Stalin died in agony. I feel pretty bad about that, but there really wasn’t
anything I could have done, so at least I don’t have “Oh, man, if only I
had…” on my mind.

Ken is going to C’ville by himself tomorrow, so I’ll get the office to
myself. Woohoo.

It was weird because as I was driving to work this morning, something ran out
in front of the semi ahead of me. It was bigger than a mouse but smaller
than a squirrel. A ground squirrel maybe? At first I though, maybe it’s
just a leaf, but then the tires spit out a flattened bit of bloody flesh.
“CRAP!” I exclaimed. Seeing roadkill on the side of the road is one thing.
Watching it happen in front of you is something else.

So I got to watch two rodents die today. Stalin was in so much pain. I
thought about wanging his head on the pavement to put him out of his misery.
But I couldn’t while he still had a chance. “Freak,” I kept repeating to
myself quietly. He actually died a lot sooner than I thought he would. I
guess that’s good.