close to us but I had always thought they lived in the bushes next door but Gary saw one sneak under our porch stoop last week so we now know where they might be coming from and can concentrate on keeping them out of there. (As Pogo said: ‘We have met the enemy and it is us.’) Our plan is to stuff rolled-up chicken wire under and behind the siding and the stoop all the way around so that it keeps the rabbits out and then cover it with mulch so it’s not obvious.

I raked the mulch out from under the siding and was able to push the rolled up chicken wire under there and cover it with the mulch. Easy enough. Meanwhile, Gary was taking some of the steps off the risers on the stoop. When he got them off, we looked under the stoop and, sure enough, there was an old nest, lots of lint from the dryer vent next door, lots of leaves all piled around in a cosy little circle. Looked like a nest to me. I took a rake handle and stirred it up, to make sure that there were no little bunnies there now and then we proceeded to stuff rolled-up chicken wire under the steps to keep the rabbits getting under the stoop from the front.

Gary then screwed the steps back on and we’re done.

A good day’s work and it’s time for dinner.