the raccoon got the trash can lid off, and it made a huge racket, just as i was getting outside to retrieve the dog beds. we're talking 10:13 tonight, and it's almost my bedtime. retrieving the dog beds was my last chore.

the raccoon and i are competitors, and i had already beaten him tonight, by taking a large load of garbage out of here, so there was no rotting food around where he could reach it anyway. never mind, he probably didn't know that as he was prying off the top of the can. but he knew that i was just coming outside when he did it, and he took off. i didn't see him at all as i came around the corner.

we have decided to move to illinois, and we are making a huge mess out in the courtyard where the garbage cans are. my goal is to steadily get things out of my shed, and get them someplace where i know i can move them, and get everything else off to a thrift store. we've got the thrift store picked out; it's in alamo. they take almost everything and i really like the place. it's an incredible amount of junk though.

slowly, i'm parting with pieces of my past. but the other day i encountered my high school yearbook. now it so happens that there are several coincidences related to this. the upshot of it was, i was going to throw away those yearbooks, but didn't.

the first was that the first person who ever introduced the idea of ukraine to me was a woman named irene voronin, who i knew in high school. and it so happened that i remembered her name well, and was able to look her up in that yearbook. her picture was not in it, but i was surprised that i had remembered the name right. here's to irene voronin - thank you for teaching me about ukraine. i remember what you taught me, and i also remember something about a painted egg.

second, it would be fifty years this summer from when i graduated. so, i wondered if they were going to have a reunion, and sure enough, they will. it will be july 23 somewhere in amherst. amherst, new york, was where my high school was. it was not my favorite place. but it was a place where i lived out an agonizing high school life, fifty years ago.

we have all gone different ways, and it would be interesting to find out what exactly has happened. it's on a kind of radar now. i know it's there, and i could do it if i wanted.