Families

It is a cool beginning to the day today with plenty of cloud cover. In fact, there are violent storms in the desert right now: hail, lightening, flash floods. But that’s a ways away but we do own the cloud cover - and the humidity - to those storms swirling about. It is so nice and cool I’ve opened the doors and windows to get some fresh morning air. I’m sitting today on the upper deck area just outside the house: it will be Night swimming today as I need to drive to the West Covina Courthouse to file my Small Claims Court case this morning!

Last night as I was sitting in my back room, the flood light on the neighbor’s new ADU went on and lit up a family of Rocky racoons climbing around the old Oak tree. “The old oak tree” is more like a small grove of oak trees really as I have one by my fence that is very old and very large, and on the other side of the fence in the same corner is my 2 neighbors oak trees both of them old and large. They are of the same family growing in the corner of three different backyards; a kind of oak complex. So just as the 4 corners of the SW share storms, so the 3 corners of Claremont share oak trees. Something like that. Maybe I could just say they are a family of old oaks in the corner of these yards.

Anyway, when the light went on I could see very clearly in the darkness the slow and cautious movements of these critters. There were at least three of them and maybe five. It was hard to tell. There were at least two juniors who were moving more quickly and in a round a bout fashion: climbing up a section of tree just to climb down again and then up as they didn’t know where they were going, I suspect. Also, I imagine the light was somewhat disorienting to them. They were very cute and fuzzy in the light. There was so much movement that i went out onto the deck and said hello just to let them know that there was a big ape living nearby.

I think the demise of my mosquito eating fish in my lotus pond is due to families of racoons like this, or maybe just one. At any rate, by showing myself I was hoping to interfere with any plans of coming over to eat sushi! I think it worked. The big racoon saw me and looked at me and this morning I see no muddy footprints on the lotus ponds they like. And actually no muddy footprints anywhere around the pool. I’m grateful actually. I don’t mind their lapping up water from the pool, although it probably isn’t that good for them, but I do worry that the little ones will fall in and I will have a mess to deal with.

Well I have a little more to do on my court case form so I best get working.