A dead mouse and the Fairy Godmother...

A real-honest-to-goodness story.
I'll keep it as brief as possible.

It all started with this e-bay thingy, which, if you know Mr. Keeper-of-the-Mountain, that shouldn't surprise you.

For some time, he has wanted one of those little tillers so he could work closely around his tomato crop. And wasn't it lucky that he just happened to find one on e-bay? And wasn't it lucky that the cost was within his budget? I'm not so sure who has been setting the so-called budget lately, but I guess it's only fair that he gets a tiller... after all, I splurged on a load of double ground mulch a couple of weeks ago... which, by the way, isn't spread yet!

Back to the story:
The drawback to winning this auction was the fact that the tiller was a pick-up only. Okay. Where?

WHERE???? FOUR HOURS AWAY??? (wtf) ARE YOU NUTS???

Chapter II of this story gets even better:
I agreed to go. A perfect opportunity to get some great pictures in the Catskill Mountains of NY. The day was sunny and beautiful. Mr. Mountain Man decides that it would be a good idea to drive my car because it would get better gas mileage. "Yep", he said,"the handle of that tiller model comes apart so it will fit nicely in your trunk."

Okay, I can deal with that, except for one BIG drawback: As is common in our garage, mice frolic, eat, poop and build nests wherever and whenever they feel like it. One chose to do so in my car somewhere and after eating the bait put out for him, found a comfy spot to expire! Even with extensive cleaning, I never found the body, but the smell sure has been hanging on, no matter what I tried to do to eliminate it!

Chapter III:
No problem. We rolled the windows down, opened the sunroof and hit the road. Soon, the car was filled with fresh air. Seemed like a perfect photo blast head'n my way!

A couple of other details should be mentioned here also.
1. The GPS was programed to take us to our destination.
2. An ex-truck driver who still believes: "I never went that way before, why should I go that way now?" (Hey we're talking 40 years ago!)
3. A deaf ex-truck driver who couldn't hear the GPS with the windows down. (hell, he can't hear with the windows up!)

You guessed it... I had to repeat everything that the Fairy Godmother of GPS-Land said. A little arguing here and there, with my voice echoing throughout the Catskill Mountains!

I'm happy to report that we had a safe trip, the Chief likes his tiller, the dead mouse still stinks, the Fairy Godmother of GPS-Land has long since gone to bed and that's exactly where I'm headed.

Oh, by the way, I didn't take one damn photo today!

Good Night and sweet dreams.
B:-)