And it begins with that ring next door -- it is, alas, for wrestling not for boxing. And for "professional" wrestling, to boot, which is fake wrestling, which -- as luck would have it -- I actually love!!

It was a really splendid evening (yesterday), and so I was out on my super-duper cool deck thingie (I hesitate to call it an all-out deck because it is only a couple inches off the ground, but it is made entirely of wood so it's not "a patio," and it has a really cool overhang that is a"'roof" but it's made out of a mesh screen-like material so it lets in the sun and the breezes (and the rain!). Anyway: lovely evening, me on the deck, bunnies (2 of them!!) feeding in the yard with 2 dozen birds and 3 squirrels and 2 baby chipmunks.

There is a charcoal grill going in the yard next door. Unlike the ring, which is elevated at least 10 feet in the air (see previous foaming-at-the-mouth posts about my sudden regalement with the neighbor's new elevated professional "boxing" ring), the charcoal grill is not elevated. I only know it's there b/c I can see the smoke billing up over the 6-foot- high privacy fence and I can smell the charcoals burning.

Now THIS is making me inclined to like these neighbors a little more b/c I am one of those hardcore charcoal grill fans. I really don't like gas grills and most people nowadays use gas grills.

So, it's seeming like a really nice Sunday evening in early summer when, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a half-dressed, super muscular, tattoo-covered, shaved-headed-guy with just a triangle of brown hair at the very back of his head, getting into "the ring"!

He starts bouncing against the ropes, in the way wrestlers do. And right way I'm thinking: Oh wow -- wrestling! Not boxing. I love wrestling!

I'm trying not to stare b/c it's not polite, but I can't help but see that one of the teenaged boys is getting into the ring with the wrestler and the wrestler begins teaching the teenager some fake wrestling moves. The teenager -- if he is in fact  wanting to learn pro-wrestling for real -- is going to have to put on at least seven hundred and twenty-four pounds; he is way too thin to be a wrestler. (So maybe he is not the one who is going to be in the ring this summer. Maybe he was just trying it out.)

The upshot is that they were very polite about it; obviously, from their lofty height, they couldn't help but notice me sitting there on my super cute deck thingie, so they didn't make a lot of noise or a disturbance or anything. And now I am super curious to see what is going to happen with this professional wrestling ring this summer. Because it was crystal clear that the muscular, shaved-head, tattooed guy was a professional wrestler...

The other great news.

Well, to be honest, this "great news" is paradoxical.

Even marginally-loyal readers of this lofty blog no doubt recall that I recently had to have an exterminator come out to the house to kill a colony of carpenter ants that had taken up residence in one of my window frames and were doing an unbelievable amount of damage. I was distraught b/c I have a no-kill policy that means I live side by side with a truly astonishing assortment of spiders that were going to fall victim to the pesticide. While I don't love living with spiders by any means, I just don't have the heart to kill them.

Well, guess what? For the most part, the spiders are doing just fine. Since I don't tag them or anything, I have no way of knowing if these are pre-pesticide spiders who survived the holocaust, or if these are brand new spiders setting up residence here simply b/c spiders just follow me wherever I go...

The above-mentioned paradox is, of course, that I paid through the nose for the Orkin guy to come out here & spray, and I have a 10-month contract due to "ant larvae hatching" etc., and the spiders seem to be doing just fine.

I don't want to complain b/c I really don't want to kill the spiders, but the service is expensive! What exactly am I paying for???

I guess as long as the carpenter ants are gone, that's what really matters. (And this is after I released two impressive swarms of flying ants who were ready & eager to set up new colonies far & wide, so any damage I am doing to their old colony via pesticide they are by far making up for with their new troops -- aren't I a great neighbor, gang??? You send me your enormously huge pet black snake to take up residence in my family room late some rainy Sunday night, and I'll send you a fresh colony of carpenter ants to take up residence in your circa-1950s, made-entirely-from-wood home!) God. I was just made for the suburbs, wasn't I, gang???

Meanwhile, life continues to zip by at quite a clip. I am still making copious notes on a new book I am apparently getting ready to write, so that's always a fascinating process: is the book actually coming, or is it just a bunch of notes that go on forever until I die??? I don't know, gang; the more I unravel the mystery of life, the more it continues to mystify me.

Well, have a splendid Monday whatever you do! And remember to look for the miracles, gang; the more of them you can spot, the more they just keep coming. See ya! Thanks for visiting!