The Long Version
So anyway, Monday night after work we drove down to see if the place where I was supposed to take my road test was accessible, since I knew it was near the area that was (and still is) flooded. It was on the near side of the roadblock, so we headed back home, whereupon I had to stop in the middle of the little street that cuts up to our apartment building because some critter was at the side of the road looking interested in crossing. It was a rabbit. A black rabbit -- wild rabbits in the US are brown.
We stopped the car in the middle of the road and got out for a closer look. The bunny hopped on up the road, and, as we followed, into our parking lot, where we got to play a big game of keep away, staying between the bunny and the brush. She wasn't terrified of humans, just untrusting about being touched by unfamiliar ones. Finally, since it was obvious we weren't catching her on our own, I ran up to get Andrea's phone so we could call Kirk (Andrea's former art school teacher and head of the local rabbit rescue, who as it happens lives about 3 blocks away) and see if he and Jaime (Jamie?) -- Kirk's boyfriend -- could help. They said they'd be right over, and thus begun the dance of two humans and one rabbit as the former tried to a) keep the latter still (no success at all), b) get ahold of the latter (almost!), and c) keep the latter from getting away entirely (well enough that when the guys arrived with flashlights, a net, and some portable fence, we knew where she was hiding).
Eventually we flushed her out of the brush and Kirk netted her, and we got her into a carrier so we could bring her in and they could check her out. She's at least part lionhead, and officially we're fostering her for now, but with fewer bunnies than we had originally planned to have, and one appearing more or less on our doorstep... (also, she is so cute).
I was up pretty late that night on account of adrenaline from chasing rabbits around and generally being busy talking baseball (especially since the Brewers, the team that's distracting me from the Red Sox this year, fired their manager with 12 games left to play), I think we did, um, something in the morning (probably got bunny stuff), and then I napped before the road test that afternoon. Passed without incident (and actually managed the faux parallel parking quite handily despite the last time I'd even practiced it having been two vehicles ago in an empty parking lot; the Cobalt steers SO nicely and is small, so it wasn't bad). Promptly took the car out on my own last night to pick up some goodies at the health food store (and discovered a fabulous liquor store that also carries the cheese for your wine and cheese party, among other fun things, since I'd wanted some Blue Moon and did not want to venture back PAST the apartment to get it), and today I ran an assortment of errands in the afternoon, including picking up some new shoes as my existing sneakers were just too beat up. It is very exciting!
I like the Brewers' new manager already, since he promptly yanked a starter who'd been having a particularly bad time of it his last several games and put Seth McClung, my favorite overly tall high-round draft pick who's struggled in the majors (and also my favorite redhead), back in the rotation, so I guess it's time to cross Wisconsin off my visited-states list (now at 35 plus D.C.) next week, as his last start of the season will be at home against the Pirates, and Andrea's camera is excellent for taking pictures of baseball games. (She may come with, since the trip would fall on her days off, but now it's totally up to her instead of me making puppy dog eyes over dragging her along.)
Am thinking about taking a new schedule. I've been doing the 4 10-hour days thing (which happens to also be the working all weekend thing) for almost two years, since I picked that schedule up not long after I finished my training, but it's time for a change, and now I can work an 8 hour day, since I don't need Andrea to drive me and therefore she doesn't need to sleep specifically in between dropping me off and picking me up. They just advertised for a class working 2:00pm-10:30pm Sunday-Thursday, though I intend to ask for 1:30-10:00 or 1:00-9:30. (Amusingly, my original schedule was 12:30-9:00pm, and I kind of hated it, but after two years of getting weekends off being like pulling teeth, I'm totally willing to live with the working nights for a while; having my license also means I can start applying to WMU with an eye toward going back to school once I have free tuition. (Plus there are many office jobs of the sort I would like to have there anyway, and I need to get out of the credit and banking industry like whoa, but the biggest reason to apply for WMU jobs is definitely tuition.)
Tomorrow we take the pretty black bun (who actually has some brown and even some few white hairs mixed with the black) up to the vet for a "we found her outside" type checkup and to see about getting her some meds for her little bunny cold, and Friday it's back to work, hopefully to find that I've sorted out a way to cover next Friday morning so that I can go to an 8PM Eastern ballgame and either let Andrea drive home late at night or crash at a Motel 6 and drive home in the morning.
Finally, for your edification/amusement/whatever, flooding in downtown Kalamazoo. This was several days ago, at a bank branch I sometimes use, sent to me by a coworker. I'm, um, glad we live on the second floor AND on a hill.
We stopped the car in the middle of the road and got out for a closer look. The bunny hopped on up the road, and, as we followed, into our parking lot, where we got to play a big game of keep away, staying between the bunny and the brush. She wasn't terrified of humans, just untrusting about being touched by unfamiliar ones. Finally, since it was obvious we weren't catching her on our own, I ran up to get Andrea's phone so we could call Kirk (Andrea's former art school teacher and head of the local rabbit rescue, who as it happens lives about 3 blocks away) and see if he and Jaime (Jamie?) -- Kirk's boyfriend -- could help. They said they'd be right over, and thus begun the dance of two humans and one rabbit as the former tried to a) keep the latter still (no success at all), b) get ahold of the latter (almost!), and c) keep the latter from getting away entirely (well enough that when the guys arrived with flashlights, a net, and some portable fence, we knew where she was hiding).
Eventually we flushed her out of the brush and Kirk netted her, and we got her into a carrier so we could bring her in and they could check her out. She's at least part lionhead, and officially we're fostering her for now, but with fewer bunnies than we had originally planned to have, and one appearing more or less on our doorstep... (also, she is so cute).
I was up pretty late that night on account of adrenaline from chasing rabbits around and generally being busy talking baseball (especially since the Brewers, the team that's distracting me from the Red Sox this year, fired their manager with 12 games left to play), I think we did, um, something in the morning (probably got bunny stuff), and then I napped before the road test that afternoon. Passed without incident (and actually managed the faux parallel parking quite handily despite the last time I'd even practiced it having been two vehicles ago in an empty parking lot; the Cobalt steers SO nicely and is small, so it wasn't bad). Promptly took the car out on my own last night to pick up some goodies at the health food store (and discovered a fabulous liquor store that also carries the cheese for your wine and cheese party, among other fun things, since I'd wanted some Blue Moon and did not want to venture back PAST the apartment to get it), and today I ran an assortment of errands in the afternoon, including picking up some new shoes as my existing sneakers were just too beat up. It is very exciting!
I like the Brewers' new manager already, since he promptly yanked a starter who'd been having a particularly bad time of it his last several games and put Seth McClung, my favorite overly tall high-round draft pick who's struggled in the majors (and also my favorite redhead), back in the rotation, so I guess it's time to cross Wisconsin off my visited-states list (now at 35 plus D.C.) next week, as his last start of the season will be at home against the Pirates, and Andrea's camera is excellent for taking pictures of baseball games. (She may come with, since the trip would fall on her days off, but now it's totally up to her instead of me making puppy dog eyes over dragging her along.)
Am thinking about taking a new schedule. I've been doing the 4 10-hour days thing (which happens to also be the working all weekend thing) for almost two years, since I picked that schedule up not long after I finished my training, but it's time for a change, and now I can work an 8 hour day, since I don't need Andrea to drive me and therefore she doesn't need to sleep specifically in between dropping me off and picking me up. They just advertised for a class working 2:00pm-10:30pm Sunday-Thursday, though I intend to ask for 1:30-10:00 or 1:00-9:30. (Amusingly, my original schedule was 12:30-9:00pm, and I kind of hated it, but after two years of getting weekends off being like pulling teeth, I'm totally willing to live with the working nights for a while; having my license also means I can start applying to WMU with an eye toward going back to school once I have free tuition. (Plus there are many office jobs of the sort I would like to have there anyway, and I need to get out of the credit and banking industry like whoa, but the biggest reason to apply for WMU jobs is definitely tuition.)
Tomorrow we take the pretty black bun (who actually has some brown and even some few white hairs mixed with the black) up to the vet for a "we found her outside" type checkup and to see about getting her some meds for her little bunny cold, and Friday it's back to work, hopefully to find that I've sorted out a way to cover next Friday morning so that I can go to an 8PM Eastern ballgame and either let Andrea drive home late at night or crash at a Motel 6 and drive home in the morning.
Finally, for your edification/amusement/whatever, flooding in downtown Kalamazoo. This was several days ago, at a bank branch I sometimes use, sent to me by a coworker. I'm, um, glad we live on the second floor AND on a hill.