Update

My daughter has been down at the coast (Corpus Christi) with a friend's family for about a week. My son spent last night and will spend tonight at Grandpa's house. My wife has been working. So I've had two nights in a row with no interruptions except the $#@! telephone. Both kids come home tomorrow. So the house has been weirdly quiet.

I watched District 9 last night and enjoyed it very much. It gripped me and sucked me in right from the beginning and never let go. My minor gripe is that the aliens were only physically alien; psychologically they were just like humans. Also their language, though not reproduceable by humans, could be understood by them and was easily translated into English (or whatever that is they speak in Johannesburg). But I guess they couldn't have told the story they did if the aliens had been too different.

What I enjoyed the most was the psychological transformation of the main human character. He started out as an odious, mostly self-serving bureaucrat and ended up...well, if you haven't seen it I guess I shouldn't give away too many spoilers. But as I said on that other place (FB), being victimized by the government you thought you were a valued part of can probably do that to you.

Also when they got the aliens' weapons to work the carnage was totally cool. And I now have the urge to say "fookin'" a lot.

I hope they never make a sequel. That would ruin the story. But I'm sure they will.

I've found two possums in meter boxes this week. One Monday, one today. The humidity this week has been terrible, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that the alleys have become nearly impassable. Also I learned that the little spines on those big wild sunflowers will make you look like someone took a cat-o-nine-tails to you if you're not careful. In some of those alleys, the sunflowers are growing eight feet high with stems that are 2-3 inches wide at the base. Avoid brushing against them with bare skin.

And on Monday something bit me. I don't know what it was, and it's starting to heal now, but it left a big wound that looks like a very large mosquito bite, surrounded by a bruise. Could've been some kind of spider, I guess. Whatever it was crawled way up inside my pants leg before it bit, and when it happened I didn't even feel it. Which by the way is an odd phenomenon I've noticed before. Many times I have discovered minor injuries I never noticed before when I'm taking a shower at home after a bad day.

I had to schedule a day off Friday so I can be home with the kids. So...short week this week and a three-day weekend coming up. I am definitely going to take the kids fishing at my dad's tank this weekend. He says he has mudcats and "perch" (not really perch, as I said before) that are big enough to catch with a hook. So we'll see.

Sigh...next week is going to be the week when I get all my worst routes, and I have to check on my dad's deer every day because he's going on a vacation. It's fawning time, but it doesn't look like there will be any new births while he's gone. His stock is up to about 25 deer now, not counting fawns. He has several bucks with antlers all velvety right now.