Nothing witty or inspiring today. Instead, a certain 5th grader needed my technical assistance for a last-minute, last week-of-school assignment about raccoons. Though, I must say, in his best Boy Scout manner, he did ask politely and thanked me several times for lending my experience. I must say “thank you, thank you” Microsoft for your wonderful Word document templates (I can’t believe I just said that).

What did I learn about raccoons? They live on average no more than three years in the wild and up to twenty in captivity. I did not know that.

My only encounter with a raccoon was several years ago. One night, I had taken our beloved Golden, Pawley, outside before bedtime. As I turned back to go up the steps into the house, there stood a raccoon in our garage, its eyes glowing. I swear we held a stare for five seconds. Then I remembered something about raccoons that have rabies often approach people instead of running away in fear. Well, I ran into the house in fear, dragging the poor dog along.

I am looking forward to a summer break from the school routine.

I’ll begin to worry about the middle school years in August. Sigh…