Gone camping for the week
I was out cabin camping for Thanksgiving, which we do every year. I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of plastic crinkling, and it kept going and going and going. I got up to check what it was, and it was a mouse stuck to a glue trap. Gingerly, I picked up the trap, dropped it in a plastic bag, and looked around for a big rock to crush it with. Upon coming up empty, I decided to simply crush it under my car's tire. A grisly affair, but I'm sure it was over before the poor thing felt it.
I don't mind killing white mice. They're invasive to North America, so sparing the poor soul isn't really doing much good. I've talked to my dad about the damn glue traps, but he won't budge. Everyone tells him to just use the instant kill ones, but he says the glue traps are more effective.
My sister said she found a glue trap discarded in the stairwell of her apartment building. Someone had apparently caught a mouse and then thrown it out into the public commons, still ensnared. It had vomited, shit itself, it was bleeding from peeling its own skin off, and it was just stuck there in its own filth, for hours at least. She took the trap, eased the mouse out of the glue trap, fed him a little, cleaned 'im up, and took him to an animal rescue shelter. I doubt he lived long after that, but it was a remarkable gesture if nothing else.
Everyday people really do do the ugliest things. Us humans are given our several decades of life, awash with wonders and comforts and conveniences a little mouse could never even imagine. We complain that the time we get is too short, too full of drudgery and strife -- and I don't disagree -- but then we use the unfathomable power we've inherited to turn life into a waking nightmare for the other inhabitants of this Earth, creatures that only live for a blink of an eye by our standards, and are content to do nothing but eat our scraps till the end of their days.
Ugh.
My family was going to see my grandma tomorrow at a family gathering, probably for the last time. She was in the late stages of dementia, confined to a nursing home, and deeply withdrawn. I hadn't seen her since she was still lucid. She used to host parties for Christmas and Easter, with easter egg hunts for the kids. I would go to her house with my mom to pull weeds and bring her some food. She was such a sweet old lady, always happy to see everyone who came by. I wouldn't say I was close with her, but it was always so nice to see her. She owned a huge piece of uneven land out in the middle of nowhere, with a garden and a big, scraggly backyard.
Ever since her husband passed a few years ago, she's seemed a lot less interested in things. Her kids would come by a lot to check on her and get her out of the house, but she didn't really have much of a social life outside of that. She didn't eat a whole lot of everything except ice cream (but was still rake thin in her old age). She prayed a lot, and she would pray more and more as her condition got worse. It was the usual story, I guess. It started with little things, then she couldn't remember who came to see her or when. I've been so wrapped up in my own life, next thing I know she's broken her hip, living at a nursing home being fed her meals. My mom said that she would often go back to thinking she was a child in the afternoons, after her nap. She would worry about being late to school, or say that her mother would be worried about her. It must have been cruel, thinking she was a child, only to have a moment of clarity and find herself on her deathbed, with her mother long since passed.
She died yesterday night. My aunt got in touch with my mom, which was hard since the park gets horrible cell reception. I got up early to drive my mom home so she can meet with them. She was doing OK, all things considered. I'm doing OK too. For the most part, I don't feel too bad about it. She lived a damn long life, did all the shit she wanted to do. She had a loving family that took good care of her till the end. She ate more ice cream in those last couple years than most of us will probably ever eat in our lives. And I do feel that this is what she wanted. She saw her husband pass on, and she's been wanting to go with him ever since. She basically just sat in her home and waited for death until it finally came.
Good show, lady. And sorry I kept forgetting to call.
I don't mind killing white mice. They're invasive to North America, so sparing the poor soul isn't really doing much good. I've talked to my dad about the damn glue traps, but he won't budge. Everyone tells him to just use the instant kill ones, but he says the glue traps are more effective.
My sister said she found a glue trap discarded in the stairwell of her apartment building. Someone had apparently caught a mouse and then thrown it out into the public commons, still ensnared. It had vomited, shit itself, it was bleeding from peeling its own skin off, and it was just stuck there in its own filth, for hours at least. She took the trap, eased the mouse out of the glue trap, fed him a little, cleaned 'im up, and took him to an animal rescue shelter. I doubt he lived long after that, but it was a remarkable gesture if nothing else.
Everyday people really do do the ugliest things. Us humans are given our several decades of life, awash with wonders and comforts and conveniences a little mouse could never even imagine. We complain that the time we get is too short, too full of drudgery and strife -- and I don't disagree -- but then we use the unfathomable power we've inherited to turn life into a waking nightmare for the other inhabitants of this Earth, creatures that only live for a blink of an eye by our standards, and are content to do nothing but eat our scraps till the end of their days.
Ugh.
My family was going to see my grandma tomorrow at a family gathering, probably for the last time. She was in the late stages of dementia, confined to a nursing home, and deeply withdrawn. I hadn't seen her since she was still lucid. She used to host parties for Christmas and Easter, with easter egg hunts for the kids. I would go to her house with my mom to pull weeds and bring her some food. She was such a sweet old lady, always happy to see everyone who came by. I wouldn't say I was close with her, but it was always so nice to see her. She owned a huge piece of uneven land out in the middle of nowhere, with a garden and a big, scraggly backyard.
Ever since her husband passed a few years ago, she's seemed a lot less interested in things. Her kids would come by a lot to check on her and get her out of the house, but she didn't really have much of a social life outside of that. She didn't eat a whole lot of everything except ice cream (but was still rake thin in her old age). She prayed a lot, and she would pray more and more as her condition got worse. It was the usual story, I guess. It started with little things, then she couldn't remember who came to see her or when. I've been so wrapped up in my own life, next thing I know she's broken her hip, living at a nursing home being fed her meals. My mom said that she would often go back to thinking she was a child in the afternoons, after her nap. She would worry about being late to school, or say that her mother would be worried about her. It must have been cruel, thinking she was a child, only to have a moment of clarity and find herself on her deathbed, with her mother long since passed.
She died yesterday night. My aunt got in touch with my mom, which was hard since the park gets horrible cell reception. I got up early to drive my mom home so she can meet with them. She was doing OK, all things considered. I'm doing OK too. For the most part, I don't feel too bad about it. She lived a damn long life, did all the shit she wanted to do. She had a loving family that took good care of her till the end. She ate more ice cream in those last couple years than most of us will probably ever eat in our lives. And I do feel that this is what she wanted. She saw her husband pass on, and she's been wanting to go with him ever since. She basically just sat in her home and waited for death until it finally came.
Good show, lady. And sorry I kept forgetting to call.
