rats!

Rats were in the garden, many rats. I saw a thing climbing in the webbing, slid the door open to get a look at it, and it skittered down to the balcony floor and jumped with a plop onto the shed roof two feet below. Huh. Then I saw another thing perched in the crook of the big stem of the grape tomato, and this thing was a rat.

( see! )

It was scared off by the camera flash, skittered down like the first and plopped onto the shed roof, and I didn't see any more, went on to pick beans like I'd opened the door to do. Picked beans. When I was done, I saw a rat, perched in the crook of the big stem of the grape tomato.

I watered the plants then, wondering with each pot if a rat would explode out of the weeds.

bhangmeter

bhangmeter	       an instrument for detecting atmospheric nuclear
			explosions, through their characteristic optical
			signature: a short (millisecond-length) and 
			exceedingly bright peak, due to a glimpse of the 
			fireball; a dip in brightness as the fireball is
			overtaken by the opaque (ionized) shockwave edge;
			a second peak, slower and broader.
			[var. of /bang/, reportedly with reference to /bhang/,
			cannabis leaves and stems taken as an intoxicant,
			in a spirit of skepticism of such an instrument's
			feasibility, and jocular doubt of its proponents'
			sobriety.]