Coon Wars

30 March - A couple of raccoons seemed to have made their home somewhere in the back yard. This is certainly not a bad thing although one has to be careful as they have a deserved reputation for being disease carrying vermin, very cute disease carrying vermin, but disease carrying vermin nonetheless. Sometime over the past week dozens of garbage bags have appeared in the back yard, possibly due to the vacation of one of the basement flats underneath the main house. The garbagemen won’t take that much stuff away so they've been left there and the raccoons have started to have their way with them, which hasn’t helped the amenity of the household. AM hoping the cleaner will be making one of her impromptu visits over the next few days as i'm incapable of doing much and the rest of the household also seems to be suffering phantom injuries of their own preventing them from doing anything to raise the place from squalor. We shall see.
My ability to sleep in seems to be improving somewhat of late but this could also be interpreted as my ability to wake up early seems to be getting worse. I'm certainly glad to be getting a bit of rest from the strains that have been accumulating over the past few months, which was not helped by the past few weeks of non stop activity but I have to be careful not to fall into the trap of lethargy. 1949 is, or at least can be, a great place but its not the location I want to be spending the next few weeks of recovery.
A rather tasty breakfast in a rather unsanitary establishment was the first order of the day before I headed back to the core to do some errands. Apparently Novex is on a recruiting drive in a desperate attempt to replace their lost star. They're offering very generous rates including a minimum daily rate that is well above what some of the other couriers make (it would have been nice to see this kind of financial altruism when I was there but its the same with any company - they only ever offer more money when they're desperae - ask for a raise for three years and you'll get knocked back but quit and they're always going to offer to match the new offer). Lee even came downtown to recruit while I was there although his methods left much to be desired (chain smoking and bitching about how crap the company is and then making the offer isn't going to be a successful selling strategy). Did a lot of catching up despite my absence being only a couple of days but did catch up with Herb who was a bit hesitant as to whether I was still eligible for a sunshine muffin (it turns out that I still am). They're not the best muffins in the world but they're made with love and they are very dense and digest slowly making them an excellent source of afternoon fuel. Plans to go to a beach party at one of the downtown nightclubs were cancelled by the onset of a mild case of the disease known as the common cold (or maybe it's just the early warningstages of avian flu, I don't really know, i'm not a doctor) and King Kong was assigned to be the entertainment for the night. It sure is a big screen movie but it was still entertainingenough. Did a bit more future planning but need to speak to the doctor before specifics can be set.