Three Good Deeds and a Wildlife Suicide...

Intriguing blog post title, don't you think?

So here's the kind of weekend I had...

On Saturday we had our annual family picnic. In the rain. 'Cause we've been doing everything in the rain lately 'cause it hasn't stopped raining for it seems like three weeks! But anyway, the picnic was at the home of one of Jack's cousins, and we hadn't seen the house yet. They bought it about a year and a half ago and were able to take advantage of the housing market before the official slump began... It's a $1.4 million dollar home that they got for the bargain price of around $750K! Anyway, they have an absolute dream of a master suite, a beautiful kitchen, and absolutely gorgeous landscaping (including a screened in porch and a multi-tiered koi pond!). Of course, I didn't have my camera with me...

After the picnic we went on to the lake, only to find that thanks to the conversion from analog to digital, we have ABSOLUTELY.NO.RECEPTION.AT.ALL.AT.THE.LAKE. And I refuse to pay for cable for a home we spend 1-2 nights in each week, so we will either watch movies, or find some other way to entertain ourselves.

On Sunday morning, we got up, went to church, went for breakfast at Bagels on the Hill, and then drove back home. Surprisingly, the sun, that big warm yellow orb in the sky we haven't seen in years (okay, I'm exaggerating!) was out. So Jack fiddled around outside while I went upstairs and started some more cleaning/purging of my scrapping room. At 10:30 we left for a rally at Kabob's. It was a rally for the Lake Hopatcong Alliance. The lake isn't in too good a shape this season - there are a lot of businesses failing 'cause there are very few tourists 'cause the lake is almost 2' below normal. This is and will continue to seriously impact the environment and the economy in the lake communities. The state is apparently letting 4.2 million gallons of water out of the lake a day, to feed the rivers and streams. After releasing 1.26 billion gallons too much water in December alone! The weeds are a problem, the town's budget was cut so the weed harvester operators were let go, there's no funding to operate the harvesters and the weeds are already high. With the water low, you can just imagine...

Anyway, off my soapbox...

We went to the rally and I went inside to buy a sticker for my car. They asked for a $5 donation so I paid with a $20 bill. As we turned to walk out, Jack asked how I paid for the sticker. I said, "With a $20 bill." "Well, they gave you $100 in change!"

????????????????????????????

I quickly turned around and gave them the money back - I hadn't even looked at the change and probably wouldn't have noticed 'til I got outside... I told the girls at the table what happened and they were so grateful; that was probably a 1/4 of their take for the whole rally! I got the correct change and we left. [Good deed #1]

We got back in the car and drove home. It wasn't far but it was up and down a couple of very steep hills so we drove. We turned onto our street and as I came around the first bend, there was a turtle crossing the road! I stopped the car and Jack got out, grabbed his gloves from the back of the truck and picked up the turtle to move him off the street. [Good deed #2] He needed gloves 'cause we have snapping turtles in the lake; better safe than sorry! Of course, being a scrapper, I wanted pictures so Jack walked over to the side of the car so I could take a picture or two. All of a sudden we heard a "tick, tick, tick, tick" from my engine. Our eyes met - I'm married to a part-time certified mechanic - my car just doesn't make strange noises for no reason!!! He thought perhaps there was a stick or something caught in the fan.

We drove home and I parked the car and went inside. I went back upstairs to work a bit and after 20 minutes or so, Jack shouted up at me, "Come down here now!"

Now, those of you who know me, well you know I took my sweet time 'cause I could tell he wasn't injured and I'm not one to come when called like the family pet... I got downstairs a minute or so later and went outside. He asked me to guess what was stuck in the car.

I immediately freaked out - "It had better not be a bird 'cause I've already had a bird stuck in my grill and that grossed me out!" "It's not a bird. Go look at the fan."

So I walked to the front of the car and looked down at the fan, but couldn't see anything. Jack said to just pull the shroud forward and peek down in there, so I did but I couldn't see anything.

As I bent closer to see if I could see, he said, "It's a snake."

Well, I must have jumped and screamed 'cause he started laughing and I started getting completely grossed out. I demanded (not my usual persona!) that he get that effin' snake out of my car 'cause I'm not effin' driving home with a snake wrapped around my fan and he'd better get the front end of my car off 'cause he's a mechanic and he can effin' do it....

Who knew Hyundai Santa Fes were so well-made? The pieces he needed to remove to get the snake out were all welded together! He called KD, our friend and the most awesome body shop guy on earth, and KD told him that all he could think of, if Jack couldn't get the front end off, was for Jack to take a knife and...

YUK! I told Jack to wash up for lunch, even though I was totally skeeved out! I told him to sterilize himselg - "I didn't touch the snake, Krys!" - but I wasn't buying it and said he'd better wash up the best he ever did...

We had lunch, then Jack took a wire hanger outside while I sat in the dining room and enjoyed some Roasted Pineapple and Poblano salsa with some chips and read Dean Koontz's Relentless. All of a sudden Jack called me outside again.

He had managed to hook it with the end of the hanger and get it out of the car.

IT.WAS.TWENTY-NINE.INCHES.LONG.

WITHOUT.ITS.HEAD.

YUK! [Wildlife Suicide referred to in blog post title.]

After we went home, I took Mom to Shop Rite and while I was waiting for her, I noticed that a woman was shopping in the same aisle as I was, with her twins in a double stroller and a toddler in the oversized shopping cart with the plastic car on the front end which is supposed to entertain your child but really only serves to get in the way of every other shopper in the store... She had her husband along to help but I heard one of the babies crying and I heard something fall out of the cart and she was looking but couldn't see what it was. I told the lady that the baby had dropped his rattle. She thanked me and said that the rattle wasn't really a problem but that he had lost his blankie somewhere and he was never going to go to sleep again 'cause he couldn't sleep without it.

"Was it small and green?" I asked. YES! I had seen another customer pick it up off the floor in the last aisle but I didn't know if she'd put it on the shelf or taken it to Customer Service... It didn't matter - that lady took off so fast! Mom and I moved on, but then I realized the mother hadn't come back in a while and the father was standing there with the three kids, one still crying. I walked over and asked if she'd found it, and he said not yet, so I went to the other aisle to look for it. (I realized I hadn't told her where we were standing when the other lady found it...) I saw it on the shelf, and returned it to the dad then went to find the mom who was still searching aisle by aisle. [Good deed #3]

And after that sunny day, three good deeds, and a wildlife suicide (who'd have thought a snake would crawl up into my car?!?), it's been raining ever since and nothing outstandingly good has happened since - except that I haven't had a pressure headache all week (and I probably just jinxed myself good!).