I know it’s Tuesday, but the series is called Monday Morning Thoughts, and Monday happened to be a Federal holiday… and it’s my blog.

Raccoon Invasion

Last night was a night of firsts for me. My first 9-1-1 call, animal control experience and sick raccoon encounter. Apparently we have a raccoon problem on Long Island (or so they tell me), and we had a sick one in the backyard. My girlfriend got out of the car with our puppy and started walking towards the backdoor, only to notice an ENORMOUS raccoon sitting on the patio. Here he is:

Fearful for the puppy’s security she continued walking around the house and met me by the front door. By virtue of it being Memorial Day, the local government wasn’t able to deal with it (our tax dollars at work!), so they advised us to call 9-1-1. They said it was serious enough to call the police because we have two dogs and our next-door neighbors have three little girls in the family. It had to be dealt with. The police (who were total bros, by the way) arrived, and agreed with us that the raccoon, was, in fact, sick (if not rabid) and needed to be euthanized in the interest of public safety. For a moment I actually thought they were going to shoot it, which I was TOTALLY on board with – I felt like I was finally about to live my dream of watching an episode of Cops go down in person – but they deferred to Long Island animal control, which showed up about a half hour or so later. Over the course of an hour, we went from a live viewing of Cops to something on Animal Planet. The trappers also saw that the raccoon was sick, so they want after it with one of those lasso/pole things, and wrangled that sucker into a cage. I’m not sure my puppy is old enough to have seen such a thing go down. In the end, our holiday weekend certainly ended with a bang.

The Bachelorette

Something I never thought I’d be writing about (and I can promise you, it will be the last time I do)…. The Bachelorette. Admittedly I didn’t watch, but as it would turn out, this season, which premiered last night, features a CF Advocate and fundraiser – Colton Underwood. Underwood, whose cousin has CF, played in the NFL, but, more importantly, runs the Colton Underwood Legacy Foundation benefiting the cystic fibrosis community. I don’t know Colton Underwood personally, but I guess you could say we’re Twitter pals… we occasionally like each other’s tweets. He seems like a great guy, who is making an impact in the CF world, so best of luck to him this season!

Stanley Cup Finals 

I can’t write a Monday Morning Thoughts post without mentioning the Cup Finals. I’m totally on the Vegas Bandwagon. I’ve had enough of the Caps making their run. They suck and I hate them. In less than a year, Vegas has mastered the art of entertainment in the NHL. They’ve become the go-to experience seemingly overnight. As far as the hockey is concerned, well I think last night’s game was pretty indicative of the way the rest of the series is going to go. Both teams are fast, but I think Vegas is too fast for the Caps. I don’t see this series going past 5 games (selfishly I want Vegas to win it on home ice [as I said last night before the game started])…

…but I suppose I wouldn’t be too surprised if it ends in 6. Either way, Vegas is going to win and we’ll be able to say that we’ve all been witness to a top 3 sports moment in the history of the American big 4 (NHL, NFL, NBA and MLB). Fleury is too hot, and the Kinights’ offensive zone pressure is too much for the Caps’ D-men to handle for any other outcome. It’s nice that Ovechkin finally has a Cup appearance, but this isn’t their year…. Sorry, D.C.

…and that’s what I’m thinking about this morning.

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