(long tale of woe follows) My wife, Marianne, and I love to head to the shore any chance we get to beach comb. We live about two hours from Charleston, SC and the beach we go to often is Folly Beach. Since we spend all our time looking for shells I rarely bring a camera because my hands are usually pretty sandy and wet. Today I took our Canon A80 and got this photo of the Morris Island light house. As you can see there is nothing left of Morris Island due to erosion. Yes the light house is tilting.
http://homer.chem.sc.edu/perry/peso/img_1962b.jpg The image is nothing special but offer comments if you please. We had a great time at the beach. We found a couple of species of shells we have not found before, which is rare because we have been to this beach pretty often. Everything was going great until we got home. Shortly after we finished cleaning up we heard a thud from the fireplace. At first I was not sure what it was but soon figured out that some animal fell into the chimney. My hope of it climbing out the same way it got in was quickly dashed. When it started clawing on the flue door I knew it had to be a squirrel. After several minutes of paralysis we devised a plan to trap the squirrel in a large plastic storage container that fit under the flue. We sealed off the opening of the fire place with a clear plastic shower curtain and duct tape so that if something went wrong the squirrel could not run into the house. We had the lid of the container ready to slide over the plastic tub. All we had to do was: 1) open the flue 2) have squirrel fall into tub 3) slide cover onto tub. So I reach in and pull the flue open. We hear something fall into the tub and we slam the tub shut. Great, the plan worked! Then to our dismay we realize the squirrel was on top of the cover. After cursing we get the cover off the tub and find the damn rodent perched on the inner wall of the hearth. We tried coaxing him into the tub but had to pull open the shower curtain to reach in with a fire poker. The furry menace did not take the hint. I reach for a hockey stick and with the stick in one hand and the poker in the other I try to force the sooty rodent to fall in the tub. This is when things went horribly wrong. As I am trying to knock him into the tub he crawls onto the poker. He then races along the poker, to my arm then over my head and down my back as I knelt in front of the fire place. Marianne screams as the squirrel runs to the far corner of the family room. We chase him into the kitchen (thankfully he does not go behind the fridge), back into the family room. Here he tries to jump into/over the TV. We finally get him into the enclosed porch and finally out into the yard. Afterwards I thought I should have taken photos of the ordeal but at the time I had other things on my mind. I do have this photo of the aftermath: http://homer.chem.sc.edu/perry/peso/img_1966a.jpg This is the back of my shirt and the tracks left by the sooty pest. <----------------------------------------------------> Perry Pellechia Primary email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Alternate email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Home Page: http://homer.chem.sc.edu/perry <---------------------------------------------------->
