Darn kids these days

Answering a knock on my door I was greeted by a young teenager, female, wearing a tank top and shorts, saying she's collecting money for hospitals so they can buy protective gear.

No purse, no clipboard, nothing. AND NO MASK.

Good gods girl, if you're going to try to scam people put a little effort in it.

I'm sorry I didn't pull out my cellphone and take her picture... just to scare her.

I waved her away without a word. Then I went upstairs and watched her through the window as she went to a few other doors. She seemed to hesitate at every doorstep and paced back and forth on the sidewalk before attempting another. I don't think she got a single person to respond.

After a few more tries she started walking down the street without stopping to scam anyone else. I'm wondering if she'd been pressured into it because it was obvious her heart wasn't in it.

-m

Here's one for Moxie Man.... (squirrels)

In one of our neighbor's back yard is a butternut tree. The fruit if the tree has a green, fleshy outside with a hard nut on the inside. The inside the nut has a small amount of very sweet material. You need a pick to get it out so it's not commercially viable although it was harvested in previous centuries by the Native Americans.

Squirrels love the stuff. From the activity I've seen lately we've had a bumper crop of the furry maniacs. I've seen them in groups of four hanging out on front lawns like a gang hyped up on meth - except instead of fighting they run away. We've also had an extra large dropping of butternut fruit.

The squirrels peel away the fruit which rots and stains everything to a dark brown, then leave the hard husks everywhere.

Then last night I was closing a downstairs window - the old crank out type - and the window got stuck open.

Some furry f*cker and stashed a whole fruit on the window sill.

I think this is the year I collect all the fruit that ends up on my lawn and throw it back onto our neighbor's yard. Their tree... they can deal with the fruit.

-m