The Night Before

This photo was just put up on the Self Help Radio Tumblr site, which has nothing to do really with the show but instead is a place where I put up random photos I take while I wander around my otherwise uninteresting life.  I know that's what Instagram is for, but after the Twitter account, I decided that I wasn't terribly interested in another social media site that I had to pay attention to.  (Don't even get me started on whatever Vero is.)

Anyway, I spoke about my dead departed boy Ringo on this blog before, but I only recently revisited the photos I took of him before he died.  The picture above has a story that is memorable to me.

The night before Ringo died, I stayed up late, I couldn't sleep, I worried about him, I knew his end was near, I was out of sorts.  It took all my power not to just lie on the floor with him & wake him up with my sobbing.  But at some point - probably around 3am - I knew I had to get to sleep, so I turned my computer off, made sure all the doors were locked & the lights were out, & I went to bed.

We have motion detector lights in our backyard & after I brushed my teeth I noticed they were on.  I panicked for a moment & thought I had left a dog outside.  Pauline, for example, would probably sleep outside if we let her, especially if other animals made their way into the yard to play with her or be chased by her.

When I glanced out the bedroom window, I saw this pair above foraging for pecans amid the leaves.  I had never seen raccoons in our yard before.  I snapped pictures & stared & at one point, one of them saw me, realized I was no threat, & went back to looking for something to eat.  Eventually they wandered off & the light went out & I didn't want to bother them so I got into bed.

Of course, I was still unable to sleep, so I tried to tire myself out by reading about raccoons.