If it stops raining today (and doesn’t start again), I might be able to get the mower through the high grass again by next weekend. Until then, I’ll have to make do with other ways to get exercise. Today, after the rats went home, I ran the vacuum across the carpet. Believe it or not, rats can be kind of messy. It doesn’t seem as if they care where they spray their stuff.

Running the vacuum doesn’t take quite as much energy as pushing the mower, but it’s just about as frustrating. I have to stop and stoop over and pick something up by hand even more often. But at least it doesn’t get clogged up and stop altogether, the way the mower sometimes does. And I think the mess on the rug will come back sooner (rats or not) than the grass. Although, with the rain we had today, the grass will grow a little faster than it would have otherwise.

The rain had pretty much given up by this afternoon, but this morning when I went out it was coming down hard enough to discourage me from running any of the errands I had planned. It was enough to get to the post office and back. I had some banking I wanted to do, and I’d already put my grocery shopping off when I flaked out on Friday, but it can all wait one more day. Well, it’ll wait whether it wants to or not. I’m the decider.

The smell went away as soon as the rats did. Maybe I imagined it, but just in case I kept the front door open all afternoon. In spite of the rainy weather, it wasn’t cold at all. That’s how I know it’s a spring rain, and not the beginning of a winter storm.