Like Mike, I'm a music person. I've never had 'em in my studio (in the
basement) but they've been in my shop which is a door away from the
basement.

Along with being a "muso", I'm a city dweller. Here in Baltimore, I value
possum, foxes, racoons, etc. If they are hanging around, the rats haven't
taken over. It's worth keeping in mind.

Ed

"Swingman" wrote in message
...
-MIKE- wrote:

They're very curious, when they're young like that.
We get them every spring, and they sure are cute.

Even when they get older, they're not aggressive, like people think.
That defensive pose they strike, when cornered, looks pretty viscous
with those crazy teeth and all and the hissing.

They also are not disease-ridden and dangerous to your pets, like many
think. Their body temperatures are actually too low to host most mammal
viruses like rabies.

Because they're almost blind when not in the dark, it's pretty easy to
catch them by just putting a box or crate right next to them. They'll
climb right inside, trying to escape the light.

Many years ago, on a Sunday afternoon in the control room of a recording
studio, I was attempting to lay down a bass track on a tune that just had
to be finished that day. I was alone, there was no way to punch-in a 24
track in those days without re-winding and starting over, and only one
track was left open so I couldn't comp it. I'd already had half a dozen
shots at it from the top and was finally in the pocket and grooving on the
last chorus when I caught a movement out the corner of my eye.

WTF? This was in a big city, no way in hell a curly haired, white, baby
possum is going to walk into a recording studio, in broad daylight,
downtown, in a big city, right?

Like hell!

Little **** walked right up to my tapping right foot, set himself down,
looked up, and comfortably made himself an audience.

But, there was also NO way in hell I was going to stop playing, even for
Godzilla, with only 30 seconds left to go on the best take of the day!

Only slight rattled, I managed to keep the groove, and while holding the
last note long enough for the long fade the tune was supposed have, that
little **** looked up at me as if say "Well, that wasn't all that bad,
might wanna keep that one!", yawned, turned around and walked out.

(He did show up about a week later at the adjoining club next door and
scared the **** out of the girls behind the bar ... but that's another
story.)

That's twice now .... deja vu all over again.

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Last update: 10/22/08
KarlC@ (the obvious)