Pumpkin flavored what?

rat1I have never been all that intrigued by the idea of pumpkin flavored items that don’t normally taste like pumpkin. I like pumpkin pie just fine although I am such a terrible pie crust maker that I never make it. But pumpkin latte? Never sounded good. That is, not until the Tall Boss brought in pumpkin lattes for her teams last week. Why have I never tried this stuff? It was wonderful and the flavor of pumpkin enhanced rather than trumped coffee. Not sure I will make it a regular habit but it was pretty darn good.

And then today when I got in, there was a whole bunch of food in the Printer/Food Cube next to me, leftovers from the software release we did last weekend. I am not required to be at work on release weekends but I do sometimes get to partake in the bounty of goodies that are often left over. But pumpkin hummus? I was skeptical as were others but then we tried it. Four triscuits with hummus later? A fusion of middle eastern and American Pilgrim cuisine? Whatever you want to call it, it worked! I did choose original flavored triscuits over the pumpkin spice flavored ones. Triscuits have been a fave of mine since I was a small child and they are not to be messed with.

rat2The dark photooos. They say something like, “Someone has taken the chalk and the bubbles and the rats. Who?” So, for years now, this one house on my walking route sprouts rats and skeletons in their leafy front yard beginning in about mid-September. This house also puts a basket of sidewalk chalk for anyone who comes along to write stuff on the sidewalk and bubbles.

I walk by that house every day and it is dark when I walk by it now but I was kind of wondering where the rats and skeletons and things were. And then on the Next Door Neighbor app that neighbor, reached out. “Every time I put rats out in my yard this year, somebody steals them (and the sidewalk chalk/basket too).”

This neighborhood is as safe as a neighborhood gets and I have not stopped my 0-skunk-30 walk because people have been stealing plastic rats from someone’s yard. I am guessing that these thefts are being perpetrated by the folks who broke in to some cars over the last year. They took worthless items out of those cars and dumped them on the street. I (and others) suspect that the car thievery is being done by young folks in the neighborhood who don’t seem to be able to find anything better to do with their time. It feels different to me than the petty theft that happened to us umpteen million years ago when strangers walked down the street and took stuff out of our vee-hickles with the idea of selling it. But they couldn’t because our tapes were just pre-school type music and so they ended up getting flung over the fence into the woods.

Lots of us offered to replenish the rats and skeletons and whatever but I am VERY SORRY to say that I don’t think that the whole issue will be resolved until the kids who are perpetrating this stuff age out a bit and at least try to squint at what I think their parents’ values probably are. Or maybe define their own… Like, what the heck was I thinking back in the day. I had moments of indiscretion myself back in the day and boy oh boy have I lived to regret them. But I think I also outgrew all of that stuff.

G’night, KW

3 Responses to “Pumpkin flavored what?”

  1. Margaret Says:

    Sad when kids take what doesn’t belong to them, but it’s part of being kids–pranks. I love pumpkin food, but can’t stand pumpkin drinks. Alison loves them; I shipped her a bunch of Via Pumpkin Spice latte boxes when she was in Korea. Koreans don’t do pumpkin either. 🙂

  2. Sam Says:

    Original triscuits all the way!

    “replenish the rats and skeletons” now that’s a phrase you don’t see everywhere! Poetic!

  3. Pooh Says:

    Maybe TP could install a web-cam for them?