If you don't have a sceen door, don't leave your balcony open.

Disagree. His lyrics have never been very good, but his guitar skills were top-notch during the period you cite and that's why most of us listen to him anyway. Look at even his Cream years -- some of the lyrics in "Badge" read like they're written by a retarded person (I told you not to wander 'round in the dark. I told you 'bout the swans, that they live in the park. Then I told you 'bout our kid, now he's married to Mabel.), but it's a good song anyway. I've always felt he underestimated his own stuff. It's nice that he wants to pay homage to the bluesmen who inspired him, but I've lost interest in buying CDs by him that are nothing but blues covers. I have a decent knowledge of the blues, and there is nothing Eric Clapton can do to a Freddy King song that King didn't already do, since even their vocals are similar and King could really play, too. I'd take the Clapton of the 1980s over what we've seen in the past 10-15 years because at least he was playing stuff we hadn't heard before, even when written by other people.

 

So anyway, I figure it’s a freak occurrence. Been living at my place (South Bay, |L.A. County) for 15 years. Saw the occasional squirrel. Shooed the pigeons off of my balcony. Really hadn’t had a problem with pests. Keep a can of metallic gray spray paint in my trunk to cover up the occasional graffiti from the F13zMob4Stupidity on our mailbox.

As you can imagine, I closed every single window and door in my townhouse. Wake up the next day, everything is cool, so |I convince myself that this was an aberrance. “Stupid of me to leave the balcony door open“ I tell myself, lesson learned, let’s move on..

Next day my guard is relaxed. I am a fresh air freak. Accidentally left another balcony door ajar

So on the second day after I found a rat in my toilet, Christmas Eve Morning to be specific, |I woke up, got out a bed, opened my bedroom door and I saw many loose carpet fibers directly underneath my bedroom door.


So………………………………


I get mad.

I don’t take a shower, I make breakfast, I get dressed, I called my brother who has a good level head on his shoulders and tell him the rats picked the wrong motherfucker to fuck with and those gray, hairy, long- tailed cock-suckers would regret the day they came into my neighborhood.

My brother on the cell phone while I scower (sp?) the aisles of Lowe’s. He helps me identify that I have the Norwegian rat as opposed to the Roof rats. He says that the old fashion bated traps work best and you really didn’t want to poison your rats because they could die in unexpected places. I told him I was way ahead of him I was getting traps for inside and poison for outside.

Ending up getting four poison trays two of which I put on my balcony and three Victor spring traps which I put inside.


So I am doing my laundry in the laundry room and look down at the laundry room door to see gnawed wood and paint remnants of a rat trying to come up from the garage.

Understanding I now have rat(s) on stories 1-3, I need more traps. Too embarrassed to go back to Lowe’s I go out of my way to Home Depot. You guessed it, they carried mouse traps but not rat traps.

Go back to Lowe's , they have plenty of rat traps for 1.97 each. I buy five more. It’s funny how the sales clerk doesn’t flirt with you when you buy rat traps. Pretty much with 8 rat traps I have most doors covered.

 

Norwegian blue, eh? Lovely bird, the Norwegian blue.. .beautiful plummage...