Oh, what a Day: Part Deux

After I finally feel asleep, it seemed like only minutes later that my alarm went off for me to get up and head over to the office. It was tough getting up and motivating myself to go to work.

When I stepped out of the door for the day, I decided to walk the long way to work, so I could see the house in it's final, burned out state. And it was such a sad site. All charred and broken and ugly, where it had once been white and pristine and beautiful. Several cars drove up the edge of the fenced driveway and then turned around after the occupants stared and shook their heads for a couple minutes. Finally, I, too, had to look away, and I turned my back and walked to the office.

I settled into my desk for the day, waiting for the The Guys to come in so I could hear the rest/more of the story. They finally arrived, bleary eyed, yet so kind in their willingness to re-lay the entire night's events again. It seemed almost unbelievable. One of the guys had gone to the gym that morning and said that the entire place was abuzz with the story of the fire last night. Many at the gym kept saying "oh yeah, it was the camp that burned down, right?"

Great, now the whole peninsula thinks our camp has burned to the ground.

Then as we were sitting in the office talking, a strange car drove by on the fire lane that isn't made to be driven on. We all looked at each other and then 2 of The Guys went outside to investigate. The rest of us continued to discuss the events of the day. When they came back they had another story to share.
Apparently, the person in the car had said that they were the "insurance agent" for the family of the burned down house. He then proceeded to ask for the family's phone number, which we didn't give him. And then he asked, "what was their last name again?" and "how do you spell that?"
Um, if you are my insurance agent you sure as heck better know my last name and my phone number. And asking how to spell it? Seriously, man, are you even TRYING to lie well?! Ambulance chaser...

After he left, we went and voted (Super Tuesday in our area) and were asked once again.

Oh, isn't that the address of that camp that burned down last night?

Um. No. The camp did not burn. It was a nearby house. Get your story straight people. Sheesh, gossip spread like wildfire in this little community!

We finally get back and then the next phase of the story takes place.

The day before, it had been discovered that a raccoon had taken up residence in the dark, dank basement of one of our buildings. Today was the day that The Guys would catch him. He didn't seem to like the traps The Guys had set, so it was huntin' time. They were gathering their "weapons" when one of them came in and said,

"There is a squirrel IN the Lodge. It ran up to me and finally stopped about 4 ft. from me before it realized I was there and then it took off into the chapel. I searched high and low and can't find the stupid thing. Gonna have to leave it for now cause we have to get this raccoon before it disappears."

What?!! What in the world is going on around here?!! Have the animals all gone crazy?!!

So the boys all saddled up and grabbed their weapons. I decided that this was one task I couldn't miss. I ran home, snatched my camera and came back just in time to see them all standing in the hallway with their weapons of choice. A lacrosse stick, a child's metal baseball bat, a small gun, a Maglite, a golf club and a trash can. Yes, these boys were ready for their prey. No way was it going to outsmart them...

I follow them downstairs to the basement to watch/laugh/photograph whatever would transpire. Here's proof that my job is never dull.



Just as we had him cornered IN the wall, a person ready on each floor, one of The Guys comes running down to us and says (I kid you not),

"Quick, put everything back. I put everything back in the closet (where he had been stationed) and shut the door."

Why?

"The health inspector is here."

Gulp.

For those of you who don't get the joy of interacting with the health inspector, let me tell you....Our is VERY thorough. He likes to show up, usually at the worst time possible, just to poke around. Now, we have never been shut down for anything and we run a very tight ship. Clean and passable. But we knew if he knew that we were hunting pesky raccoons, we would be knee deep in you know what.

So, we all gathered our gear/weapons and RAN back upstairs to look like we were all "working" on other things. More normal things.

Everything went fine. We passed once again and no one was the wiser of either one of our little creatures that apparently were able to outsmart about 6 of us full grown adults. We all went to lunch to return and find that the raccoon had disappeared.

We did find that dang squirrel though. He chewed a nice hole in one of our doors before we were able to open the door and shoo him out.

The day finally slowed down except for freezing rain and sleet that made the roads in our area more treacherous than a Jesse James train robbery.

So there you have it....a middle of the night awakening, a house on fire, countless discussions over said house, voting, huntin', squirrels and raccoons. All in a day's work.