spring

I had a miraculously minor bike accident last Monday -- a pickup truck carrying four Mexican men and towing a generator ran a red light and almost flattened me. Fortunately, I almost got out of the way -- it hit my rear tire and I fell and slid. I have a bad scrape on my left elbow, a not-too-bad scrape on my hip, and assorted bruises and soreness. I haven't ridden the bike since, or looked at it very carefully. At a glance it seems OK. But I will take it to the bike shop and have them make sure it's OK before I ride it again.

I have been weeding. Pulling out lots and lots of oxalis, trying to pull out fennel, cutting back the geranium bushes and the rose bushes in the front. Not sure what I am doing but it's worth trying various things and seeing what happens. The lime tree looks slightly better but still unhealthy -- many blackened leaves and branches. I reconfigured the succulents in the planter and tried to tear out the vine (ivy?) in the corner of the back yard.

The critter control guy, Mike, came on Tuesday morning. He blocked the little mouse hole along the side of the house, near the back. He also climbed up onto the laundryroom roof, lay down on his belly, and shot a bunch of sticky stuff onto the pipe(s) on the back corner of the house next door. He was hoping that maybe this would deter the raccoons and other critters from climbing up onto the roof and squeezing back into the light well. I had been hearing and seeing critters pretty much every night. I don't want to be overly optimistic, but I have not heard much these past few nights.