Crabs Loose in Croaker!

I haven't been to Croaker, Virginia in a while, but I have been there. It's a quiet little community on the York River and is of historical and archaeological interest. Near its' outskirts runs Interstate 64 - and early this morning a truck hauling live crabs over-turned on I-64 in the west bound lanes and closed the highway down for more than two hours. That is one "round-up" I wish I'd been there to see! The driver was not seriously injured, thankfully. ... But I would really have enjoyed watching people catching live crabs along a two-mile section of highway! (Somehow, that just doesn't seem natural....) I've got my voice back today, but it's kinda gravelly. It's almost noon and I have the patio door wide open; the kits are lounging in the sun and Gimpy keeps running in and out, as he's hiding his peanuts and not eating them right now. I love to watch his little hands fluff the grass back up after he's hidden his nut.

I've been contemplating what I'll take with me to Alexy's this weekend. A couple of books, clothes changes, my snow boots, family tree stuff I can look up on the internet (looking for gravestones, etc.), and fixings for meat sauce with pasta, and saffron risotto and chicken, not to mention my ever-present Coca-Cola. I think everything will fit into my backpack and a re-usable grocery bag - except maybe the snow boots. We're expecting snow Saturday night or Sunday morning and then again Monday night/Tuesday morning... Life is never dull with either the weather or the critters around here. Craziness has broken out in the surrounding areas the past two days: there was a shooting (murder) of a patron at a Chinese restaurant in Denver yesterday, and further north, a couple of people were shot (one killed) in a "neighbors dispute" about some dogs. The restaurant in Denver, where the shooting took place, is on the 16th Street Mall - a mile-long shopping and pedestrian Mall with a few electric buses that run from one end to the other. It's the first time of heard of violence on the 16th Street Mall since I've been in Colorado. - The other story just shows how easily people lose their tempers and the dumb consequences that follow: two families own 20 acres each, divided by a barbed wire fence. One family has pit bulls. The other has chickens, horses, goats, a cat and a small dog. The pit bulls have, over the past two years, killed 30 chickens and a goat. One time they ran one of the horses into exhaustion. There have been many warning and citations given to the people who own the dogs. The dogs killed a horse this past weekend. The horse's owners went over to the pit bulls' owners home. The visiting (aggrieved horse owners) party was shot at 6 times by the dogs' owners. One man was killed outright, and a teenager is in the hospital. The two pit bulls were handed over to the County Animal Shelter and were put down today. How much misery has been caused by "letting the dogs be dogs?" My only comment is that the dogs were living in a social community - their owner (pack leader) should have known better, after all the warnings. The life of a man, the innocence (?) of a teen-ager, and the lives of several "dumb", but loved, animals have been lost. Non-conformity is OK if you are a human being; but please be sure your pack animal friends conform to the norms and with the law.