Day 249 -- A most unpleasant first

Today I worked on thinning things out in the garage a little bit and packing up the Christmas dishes to give more room to stow some things inside cabinet doors.  All this stuff I decided I would take to the lake house to get out of the way until such time as I can take it to Comanche where I have been given storage space for things I want out of the way for now.  After working a while in the garage, I had a car load and so headed to the lake to unload.  I got one or two loads taken in, when I found myself with something I was going to stick in the kitchen, and as I walked in there, I discovered that a dead rat was in a trap by the refrigerator!  Gross!!!  It was huge as I think of rats, and it was in need of taking out of the house before it got any stinkier.  So I ratcheted up all my courage, picked up the rat trap, walked with it and the dead rat to the back yard, pulled back the latch, let the rat fall in the yard, then picked the nasty thing up by its tail and hurled it out into the woods--did I say GROSS!!  I have no real problem with doing that when it is a tiny mouse, but this sucker was big.  Anyway, I got it done.  I also made a mental note that I would not be taking anything out there that might be something a rat would chew on--so that determines my packing the rest of the week.  I certainly didn't take the time to take a photo of this first--but I expect most of you can imagine it for yourselves!