Wednesday, July 11

Mea Culpa - part 2

Where was I? I remember now.

RACCOON!



Villain or ... ?

What the hell was this about? I thought raccoons were nocturnal. This was the middle of the afternoon. My luck to find one with insomnia.

Now what. Not only was this a library book, but it wasn't even from my local library. Oh, the guilt. So as soon as we got back, I did the only thing to do; I logged on to my library account and renewed it. That gave me 3 more weeks.

But all good things come to an end, and so it was time to face up to the consequences. This was a grave matter, so I felt the the only honorable thing was to present the book, in all it's damaged glory, in person. No stealthy book box drop-off for me.

"I'm turning in this book. It's damaged. A raccoon bit it."

"A raccoon? (pause) We'll let you know what the fine is."

A few days later, I got an email with the fine -- roughly the cost of the book, plus a small fine -- and this: "Hope the raccoon enjoyed it! Since you are paying for the book, you may have it."

I was flabbergasted. Now I'm mortified. So of course I reply "Yes, please."



So, here is POK in its new home, wounded, but still standing.

Now, I don't advocate the use of raccoons to procure a copy of POK, and was hesitant to post this tale, but I've been assured by my family that no one reads this thing, so there it is.

5 comments:

  1. So I guess raccoons have their uses, huh? The big fat ones we have here (in the "wilds" of the Western San Gabriel Valley) seem to exist to dump over trash cans and terrorize my daughter!

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  2. Getting over the sacrilege factor of the book being chewed on, that's awesome. Congrats!

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  3. Something tells me that the raccoon has a thing about knitting.

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  4. These are big fat raccoons, too, and bold. Hubbo looked down and there was this youngster at his feet, like a puppy. A loud yell sent it running. I'm pretty sure it was the one that bit the book.

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  5. Oh my -- that's sadly funny. Nancy, are you sure you aren't some kind of Fagin training these racoon terrorists? Enjoy the book.

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