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Could A Raccoon Play A Guitar?

       This is an area where I used to hike a lot. It's pretty wild country yet and sometimes when you hike there are some pretty rough folks on the trails. Not in the area shown here but in some areas I guess there are people who cook meth in the woods. I really feel sorry for these folks but I don't want to be around them. The photo is courtesy of my wife, who is the picture taker in the family, by the way.
      It's 38 degrees here on the mountain and there is a heavy rain falling. There have been times that I didn't have a roof over my head on similar nights and it feels good to be warm and snug. If we were a few degrees cooler we would  get a big snow, I bet. There is some flooding in the area.
    I was over  on Google news a minute ago and saw an article on gaming. The president of Nintendo feels that "smartphone games" are placing the future of gaming in jeopardy. I had a post months  ago that he should have read. I think that console gaming is facing its demise. They have been too fat, too greedy.
 Expensive games can not compete against the app store.
      Earlier, I went to the Apple bookstore and downloaded several free samples of Cormac McCarthy novels. I really like the movie adaptation of his book called No Country For Old Men and also All The Pretty Horses with Matt Damon. Somehow, though, I've never read one of his books. I plan on reading the samples and picking out one to buy and try. From what I've read thus far, he writes in a style all his own. It is a visceral style and not for the dainty soul to delve into. So far I like what I've read.
       I went to the creek today and looked for tracks. The flooding had receded and there was an area around the creek where the thick carpet of leaves had been swept away, leaving that rarest of things here in the woods, bare ground. This is cool for a tracker as the muddy swath left behind shows tracks better than the leaves. I found raccoon tracks and those of a wood mouse, a few deer prints and also dog tracks. It was a fun way to get some exercise and fresh air.
    Coons have these neat hands which are very capable. I saw one open the doors underneath my grill where the gas canister is kept. I believe a coon could play a guitar if you could get him to sit still and learn. Speaking of guitar, I tuned my electric today and worked on a few chords for the first time in months. I have no doubt that any raccoon that graduated in the top half of his class could play better than I do. As far as I know, none of them have learned to blog yet, so at least I have that to cling to.
      Speaking of tracks, would you like a little project? Take a few scraps of two by four boards and nail them together, fill them with sand or ashes from your fireplace and put the box in the woods, preferably close to water. Even if you live in a sub-division you'll probably get a visitor if you put a few apple slices or table scraps there. Then identify the tracks, take pictures or make drawings. If you have plenty of money, leave a guitar out there and see if you wake up during the night with a coon playing House of the Rising Sun.
     From the author's green retreat, I'm CE Wills.
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