I Saw The Lights

After my previous post I decided to check out exactly how many houses actually had lights on or motion lights when I did my morning deliveries. With a couple days of testing it looks like there are normally 14 to 16 lights when I deliver the papers in the morning. Seeing as I have only 37 papers to deliver that is just a bit under 50% which isn't that bad. There are a few houses that have street lamps right near the house and they do supply some light for me to see from as well. They are not the same as as an actual light on the house, but they certainly are better than nothing.

I sure do appreciate any of the folks that actually leave their lights on for me or even better for both of us is if they have a motion light. With the motion light, the home owner doesn't have their light on all night long yet supplies the needed light when I (or anyone else) decides to visit their house.

Thinking back a few weeks to when I first started delivering the papers, I remember when I sure wanted a bit more light. This would probably happened in about mid October. It was a very dark morning and I was out a bit earlier than normal. As I was walking down the street I could smell a very, very strong odour of a skunk(s) in the area. This was very strong so I knew the varmints were in the area or recently had been there. The problem was it was so dark I couldn't see a darn thing. I was walking along the sidewalk with hedges along the walk way so I decided I'd move out into the middle of the road. I figured I would have a better chance seeing the skunk if I was out in the open. Let me tell you my head was just swivelling back and forth from side to side looking for the 'smelly guys'. I meanwhile kept walking and delivering the papers, but had no luck spotting any skunks. Eventually I walked out of the smelly area and continued on my merry way.

Once I got out to the far side of town, where I heard the skunks liked to hang out, I got extra vigilant again. No smell was detected, but let me tell you I was walking very carefully and trying to see everything.

As I was walking up to one of the houses I detected something sitting on the door step of the house. The item certainly looked like a small skunk to me. It was black and had white markings. At this stage I still could not detect any odours. Mind you I was just entering the yard so was probably 30 feet away from the step. I normally carry a flashlight with me, but at this time it was in the back side of my paper bag. So I was frantically trying to swivel the bag around without choking myself with the bag. Meanwhile I continued to walk forward, however, at a bit slower rate. The darn thing on the steps wasn't moving, but it was now looking more and more like a skunk.

I was tempted to turn the other way and drop the paper off on my return trip hoping that the 'skunk' was gone by the time I returned. I then took another step and at this time I was probably 10 feet away from the step and the motion light came on. It illuminated the item on the step and yup it was a skunk. What really puzzled me was the the darn thing wasn't moving at all. Now I know that normally wild animals will take off much sooner than this so I was intrigued a bit. Still no smell at this time either...

I continued on walking to the step and got right up to the animal and could see it in better detail. This definitely was a skunk, but it was a skunk that was made into a boot scraper and it had bristles along the back to wipe your boots off. I had one of those nervous chuckles and then continued on my way. Every day when I walked up to this particular house I was startled to see the 'skunk' again, but then I did get used to the darn thing. It was when I came to this house every morning that I really, really appreciated lights or motion lights to help me seeing what I was walking into.

Then after the snow came, the 'skunk' disappeared from the door step. It would appear the home owner wanted to be able to shovel the step off and the boot cleaner would be in the way. I miss the little critter and will be looking for it being put back out next spring.

However, I still hope the home owner continues to have his motion light in working order next spring when he puts the 'skunk' back outside for the summer. :)