Thanksgiving Memories
I am sure that this is the most, um, whatever it is story to emerge from anyone's Thanksgiving adventures - - -
Among the other excitements we had this Thanksgiving was a visit from my aunt from England. She came to visit my mother, but Eva's visit coincided with the visit of one rat and its relatives. Ma has been trying to get rid of the rats but they are as persistent as Al Sharpton.
Here is the story.
Occasional readers of this feature may recall that I make my own beer, and also mead, from time to time. The result of this is delicious beer and also a sludgy muck at the bottom of the carboy composed of brewer's yeast, spent yeast whatever (probably yeast poo), spices, and hops. I am told that people, more particularly Australians and stringy health nuts, pay good money for this stuff so I thought I would save some of it and give it to my mother, on the grounds that she is the only crazy person whom I will talk to semi-willingly. I did, and put it in a jar and gave it to her and she kept it for a long time.
Then Eva came and threw it, and lots of other things, out in the yard in an attempt to clean up. Later on that day Ma and Eva are in the kitchen making abortive stabs at cleaning and then here comes the rat; however, instead of skulking and scurrying, as rats usually do, this one is staggering along in the middle of the floor and moving very slowly. Ma and Eva are more horrified than usual; they could not figure out what was wrong with it for some time until finally they realised that the rat was drunk.
Eva managed to coax the rat onto the glue trap and it began to flutter about. Eva tried to hit it with the shovel, but it squeaked and that intimidated her, so Ma had to get a bucket of water and detergent and they tried to drown the rat. The rat, still partially attached to the glue trap, managed to float in the bucket (rather like a raft) and then they had to figure out what to do- Eva hit on the idea of pouring not just water on it, but BOILING water. Ma rejected this idea as being too cruel, which I agreed with; it's bad enough to have to kill it but to scald it also seems really awful. The rat struggled mightily, which confused Ma, who then wondered if they were doing the right thing. Finally they filled the bucket more and put a heavy tray on top of it in the idea that it would eventually turn over and drown.
Among the other excitements we had this Thanksgiving was a visit from my aunt from England. She came to visit my mother, but Eva's visit coincided with the visit of one rat and its relatives. Ma has been trying to get rid of the rats but they are as persistent as Al Sharpton.
Here is the story.
Occasional readers of this feature may recall that I make my own beer, and also mead, from time to time. The result of this is delicious beer and also a sludgy muck at the bottom of the carboy composed of brewer's yeast, spent yeast whatever (probably yeast poo), spices, and hops. I am told that people, more particularly Australians and stringy health nuts, pay good money for this stuff so I thought I would save some of it and give it to my mother, on the grounds that she is the only crazy person whom I will talk to semi-willingly. I did, and put it in a jar and gave it to her and she kept it for a long time.
Then Eva came and threw it, and lots of other things, out in the yard in an attempt to clean up. Later on that day Ma and Eva are in the kitchen making abortive stabs at cleaning and then here comes the rat; however, instead of skulking and scurrying, as rats usually do, this one is staggering along in the middle of the floor and moving very slowly. Ma and Eva are more horrified than usual; they could not figure out what was wrong with it for some time until finally they realised that the rat was drunk.
Eva managed to coax the rat onto the glue trap and it began to flutter about. Eva tried to hit it with the shovel, but it squeaked and that intimidated her, so Ma had to get a bucket of water and detergent and they tried to drown the rat. The rat, still partially attached to the glue trap, managed to float in the bucket (rather like a raft) and then they had to figure out what to do- Eva hit on the idea of pouring not just water on it, but BOILING water. Ma rejected this idea as being too cruel, which I agreed with; it's bad enough to have to kill it but to scald it also seems really awful. The rat struggled mightily, which confused Ma, who then wondered if they were doing the right thing. Finally they filled the bucket more and put a heavy tray on top of it in the idea that it would eventually turn over and drown.
posted by SavageATL at 2:02 PM
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