2am Wake Up

It was a balmy night. At 2am it was 78 degrees, cloudless, windless, the sky full of stars and occasional bursts of light from the remnants of the Perseid Meteor Shower. Or I was told that there was a sky full of stars and random meteors burning as they streaked through the upper atmosphere. I missed it.

Now you may be asking if I was up at that time when sleeping seems appropriate why I would miss the celestial show. I was busy with a spotting scope on the lookout for those pesky raccoons who have begun taking a liking to the prune tree even though the fruit is still a couple of weeks from ripening.

If we were to leave them to the fruit they would have the trees bare before we would get a taste. So we were on a mission.

Marilyn spotted them first by shining a light into the tree and seeing their eyes glow in the dark. By the time Mike and I could get down the driveway and across the county road, the suckers had sneaked away.

We headed down to the river and over the course of the next two hours spotted three of the varmints in three different trees. One was in a large cedar, one in the tip-top branches of a large leaf maple and one clinging to the bark on a big fir tree.

With the daylight, we noticed that the troupe had also began ravishing the pear tree across the river. They had broken out two of the limbs and had begun the process of stripping the tree of fruit. It looked like they were having a real party in there. Three raccoons could not have made that much damage, there must be a whole herd of the dirty critters.

Tonight will be the same 2am call. The lights are charged up and ready, we take our fruit seriously around here.