Life is Funny, and Roof Rats

As I am typing this, I am hearing little scrabbling noises and sounds of acorn-like things being rolled across the ceiling overhead. Oh, how I wish I was living a scene out of Totoro with the susuwatari, but alas, it's roof rats.

I know because we just had our pest control person come to visit and check out said noises. I'd been expecting it, because over 5 years of pruning neglect and a huge crop of slimed cherries this year were pretty much a recipe for a rat fest of some sort.

So even though I did finally start up pruning again this year, it was not enough to keep branches far enough away from the house (3 feet, in case you're interested). I have my work cut out for me (ha-ha) -- over the next week I need to seriously whack back 3 trees and several bushes. I also need to appeal to our neighbour's sense of compassion to deal with one of their overgrowing trees.

So here's the funny part - I was feeling guilty about my lack of yard maintenance and trying to explain why it's taking me 5 years to start doing my own danged maintenance, as well as explaining why I needed their services rather than following instructions (so much cheaper -- they were trying to give me a break). "I know it sounds funny," I said, "but my son's on the Autism Spectrum, and when I think I have things on track and I can manage other projects, something comes up, and the new stuff just falls off the radar. That can be very bad with trying to nip this in the bud. Also, this is the first year I could go outside and work in the yard without my son screaming for me."

I light went on in his eyes. "How old was your son when he was diagnosed?" BINGO: Parental Autism Bonding. We chatted a good 20 minutes over diagnosis, services, and how lucky we felt about the help our kids have been getting. The ages and challenges are different, but the invisible, semi-undefinable experiences as a parent of a child on the spectrum were there.

So even though we do have roof rats and it'll cost us to get rid of them, we caught it early and that service person and I had a few warm minutes of solidarity. It made the invasion of those darned pests much more bearable. Life is funny, I tell you.