Stinkin' Day

Summer in this city has been pretty darn dreary, cold, and SMELLY! Everywhere we go from this mornings soccer games... where thanks to Auntie Peggy we got some great action shots at Mari's early game. Another great shot showing her secret weapon...just like Mike (Michael Jordan) with her tongue hanging out!! As we watched Julia stopping shot after shot, the smell still hung in the air! Okay, while 'some' of us watched Julia anyhow! Even as we arrived at the home of Notre Dame's biggest fan (a.k.a. Auntie Peggy) for an impromptu family dinner night, you could still smell it! You'd think that Auntie Peggy would be keeping her window closed with such a smell...but I think we are starting to become numb to the constant assault to our nasal passages! Actually this is a picture showing the audience she had while trying to rid the kitchen of a lone fly...it can be pretty boring around here you know so any action draws a crowd! The cousins all pitched in to bake a cake in hopes of covering the smell with the aroma of fresh baked cake....well a couple of active sweet teeth might be more truthful but please play along with my contrived theme here, okay? Funny aside, our little Ethan was really into the whole project and just about lost it with excitement when he got to hold his first power tool!!! His Dad would be less than enthused to know it was a hand mixer!!!!!!!!!!!! Told you that anything around here can draw a crowd of onlookers...especially if they think they can get in on the power tool action! For a brief moment the hot from the oven cake was the only smell we smelled. A stolen fingerful of frosting is Auntie Peggy's way to fool her senses! Chocolate can go a long way to distracting one's attention from something distressing. Some of us needed just a tad bit more frosting than others to achieve the level of distraction needed to block out the smell taking over our town this year! The citizens have been screaming out for relief! The city officials deny there's a problem...and if there was one it's only temporary...and besides they are in a financial crisis so there's no money to address the problem. The 'problem' which is causing so much distress to humans residents as well as the pet population and which is blamed for the constant presence of an unpleasant smell would be.............. SKUNKS!!!!! We are OVER RUN with these darn critters of late! The city officials claim that naturalists attribute the surge in skunk births to our recent cicada infestation followed by winters too mild to kill off the weaker specimens. I really do not CARE why they are here I just want them GONE. Seriously folks, they are EVERYWHERE!!! A particularly robust guy lives under our neighbor's back porch and has caused many a moment of consternation for my little ladies who peer out the window before exiting to make sure he's not out foraging for grubs. Our driveway runs past this porch and several nights now we have had to sit at the end of our driveway, trapped in the car, waiting for him to move along...because he is VERY quick with the scent gland action! Knock wood that it's never been aimed at any of us but the neighborhood cats and dogs have all been doused in his perfume as well as a couple of the humans at the other end of the leash!!!! This is NOT the same skunk as above!!! Driving home tonight I snapped both of these pictures within the SAME block!!!!!! The animal control officers won't trap and move these guys to the 'country' just for spraying. As a matter of fact they are adamantly denying there is even a problem!!! After seeing so many on the trip home tonight I'm beginning a campaign to get my fellow townsfolk out with their cameras to document each of their resident stinkers. Auntie Peggy has a zoom lens of ferocious strength so I'm sure she can get a few of her FAMILY of skunks that like to emerge from under her garage just as she lets the dogs out! We are really tired of the constant scent of skunk that has bathed our town this summer! Wish me luck as I'm off to Google skunk birth control options.....