My back-door neighbors burned their garbage again. I wouldn't have thought twice of it if it weren't for the fact that the smoke spread all over the neighborhood, particularly my street. And from the smell you could tell they were burning plastic as well as wood.

I had enough. In an act of machiso (can be exchanged with stupidity) I climbed the roof of the back-office and saw a kid burning garbage. The blue and green flames confirmed that he was burning plastic. I climbed down, got the hose, climbed back up and tired to douse the "bonfire."

At first I couldn't see what I was doing and just made sure the water went over the wall. A few minutes later I looked over and saw that the kid covered the fire with a G.I. sheet. Really ticked me off. I tried to aim for the fire but in the end there was just too much smoke. At least the grown-ups didn't get a look at my face. Still, they won this round, for now.

A Tale of One Dead Rat:
Three nights ago the I heard a noise from the bodega. The rat has returned, leaving rat turd in his wake. Last chance, I thought. I got the can of flypaper glue and applied it on the floor of the bodega near the door and by the rat hole the rat chewed through.

Two nights around 1:30 AM I checked out my trap. Sure enough I caught the bastard (okay, it looked smaller but still kitten size, and with all the behavior I've observed I'm hoping it's the same rat that's been tormenting me all this time). When it saw me it SQUEALED like nothing I've ever heard before. Even Pa heard it from the 3rd floor. I got a hammer and whacked it 'til it shut up. The end.