Boo Bear enjoyed a good first day back at school. I skipped the first day of school picture. I don’t think I have actually taken one in about a decade. When your “kid” is 6 foot 1 and sporting the beginnings of a mustache, back to school pictures seem a bit silly. On the other hand, if you admire Mr. Boo’s mustache, he gets very silly and happy. The other interesting change is his voice, it has gotten really deep. For years, he has had a sort of high-pitched cackle when he laughs. Over the summer, this cackle has turned into a deep, rumbling bass. It catches me by surprise every time he is amused by something. Since he is amused by many things these days, I catch myself jumping a lot. This is also because sudden noises from Boo can mean the onset of a seizure and after last Friday night, I am a bit of a nervous Nellie.
In the Herndon house, this week is the beginning of Operation Cat and Mouse. Our house is well over 100 years old. Over the summer, it has become a mouse hostel. Eli and I have deep cleaned repeatedly. We have put all perishable pantry foods in plastic bins. Robert has set out mouse traps. (Honestly, I hate mouse traps and killing anything, but these little critters have started nesting in my dish towels. They need to leave, and now!) Eli has 4 cats that live with her mom. She says they are excellent mousers and we could borrow them for a bit. I never thought Robert would go for it, as he is allergic to cats (but deep down he loves them) but he is as sick of the mice as we are. So, hopefully, this weekend, Eli’s mom will show up with a few hungry cats. I plan to put their food, water, and litter pans in the guest bedroom which seems to be mouse central. They will have free range of the entire middle floor of the house. We are hoping one good weekend of mousing will solve the problem and these mice will gone and tell other mice that this is not a good place to hang out. Luckily, Mr. Boo likes cats. The dogs may be a bit surprised, but I think they can handle it. I doubt that the hedgehogs will really care. As long as they have bugs to eat and wheels to run on, they are pretty happy.
As I type, Mr. Boo is sleeping soundly. I am not, these days. I am running on vampire time. I am wide awake at night and really just want to climb in my coffin and sleep during the day. My family is not cool with his, so I am just drinking lots of coffee! I guess I am not fully a vampire yet as I still greatly enjoy garlic and am not usually scared of crosses. We shall see how thing progress over the course of the fall.
Thank you so much for all of your thoughts, prayers and kind words in the past week. It has meant a lot to us. In a few hours, I will rouse Boo from his slumbers, help him get dressed and put him on his beloved bus. I call it the yellow bus of happiness. I hope today something makes my readers happy. Be good humans and we will chat soon. Peace.
Harriet's Hedgehogs and Autism Advocacy 