{"id":6531,"date":"2024-12-31T10:39:22","date_gmt":"2024-12-31T16:39:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/?p=6531"},"modified":"2024-12-31T10:43:41","modified_gmt":"2024-12-31T16:43:41","slug":"creature-in-the-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/2024\/12\/31\/creature-in-the-night\/","title":{"rendered":"Creature in the Night"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the depth of night, I tossed aside the many blankets. (It was cold, and we were glad for those blankets, especially the one plugged into the DC socket in the teardrop galley). I opened the door. It was a moonless night. Except for the brilliantly shining stars, it was pitch black outside.<\/p>\n<p>As I sat up, I saw a creature scurry into the night. I rattled the door handle to make some noise and then put on my flip-flops, stumbling as I stood, because I had been sleeping so hard in the warmth of the blankets and the fair and industrious Trudy and faithful Izzy. I cast a glance in the direction of the creature&rsquo;s retreat.<\/p>\n<p>A gray shadow cowered under the the car. I couldn&rsquo;t see it clearly, because I was trying to stand without falling. But it was there, watching me. I took a step forward, stumbled, and then swung my foot so as to kick some gravel in the direction of the shadow so that I might have some privacy.<\/p>\n<p>A flip-flop went flying into the darkness. It landed (yes) under the back of the car &mdash; precisely where the cowering shadow had been. I walked over to retrieve my footwear still stumbling as I went. I picked found the flip-flop and then tripped. The flip-flop flipped back to the ground and flopped further under the car.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I kneeled down. The gravel ate into my knees. Certainly by now, the creature would have fled, I thought as I groped under the car as far as I could, feeling around in the darkness for the renegade flip-flop, finding it after a moment, stumbling again as I stood up. My head having cleared, I walked off into the gloom at the edge of the woods, which had been my original intended destination.<\/p>\n<p>Went I returned, the fair and industrious Trudy was snoring contentedly, oblivious to the hazards her husband had braved. As I shivered from the chill, I pulled the door shut and the many blankets back on top. Izzy came over and lay down next to me. Before my head hit the pillow, I was back asleep.<\/p>\n<p>And there never was further evidence of the creature&rsquo;s proximity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the depth of night, I tossed aside the many blankets. (It was cold, and we were glad for those blankets, especially the one plugged into the DC socket in the teardrop galley). I opened the door. It was a moonless night. Except for the brilliantly shining stars, it was pitch black outside. As I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6531"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6531"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6533,"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6531\/revisions\/6533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}