Last week it was so hot, the friendly squirrel, Sammy came out and just sprawled itself on the garden deck. It didn’t look like it was taking in some sun but rather, succumbing briefly to the mad heat that we were experiencing.
I watched it from the kitchen and estimated Sammy was ‘down’ for a good five minutes. Quite a sight…
This week? It’s gloomy, wet and cold, and Sammy is nowhere in sight. Weird weather we are having.
It’s inevitable for every storyline that has happy giggling citizens living harmoniously and superheroes maintaining peace to have a nemesis who does nothing but wreck havoc and create fear. Hence, Gigglesville has EB to content with. EB as in Evil Buster.
So who is EB? He’s obviously an evil one with a name as such and he brings glum to the citizens, taking away their giggles and happiness.
Now all I need is to create the whole township! Carving has never been this fun!
I got so engrossed in this carving activity, I spawned off another batch of carvings, this time a line of superheroes and call them ‘Defenders of Earth’! These fellas are kinda like Avengers, a group of super beings that protect Earth from evil and what nots.
And unlike the citizens who only has serial numbers, these superheroes have names because they are well, superheroes and for practical reasons. Imagine rattling off a series of number to announce their arrival? Not very hip.
We have SuperOwl and his sidekick, SuperOink and they report to Lord Bubba. Together in their ‘O’Mobile, they traverse Gigglesville, Earth and the universe to maintain laughter and happiness.
Honestly, it’s quite fun to carve and build the story along…
The past few days, the crustacean in the house is definitely not happy. Every time when I walk pass the little aquarium, the sullen fella is hiding beneath the driftwood from clear sight. Hubby’s also not happy that we cannot see Pablo, so he removed the wood and put back the pot cave, hoping with a less crowded aquarium, we can see him and vice versa.
And what does Pablo do? He digs a little trench beneath the pot and hides there from clear sight as well. Yesterday morning, I saw him inside the pot but head facing inside. We don’t know what he is sulking about, probably thinking of his freedom that time when he escaped.
He is not happy.
Lately I resurrected the carving hobby because I ran out of canvases to paint. Although I enjoy painting, in truth, I find the sweeping motion of the palette knife across a two feet canvas to be quite an arduous task. And I paint only once a week. It looks like the tennis elbow right arm is never recovering anytime soon and taking a long time to get well. Sigh…
But carving is okay. The arm doesn’t move that much and the balsa wood is not that hard to tackle.
The last batch of creatures created was back in July last year and recently, I labelled them ‘Citizens of Gigglesville’ and painted them all up. I must say proudly these creations of mine, all about an inch tall or thereabouts are rather cute little critters that bring a smile or giggle to whoever looks at them, hence aptly named citizens of this imaginary township.
Each and every character has a serial number instead of a name. With this, I see an interesting story developing.
There’s this new gadget in the market touted as a stress-relieving toy and apparently it appeals to the young ones.
I purposely purchased one to see what the fuss is all about. And when my toy came, I was excited initially. But when I ripped open the box and held the gadget in my hand, I didn’t quite know what to do with it. Obviously I am not so young anymore when I don’t get it, true to what CNN reported recently that adults don’t get it.
If I am supposed to do some balancing or gravity-defying tricks besides just twirling it, I’m not sure I would want to. Then again, either I learn some new tricks or be frustrated and end up being more stressed than relieved with it!
After his ‘capture’ and return to the little aquarium, we think Pablo is angry at us to the point of sulking because we have reinforced all points of escape.
Every now and then when I look at him, he would turn his back at me! Aww… can a crayfish have feelings?
We thought we lost him for good – Pablo, our pet crayfish. I dreaded coming home from office to find a dried up crustacean under the sofa or a spot we missed looking yesterday morning when we discovered the escape. But work at the office beckoned and we couldn’t spend the whole morning at home looking for a runaway crayfish.
He did pull off a great escape and Houdini act, scaling the little aquarium’s glass wall and disappeared for many hours.
That evening we came home and looked again. This time peering closely at the pond in the middle of the house, the most logical place. And lo and behold! Pablo Sanchez Rodriguez was chilling in there.
The great escape artist had a great escape from a dried-up death!
I simply cannot fathom how he did it. The night before he was in the aquarium but didn’t look happy after a water change. What happened thereafter was quite incredible when we charted his likely path.
He fell out from the aquarium that was sitting on a three feet high cupboard, and crawled that floor space towards the eight steps of stairs, most likely tumbling down in the process. Then, crawled along the living room floor towards the middle of the house to dive into the pond. Quite an amazing feat!
Hubby said the fall could have resulted in a concussion (if hard headed crustaceans can get one!) and left him for dead behind the cupboard but no, he survived. And in fact, got smarter to find water to stay alive! This could almost be a script from Disney or a twist to a Finding Nemo plot: Finding Pablo!
We actually measured the distance from aquarium to pond and it was about 33 feet. And for a feisty little bugger, the distance I must say is quite overwhelming in relation to his two and a half inch size! But he persevered.
Thank goodness, he’s okay. All the Bobs (aka fishes) in the pond did not bully him or eat him (horrors of all horrors!) and he’s back safely in his abode now. This time, we have secured all loopholes. One fake plant has been removed and the driftwood repositioned to prevent another great escape.
This morning, he looks hyper and a tad angry that he’s back in the aquarium. What a character! Perhaps we will let him out to the pond every now and then to join the community.
Where it all began…
Where it ended.
Back home and sulking!
What can I say? Boo hoo hoo…
We don’t know how, we don’t know when but this morning when we walked passed the aquarium and wanted to take a look a him, the aquarium was missing its tenant!
Searching high and low, we just cannot find Pablo. Feisty little bugger, perhaps too feisty for its own good, scaling the walls of the aquarium and pulling this Houdini act.
I seriously think we will not be able to find him. Boo hoo hoo…
Can you see him cos we sure can’t. 😭
Angieneering 
Remarks