It’s been a while, I know, but I’m back on the road, which means it’s a good time for me to pause, reflect, and try to tell a couple funny stories about life around this world of ours.
Many of you know that the summer was a busy one, remodeling a house in Portland, two family weddings, preparing for comprehensive exams, and spending time with people that we love. But perhaps my favorite story thus far this summer has to do with uninvited mammal guests.
See, during the remodel project we at one point had to move everything in the house to the basement to refinish the floors. The kitchen was the last to go, and while items were being moved, a box of old pizza was set outside the back door overnight. The next morning as we were working, Justin happened to walk by and see a patch of grey hair in the corner of the box. “Matt, come check it out, there is a mouse over here!”
So I ran out, and the first words out my mouth were “Dude, that’s no mouse, that’s a bona fide RAT.” This thing, which thought it was hiding by not looking at us, was easily a foot long, with patchy hair and some weird growth on its face. It wasn’t pretty. We called out our friend Alex, who decided the rat was hungry and promptly threw some breadcrumbs at it. Once that happened, the rat knew the gig was up, and decided to bolt. However, in our desires to see the rat, we formed a semi-circle around the box, AND happened to leave the door to the house open. All at once, as if in slow motion we realized our mistake, and unfortunately the rat beat us to the door and proceeded to run into the basement.
Now there are two important things to keep in mind here, 1) the basement was full of a household’s worth of stuff and 2) that’s where we were planning on sleeping the next several nights until the floor finish set. So, Alex and I proceeded to rummage and explore the various boxes, expecting a rat to jump out and chew through our necks at any moment. Eventually, we heard something fall behind the freezer. Using a series of posterboard and broomsticks, we managed to create a barrier that would only allow the rat to proceed back up the steps and out the door. At least, that was the plan.
By the time we actually managed to convince the rat to run again, we realized that it was probably getting mail from AARP. It was moving pretty slow, and had trouble getting up a step, nonetheless the 10 to get to the door. After several attempts, and with a little help from some brooms, it made it. We all thought the ordeal was over, except for Justin, who went after the rat with a dustpan (yes, a dustpan).
Incredibly, Justin managed to pin the geriatric rodent against the outside wall of the garage, and decided that he wanted to get rid of it by grabbing its tail and hurling it over the wall behind the house that leads to the interstate. Alex managed to find two rubber gloves for him to wear, and just as Justin was getting a good hold of the tail, the head of the rat poked out the other side of the dustpan and it hissed, showing four long, yellow teeth searching for something to enact revenge upon. At that moment, Justin’s plan was revised, and, well, the rat is no longer part of this world. We can just leave that part of the story out for now.
Yes, I know the story is pretty epic, but in the end, Justice prevailed over evil.
P.S. More stories to come. Today I travel to India leading a group of students on a service learning excursion to HOINA (see my past blog entries if that doesn’t sound familiar) More blogs to follow!
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