Tuesday, October 18, 2005

The Mysterious Pockets of Rice and Other Tales from Packing

Okay- I need a break from packing. The movers arrive Thursday morning and we are well on our way to being completely done. At this point, it's mostly odds and ends left here AND all the stuff in storage over at Fairwood- but that will be dealt with tomorrow. Dear Cousin KJ came over yesterday and helped me for several hours packing up my kitchen. BLESS HER HEART! It was such a huge psychological boost.

We are discovering treasures left and right that we had forgotten we had. Brad just played a tape he had recorded of himself when he was around eight years old. He SINGS Christmas songs! Unaccompanied! "The Twelve Days of Christmas" was a HOOT. At one point, he went from eight maids a milking ( or whatever the thing for eight is) to five golden rings! Ooops. And he and Penny narrated their every move of a game of Uno. " I'm laying down a yellow eight." " And I'M laying down a green eight!" Oh my. So between that, and Rush Limbaugh, and FOX News about the terrorist thing in Baltimore, and the Taunton Dam about to burst, we are well entertained as we pack.

In other news, we are finding strange deposits of rice in oft-unused drawers. It's very spooky. There aren't any sort of droppings or anything...just these massive stashes of rice. It's SO annoying. You pull out some shirts to fold and put in a box and suddenly there's a huge cascade of white rice all over your feet. ARGH. There is rice all over the bedroom floor now and it's actually hazardous. I almost wiped out in there.

What kind of animal would leave deposits of rice and no deposits of waste? ( Mind you, we're not complaining about the lack of waste...Brad says it's just kind of like a pointless miracle.) Could it be Herr Vole? Do voles differ from mice very much in such habits? So...Isaac? Some other smart person? Some VOLE whisperer? What is your take? In any case, some small creature is going to receive a nasty shock when they come to seek out their winter provender...and find a big, fat, lot of NOTHING.

And the weird thing is, we haven't noticed any of our rice missing! It's like it's being trucked in from other regions. Hmmm. I should check with our landlord. Maybe they are experiencing rice shortages upstairs. We're DEFINITELY going to clean it all up before we leave...so the landlord can't come down and be like, " So! THAT'S where all our rice went!"

I ramble here... in fact, I'm rambling on purpose...I am procrastinating going back to packing. ARRGH. Must...keep...packing...all...worldly...goods.

7 comments:

melrandall said...

Vole whisperer! I love it!

Thanks for a great post -- the rest of us benefit when you procrastinate, so think of it as a ministry. :) Happy packing!

Booker said...

Hahahah. Death to VOLES!!! :) I hope the last bit of packing goes well and is truly God blessed...

pennyjean said...

Nate very kindly took me out to dinner so that I could get out of our box and junk filled apartment for a little while. ARRRRRGH! Where did all of this stuff come from?

Kristi said...

Maybe it's the Rice Ghost? Make that a Japanese Rice Ghost who's especially fond of rice!

Laughter said...

*pats Claire on back* It'll be ok, you can do it. I'm down here in balmy ole Georgia rooting fer ye. :-D

CARmelo said...

I am surprised you have not heard of the rice gnomes? The legend has it that they are the bankers of the gnome relm and being that banking is very boring they search for entertainment. They particulary are entertained by weird, in a funny way, thoughts and are energized to do their tedious, but needed, job.
So now you know.

Booker said...

Hahahahaa. That makes as much sense as anything, eh?