We watched Rent-A-Pal last night. I had been looking forward to it for awhile, since Wil Wheaton was in it. It’s about a lonely guy who lives in his mother’s basement. Sounds like a setup for a oft-used Ready Player One line, doesn’t it? Anyway, the movie takes place in 1990 when VHS videotapes were the medium of choice for movies and videos.

So this lonely guy is using a dating service to try to find a mate. With this service you purchase videos of people of the opposite sex who you (or the service) think might be a match, you take them home and view them, then fill out paperwork on who you’d like to meet.

Well, this guy finds a tape in a bargain bin at the store called Rent-A-Pal, which promises a virtual friendship. He’s pretty lonely and can’t seem to find a match, so he buys it to try it out. This is where Wil Wheaton comes in. Wil’s character is the “Pal” in the video. A simple guy who just sits in a chair and seemingly converses with you in the video, pausing at the appropriate times, nodding, saying “mmm hmmm” when it’s your turn to speak, etc., etc. But there’s something eerie about this that you can’t quite grasp.

You’ll repeatedly wonder “Did he actually just respond to the guy?” and “Is he just going to come to life and talk to the guy one-on-one for real eventually? I won’t spoil that aspect for you, but I thought they did a great job keeping the audience wondering, building and building, right up until the climax of the movie when things just go horribly wrong.

Sandy and I both enjoyed it and thought it was good. If you grew up on VHS tapes and lived through that era, I think it’s a good one to watch. If you’re of Kevin’s generation–born in the 90’s–I’m not so sure you would “get it”.

Well, it’s that day again.  0.8181818181818181 ad infinitum. Hey, my post title looks like a math problem. Ignore it, Jim, ignore it. Move on.

Everyone’s re-posting everything possible about 9/11 on the web today, so I’ll just re-post my favorite 9/11 posts previously posted on my website, right here.  Nothing redundant about that, is there?  Here they are, in chronological order:

2010: Where were you on that fateful day? – This one’s my Favorite.  Ok, it was the day before 9/11, but still my favorite 9/11-related post on my site.

2014: Always Remember – Just a photo, that’s all.  But it’s worth a thousand words.

2015: Never Forget – Eerie snippets from that day.

2018: Bandage Off – 7 days after my right knee replacement.

The saddest original thing I’ll post today: I somehow misplaced my 9/11 Flag that I raise for the week surrounding 9/11 every year. I’ve been looking for it all this week and haven’t been able to find it anywhere. I’m sure it’ll turn up soon though. Most likely on 9/12. I found a small image of it on the web though. It’s the thumbnail image I used at the top of this post.

We’re watching the new TV show “Transplant”. The second episode aired recently, so we watched it last night. We’re hooked already. It’s a medical show about a doctor who came here (actually Canada, I just read, so not actually “here”) from Syria seeking a better life. I’m pretty sure he’s the titular “transplant” too, or he and his young sister who apparently came with him.

The first episode was pretty crazy with a truck crashing through the front window of a restaurant injuring several people. As it turns out, Bashir, the aforementioned doctor, worked there, and ended up saving the lives of everyone injured in the accident with his medical skills. One of the injured also just happened to be a big-shot at a hospital who had actually interviewed Bashir in the past and didn’t hire him. So once things settled down after the accident, the big-shot doctor decides to reconsider and re-interview Bashir. I’ll stop the spoilers at this point. But if you like medical dramas, I think this is one to watch.

Yeah, I work in a hospital… and I really enjoy medical shows. I work with computers and tech full-time and also really enjoy computers and tech the other 16 hours a day when I’m not working.

I’m currently reading/listening to the book “9/12 – The Epic Battle of the Ground Zero Responders”.  It’s the story of the thousands of First Responders and others who ran to the aid of the 9/11 disaster in New York and continued in the search, rescue and cleanup for weeks and months after 9/11.  Some of them paid for it with their lives, having since gotten cancer from the toxic debris in the air that they constantly breathed in, not having proper protection (PPE) and how all of the authorities consistently denied and rejected every notion that there might be anything toxic in the air after the disaster and didn’t provide proper protection to anyone who responded, for all of those months, resulting in far more deaths (and those still suffering an dying) than those lost in the disaster itself.

It’s really very sad, culminating in a huge class-action lawsuit that has taken years to build.  The actual final result I haven’t gotten to yet, I’m only halfway through the story.  It’s pretty long-winded and technical, but I am fascinated with all of the details and just amazed at how many first responders are actually willing to give everything – even their lives – to save and help others in need. I’ll probably post a little more once I finish it.

I will be SO glad when all this election crap is over in November.  This election season, more than any other I’ve been through in the past, has divided so many people and brought out the anger and frustration in so many people on both sides of every issue that it’s just crazy.  I don’t know what’s going to happen in November, no one does, but a lot of people THINK they know, and that’s scary.  Those people are the ones that talk about go good everything’s going to be when their candidate wins, and how the country will go to hell in a handbasket if the other candidate wins.  The issues and complaints on both sides of the fence are totally different, yet the outcome both sides think will result is about the same, but opposite.  If that makes any sense.  Everything will be awesome if their candidate wins and everything will be a disaster if their candidate loses to the other candidate.  

Keep in mind there are other options besides those two candidates.  If everything’s going to be so great or so horrible either way, what’s the point of voting for either one?  Nobody wins.  How did WOPR put it in WarGames?  “The only winning move is not to play.” He was referring to Global Thermonuclear War.  Each side completely obliterates the other with nuclear weapons and it’s a tie–no one wins, no one loses.  Like every Tic-Tac-Toe game.  Maybe things can be even better with a totally different candidate rather than Biden or Trump.  How bad can Kanye be?  Bipolar shmypolar…Just picture the first lady!  Yowza!  LOL.

Seriously though, I just pray that no matter who wins, we can get over all this ridiculous negativity and violence and start getting along as one united country, all on the same side.  And some regular silly commercials would also be a relief.  The political back-and-forth during short commercial breaks is the worst I’ve ever seen this time around.  Both sides just spend millions of dollars to totally skew everything in their favor.

All I know is a good portion of Kenosha was recently destroyed.  Literally destroyed–buildings and businesses burned to the ground.  Why?  Because some people are angry.  People drawn from many different areas outside of Kenosha come here and destroy everything they can because they are outraged about a recently police shooting that they saw on Facebook that went viral.  What is that?  How does millions of dollars in property damage and additional injuries and deaths help at all with the state of anything?  I sit here trying to listen to and take in all of the different sides and views of the issues, trying to make sense of things, but this just doesn’t make sense to me.

With a three-day weekend for Labor Day, I decided to…labor. We decided to finish up the rest of the garage work today and git ‘er done. So we finished sorting the tools and got the workbench all done, then cleaned up all the debris and even slipped a little something in the middle just to see how it fit…

Nice! And if we weren’t storing Kevin’s kayak, we could easily fit both of our cars in there. Right after we finished, I closed the overhead door and opened the pedestrian door to see what the dogs would do. Shadow was eager to come on in and explore everything.

Tiger, on the other hand, refused to come in and just stood at the doorway looking in. Maybe next time.

Today is Beth & Tom’s Fish Fry! If you’re in Kenosha, come on by, you’re welcome. If you need the address, send me a message and I’ll get it to you. It’s always a good time, kinda like an annual Trottier Family & Friends Reunion. Just hang out and catch up with everyone and eat some awesome food.

Nintendo recently announced a ton of new Mario content coming to the Switch–even several classics I love. First, completely free, they released “Super Mario All-Stars”, which isn’t actually a game in itself, it’s a package of original SNES classics, including Super Mario, Super Mario 2, Super Mario 3, and a Super Mario Lost Levels collection for the Switch. All are the original games, free to Nintendo Online subscribers. Then there’s “Super Mario 3D All-Stars”, if that’s not too confusingly close to the other package. This package includes Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy, the classic Nintendo games, however, they’ve all been enhanced with updated graphics and widescreen format, so they’re actually a bit different. I’m hoping they also kept originals intact so you can play either version of any of the three games. That would be awesome. I haven’t heard word of that yet though, it’s just wishful thinking.

The latter is also only available as a “Limited Edition”. In this case, that apparently means it will no longer be available after March 31st, 2021. That sounds weird. Why would they limit sales like that? One journalist suggested maybe they will re-release them as separate games in the future for a higher price, but he was only guessing. That would make sense, actually. Nintendo always sells their most popular stuff at the highest price point they can get away with. I like to think of them as the Apple of the console gaming world.

The free Super Mario All-Stars is available now. Super Mario 3D All-Stars is available for pre-order and releases on September 18th. Yes, I pre-ordered it. Right now I’m playing Super Mario, already getting as frustrated I did when I was younger, back in 1983 with I was 20. I’ll get past it though. I have tons more patience these days than I did back then.

We had our first pickup with Kenosha’s new garbage & recycling containers, so I thought I’d share. Pretty boring footage compared to everyone else’s Kenosha videos these days… Even a bonus BULK pickup at the end from our garage cleaning!

I really didn’t know that it was like a giant hand with three fingers that grabs the entire can. I was thinking it grabbed the can by that bar that faces the street. I wondered how that little bar could constantly handle all the hundreds of pounds of weight repeatedly lifting the full garbage can. I figured it would easily snap at some point, but after seeing this video it all makes much more sense.

Bulk Pickup is still totally old-school I see… LOL. There was also a separate little city pickup truck that zipped through and grabbed an old rubber truck tire we had out there, but that happened so fast I didn’t bother to include it. (The mice had made some interesting nests inside that thing!)

I cleaned up my website today. By that I mean I deleted all user accounts from humans or bots who have never logged in. These were either legitimate users TRYING to create accounts or bots just creating accounts to spam my comments section with ads and garbage.

My apologies if I deleted anyone legitimate in this process. I know my website wasn’t sending e-mails for quite some time, so if you created an account before and you couldn’t activate it, it’s gone now. Please feel free to create a new account using the same e-mail address and it should work properly this time and you’ll get the activation e-mail. I promise. I get e-mails for all site activity now, so I know it’s working properly.

I deleted over 500 accounts in this process. Man, you Russian and Ukrainian hackers really need to get a life. There’s gotta be something better to do than to hammer on every possible vulnerable WordPress website you can find just so you can post garbage and get a few pennies out of it. Mine’s up-to-date and protected, so just move on, buddy. Nothing to gain here. Thank you.

Last night was the first night that the curfew was lifted. Things are relatively much quieter now on the scanner. I went to Menards in the evening and the parking lot was nearly empty. So much so that I wasn’t sure the store was open. It was though, and I think the staff outnumbered the customers. I stayed for quite awhile, searching for a few things… I’m one of those guys who hates asking for help, so I’ll just keep looking and looking. I finally had to ask someone where the pegboard hooks were and I was taken to the garden section and there they were. Silly me–I thought they’d be in the Tools section, since they’re used for hanging tools. I never would have thought they’d be in the Garden Center.

Then I spent some more time searching–this time for something to cover the workbench in the garage. It’s stainless steel and heavily stained and marked up after having been buried and unmaintained for seven years, so I thought I’d look for something to place on top of it to make it look better. I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for this time, so Menards’ staff couldn’t help me. A rug? Maybe some tile? I didn’t find any viable options, so I left and decided maybe I’d just try cleaning it up some more and possibly painting it. I just want a functional workbench again.

Well, I had planned to post some interesting scanner audio today from Trump’s visit. I figured it’s a pretty rare thing for a POTUS to visit Kenosha, even if it is under such circumstances as this, so I thought I would capture all of the KPD and KFD radio traffic for the day, find a few interesting clips and post them here.

So I left my scanner on at home with a fresh battery, with my wife. As long as the scanner is ON, I always have it set to record everything, so it was a simple as that. I asked my wife to “just keep the scanner on all day, it will record everything” and she said OK. She knows how to change the battery and where the spare is, so I figured it would be fine.

Well, I came home to a dead scanner. I asked Sandy what time it died and she said “I don’t know, I was out for awhile.” I had no idea she was going out or I would have plugged it in! It turns out the battery died at 12:04 PM, just shortly before Trump’s arrival in Kenosha. He was scheduled to land at Waukegan Airport at 11:55 AM. Shit. It was a total loss.

I listened to the scanner the rest of the evening while working on a project for work, and there a few large protest groups having conflicts with officers and vehicles, including a few tense moments when crowds tried to trap or surround officers when they were found to be alone, several calls about suspicious activity and suspicious people, etc., but nothing juicy enough to share the audio from.

Oh well, maybe next POTUS…

Oh boy, Donald Trump is coming to town today. You can just imagine my excitement. I am so glad I’ll be a decent distance away, in Waukegan at work, and away from all of the chaos. Hopefully. It actually depends on exactly what time he’ll be in town, that is. Hopefully it’s during the day some time, when I’m working. Some support his visit, others say he shouldn’t come, so already we have more division and bickering on both sides of the fence.

If I didn’t INSIST on having the National Guard activate and go into Kenosha, Wisconsin, there would be no Kenosha right now. Also, there would have been great death and injury. I want to thank Law Enforcement and the National Guard. I will see you on Tuesday!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 31, 2020

I sure didn’t agree with this tweet. As usual, he makes himself the hero and he saved so many lives and saved Kenosha from certain total annihilation. Like I said in my previous post, just go read that book – this entire tweet is straight out of his playbook.

Just a couple samples of interesting things I caught on the scanner today. My scanner records everything it picks up now… I just need the time to pick through the hundreds of daily recordings to find the good stuff. I didn’t realize until today how easy it is to just drag and drop them into a post like this. Enjoy, this is just the beginning.

I just finished reading/listening to this book today. Wow. It was very informative and explained pretty much everything about the Trump family’s entire history, including all of their business dealings, who was really the successful businessman in the family (hint: It wasn’t Donald) and how Donald came to be president.

If you only listen to/read just the first 45 minutes of this book, you’ll probably get sucked in just like I did and will want to read it all the way through just to try to understand how Donald Trump thinks and why he does the things he does. Mary explains it all in detail. She’s a well-educated psychologist and knows what she’s talking about, having actually been part of the Trump family.

Here’s Wikipedia‘s description of the book: Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man is a tell-all book written by Trump published on July 14, 2020, by Simon & Schuster. According to Trump’s note at the beginning of the book, all accounts in the book come either from her own memory or from recorded conversations with family, friends and others. Other sources are legal, financial and family documents and email correspondence as well as the New York Times investigative article done by David Barstow, Susanne Craig, and Russ Buettner.^[7] The book details how the author was the anonymous source who revealed Trump family tax returns to The New York Times; the reporting won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize.^[27] A legal battle over whether the book could be published was waged in New York’s judicial system, with an appellate judge allowing Simon & Schuster to publish the book.^[26] The book sold close to one million copies on its first day of sales.^[28]

Today and this evening were much quieter than the rest of the week. Lot of protesters, in multiple groups and in various areas around the city, but pretty peaceful according the the scanner. Most calls seemed like the regular injuries and issues I usually hear.

On the lighter side, a little after 8:00 pm someone called in a report of an injured squirrel in the street–I don’t remember the exact address or cross-street, but he was in the left-hand lane. The officer replied and said “It’s past curfew.” We got a kick out of that. Apparently that poor squirrel didn’t have a cell phone so he didn’t get the alerts and was out past 7pm. Awww.

Read this article… Facebook, Facebook, Facebook… It’s mentioned 15 times in this single article. Is it just me, or is Facebook the thing connecting ALL of this mayhem together??  OMG.  The millions who left in the “Quit Facebook” movement (like Leo Laporte) were right… The original video of the shooting was (and still is) right there on Facebook, still sparking more outrage.  I’m not saying censorship is the answer because it’s not.  People need to know, but they need the WHOLE STORY, not just a part of the act. A rational person would know that. Why are so many people irrational and must jump to conclusions and take the law into their own hands? We can wait a few hours for an “official” story to come out, can’t we?  We always did before–until the news came on the TV, or the newspaper hit the stands or our front door the next morning…Everything is accelerated these days.  Everyone wants everything right now, and it’s going to be the death of us as a society.  Facebook is destroying us.  At an accelerated pace.  Right now. We’re not being rational. Slow down, people. Take the time to THINK before you act. And be open to other people’s and other groups’ views unstead of just the view of the little “bubble” of the group you belong to, or the political party you’re in. There are other people with other views out there. LISTEN.

While the internet and Facebook are instant, law enforcement, our justice system, politics, and everything else still move at a snail’s pace and can’t keep up. Even hundreds of officials using radios and walkie-talkies still can’t quite keep up with all of crime, looting and violence happening all at once. Many try talking at the same time on the same channel, and it just delays things even more.

Boy, do I look forward to the day I don’t have to type a leading zero in my title…

We’re still hunkered down here, waiting each evening during curfew, to make sure nothing gets too close to our home. We listen as all gas stations are ordered to turn off their pumps and stop selling gas, which the criminals are apparently using to purchase the fuel they use to burn local businesses and other things (even TREES, apparently) to the ground. I can’t believe some gas stations refuse to obey and stay open anyway. I wonder if they’re actually ticketed.

We listen as huge buses with blacked-out plates, stuffed with people, ammunition and supplies, are pulled over and checked… are they arrested? Lots of buses, many from other cities and states, coming in and out of Kenosha, to and from downtown… Maybe some are military…? National Guard…? Who knows. We stay at home, in the house, listening to the scanner. Lots of people with “long guns”. What is a “long gun”, are they just referring to a rifle, or is there a specific one that is called a “long gun?”

Lots of “32’s” reported. Does that mean police code for “10-32”, which is “Man With Gun”, or are they referring to a “.32 caliber handgun?” Questions questions. Doesn’t really matter I guess, it’s all frightening when you’re sitting this close. It’s just a little better than Mike, Sandy’s brother who lives much closer to uptown Kenosha than us, and posted yesterday “And Thank you Lord for taking our loved ones sooner than expected“. WTF?! He lost me there. But he often does. For once a post of his is easy for me to read and it STILL doesn’t make sense to me.

At least the construction (and regular life) continues during the day… They recently replaced several sidewalk tiles in front of our house and installed a handicapped curb ramp on our corner (we’re a corner house) and just installed sod today to replace the grass in our yard that they destroyed in the process. We were a little worried they might leave the huge gaping dirt holes around the new sidewalk sections, just waiting for someone to walk by and twist or break an ankle. But they didn’t, they did a decent job of replacing the grass. Now we just have to baby it (if they don’t) and water it often to make sure it blends in well. And we also had a bulk pickup yesterday – about 25 bags of garbage, windows, broken yard tools, and even a tire–which was a bit tricky to pile out onto the curb mixed in with all of the construction cones and stuff from the sidewalk work, but it all worked out and they took everything away. Ahhhh, breathing room…

Word of the day: Antifa – a political protest movement comprising autonomous groups affiliated by their militant opposition to fascism and other forms of extreme right-wing ideology.

I had never heard that word before until yesterday. Now I’m hearing it everywhere.

Well, as it turns out, my site has been screwed up for like forever – at least since I switched to WordPress, and I never realized it. It couldn’t send out e-mails, so no one would have been able to register for any auctions. One person, who I helped get logged into my site, was the only one able to bid, so she won everything she bid on.

Even AFTER all the auctions were over, no one even bothered to let me know they couldn’t register or bid on anything. So I had no clue until yesterday when I tried to create a test user on my site and never got the e-mailed password link to set a password and verify the new account. I guess that tells you just how popular my site is… No one visits, so no one registered to bid, therefore no one knew there was ever an issue. Even after posting the DVD auctions on 4 different Kenosha Garage Sale sites though…? Hmm. I guess maybe a few people just tried it, never got the e-mail and moved on. Not worth their time to inquire.

Anyway, e-mail works now, so future auctions just MIGHT get a few more bids.

I spent the evening last night sitting at home, alone, listening to the KPD on the scanner as I took some notes. Here’s my transcript:

As I first begin listening, the KPD and US Marshals are watching three men in full body armor, dressed in all black and parking near 56th Street and Sheridan Road. They are parking and two got out of the truck. Not sure what they’re planning.

100+ vehicle convoy going North on 22nd Avenue from 60th Street, about 100-150 people on foot with them. So far no violence, but they’re starting to cover both lanes of the road, disrupting traffic.

A few people with LED Strobe lights trying to blind the authorities so they can’t see.

This bit, which I don’t understand yet: “Do you have access to MBC? Yes. Call me in a minute, I’ll put my TX in a secure location.”

A person is popping vehicle tires as he walks down the street.

It sounded like the police were also going around to all gas stations in the area and making them shut down and turn off their pumps. My guess is to prevent more fires by either limiting access to fuel or preventing gas stations from being easy targets. Man, scary shit.

A man with a rifle guarding a Day Care Center. Many others like this were also announced to “Incident Command” as they were seen by the police, I guess just to document their locations and note that they’re not part of the rioting.

3 men seen on a roof, armed. I missed the location, but they apparently weren’t the authorities.

Out in the county, a group of men, all armed. Doing nothing wrong, might just be protecting something.

8547 3rd Avenue – Ambulance and Fire dispatched. Unknown problem – dispatcher was breaking up.

19,250 listeners are on the same scanner app I am, listening to KPD & KFD

2 people with long guns setup and staging – 52nd and Sheridan – 1 Male, 1 Female. Walking East. Now setting up behind cement barricades.

“Karate place” on Sheridan road, another person with a long gun. White shirt.

People throwing fireworks at the court house, crowd of around 200 people. Many people spreading out in all directions, carrying rifles, spreading out since the fireworks started getting thrown. Officer says they’re looking for reactionary response. The people with rifles are taking tactical positions.

“It would behoove us to have a {TRT} Unit.” (if it’s in brackets, I’m not sure I caught the word correctly).

56th St. & 13th Avenue, people with baseball bats and one with a long gun.

1000 block of 56th Street, group with rifles. Splitting up, one turned into park.

Officers are watching and waiting for certain armed men to separate from the group, then they plan to make contact with them one-on-one. they will not approach them while in a group.

SW corner of Civic Center Park, 5′ 8″, White T-Shirt, armed man. Watching subject closely.

22,239 listeners, 9:10 PM.

People actively spray-painting the post office.

Smoke bombs deploy from the crowd, not from the authorities. Leaf blowers are coming out, they’re directly the smoke toward the riot police.

Someone hiding in alcove, has large case, he is now opening up the case. Near karate place. It’s a long gun and he’s arming it. Asking other officers to hurry, they can corner him in if they come now.

Send squads north of Stella!  

2 in custody.  Behind Stella.

“We’re taking rocks – behind Stella, need assistance.”

“5500 block 7th Avenue, need marked squad with a cage, right now!”

KFD dispatched – 52nd street, tree on fire.

“Our rooftop pepper ball is out of commission – it’s malfunctioning”

Someone called in and reported that Big Star is on fire.

Female on 57th Street carrying red gas can with white towel over it, heading toward courthouse.  White shirt

Fortification between 2 orange street cones, on 56th street on trolly tracks.  Rocks and weapons being used.

Lost person with gas can, and police car took large rock through rear window.

2 male hispanics east on 56th from 11th, with rifles.

63 Street & 24 Avenue, large group moving and knocking over the barricades

Vehicle dropped off a load of bricks, locals are getting rid of them.

2 men 1 female, broke into back door of dinosaur museum, now has fire alarm going off. Officers report man seen going in with a red gas can. TRT came, forced a crowd of about 100 to leave, crowd is heading toward Ruether.

Small fire extinguished inside dinosaur museum by police. KFD called.

Small fire at Ruether, started by the same crowd. They are moving South toward 60th street.

Big Star was ok, no issue found there. Fire was either already put out or it was a hoax.

When I got up this morning I heard on the news that two people had been shot and killed in another shooting near Froedtert Hospital (63rd Street and Sheridan), a third person injured in the same incident is still alive.

After 3 days of this, do they feel they’ve made their point yet? Still, as always, it isn’t helping.

We finished cleaning out the garage yesterday. It took several days, spread out over several weeks, but we finally got it done. Kevin and I both sacrificed a few vacation days to work on it, and Matt even helped us out. Now we’re waiting for a bulk pickup this week and all the garbage will be gone. Most other things were donated to Goodwill, and you saw what we did (and are still doing) with the DVDs and BluRays.

It seemed, early on in the beginning of the cleaning days, like we could have maybe been on an episode of Hoarders, but then when I thought about it, we were far from the point ALL of the people featured on that show had gotten! It was way over the top most of the time, and always included their houses too, not just their garages. They were literally LIVING in it! I can’t imagine being in a situation like any of those.

Anyway, back to our garage. Among the huge piles of “stuff” were many boxes, appliances, clothes, and household items that had sat in the garage since we moved here seven years ago, as well as a lot of Sandy’s father’s things that were still in the garage when we moved in. As you can imagine, our garage has had its share of tiny “visitors” over those years, many of which made themselves right at home–they shredded all manner of clothing and created bedding for themselves, and a few of them even built a two-room condo out of a two-holed cinder block.

We ran into a few stragglers too, seemingly still very surprised that we had disturbed them and destroyed their homes, and they quickly took flight and left the garage as fast as they could. The puppies found one running through the yard one day and just had a ball chasing it around and nipping at it until it managed to find its way out of the fenced-in yard.

A few others were much less fortunate and seemed to have passed away at some point, perhaps during one of our coldest winters in the past seven years. We found at least three mice that were completely petrified and skeletally preserved. I took a photo of one, which reminded me a lot of a photo Stephen King recently posted on Twitter of one that he found in his garden. The photo of one I found is on the left.

If you want to see it in full detail, just click on the thumbnail. He even still has his whiskers! Kinda creepy, and as I mentioned, much like Stephen King’s own find. Stephen King’s is on the right. Same deal, click it to see it in full detail if you’re not too grossed-out. The ones we found found were pretty dried-out and fossilized. King’s looks like it might have been a bit more “juicy” from being preserved outdoors in a garden. Who’s is better?

Anyway, in the end our garage is fully cleaned out now and we can even park a car in it! We haven’t been able to do that since we moved in, so it’s a nice feeling. It’ll come in handy in the Winter. And being able to very easily get the lawn mower and snow blower out when needed will be great too. We do have a few small holes to patch up where those pesky freeloaders worked their way in though, definitely need to get those patched by Winter.