Opossum, Yard-A-Pult Style

Published on Sunday, November 15, 2009 by Katherine

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Today I woke up to something completely unfamiliar.  It took me a few minutes to figure out what that strange sensation was.  I scrunched up my eyes as the fog began to leave my brain.  Slowly, I carefully opened one just a tiny bit.  What the…?   I ventured to open it all the way.  And then the other.

For what I saw was an amazing and unusual sight.  It was SUN.  There was SUN shining through my window.  It was bright and warm and oh so welcome.  SUN.

I think the last time I saw the sun was Tuesday.  That would be…. let me think…. five days.  Five days of horrific winds, never-ending rain shooting sideways and mud.  Sludgy, nasty, lose your shoe in it mud.  The mud is still there, but gosh, you can SEE it now!

Yesterday when the rain finally stopped, we went to the empty house behind us to check out the “view from behind.”  Where did our back yard go?

It was then that we found the one neighborhood casualty of the big nor’easter.  A poor opossum, floating in the middle of an abandoned pool’s debris.  Very sad.  As we gazed upon his bloated remains, my son realized just how this little guy’s happy opossum life ended.

He must have been in our tree, sheltered from the storm.  Then, when the tree crashed down, between the perfect angle of the tree and the gusting hurricane-like winds, he was yard-a-pulted into the pool.  Poor guy.  But at least he went out in style.  That is our story and we are sticking to it.

Now, I’m going to take a shower, throw on some old clothes and trudge out into the ankle-deep mud that used to be my backyard.  Then I’m going to turn my face towards the big strange circle in the sky and drink in the glorious, healing rays.  Darkness, be gone!