So I yesterday I was trying to be a good son-in-law and mow my in-laws lawn while they were away on vacation.  I woke up early because it has been so hot here lately that mowing the lawn after work might just kill me.  When I got outside, I was amazed at how wonderful the weather was.  It was about 75ish degrees, which is quite amazing since it was 106 just a few days ago.  I thought to myself “this is going to be great!”  I can get the lawn mowed, get cleaned up and get to work, and I won’t even be that late.  So I started mowing.  It was going great but then all of the sudden the motor seized up and stopped working.  I tried to clean up the lawnmower but it still would not run so I gave up on getting it done.  As I went to put the lawnmower back in the garage, I thought I saw a large lizard scampering into the garage.  I did not want to go see what it was; I just thought it would resolve itself.  So I left the garage door open and went inside to get ready for the day.  I eventually closed the door and went about the rest of my day.

I had one of these in my garage...

Later in the evening, I came home and opened up the garage.  I was about to walk in it when I saw an armadillo walking between the cars in the garage.  So when I thought I saw the lizard slithering into the garage it was actually the tail of an armadillo.  It totally freaked me out.  The armadillo was not huge, but it was large enough to make me very nervous about walking into the garage.  So I stood there in the dark of night waiting for the armadillo to leave the garage.  After about 5 minutes of crouching down so I could see where it went.  I decided that I had to make a run for it.  I did not know anything about armadillos at the time.  I did not know if they were dangerous or if they had diseases.  As one might assume I was very cautious.  Once I confirmed that the armadillo was in the other corner of the garage I made a run for it and got into the house.  I left the garage door open so that hopefully, it would find its way out.  I went upstairs did a little Wikipedia research and found out the not only do that often care diseases like leprosy, they can also jump or hop about 2 feet high.  Well that is enough to freak anybody out.  However, against all better judgment I went back out to see what was going on.  I took my camera hoping to get a picture of the armadillo.  I was very cautious and used walked along the floorboards of my father-in-laws suburban trying to stay off the ground.  I was quiet for a few moments and tried to listen for the sound of its feet.  I eventually heard that it was just outside the garage.  I climbed around the back of the car and onto the bumper and used my camera’s flash to see the ground in front of me.  Much to my surprise as I pressed the shutter button and the strobe flash started going off me saw two armadillos running away.  Then I looked at where they were going and saw another one.  That makes three armadillos in total.  I do not know how many I locked up in my in-laws garage all day, but apparently, there were a lot of armadillos around.

This was a strange day.  I not only broke the lawn mower, I also locked one if not more armadillos in a garage.  I do not know if I am ready to have my own house.  I cannot even take care of someone other people’s houses.  Wish me luck…