It rains and rains and rains.

It's possible that the boy is becoming feral due to too much time inside. After school, he marched out to the backyard with his umbrella and set up shop in his fort, which consists of four plastic lawn chairs tied together with a jump rope, two plastic tables (used as stairs) and assorted other palstic things doing important double duty. That's him under the big bright yellow thing. He refuses to come in. Did I mention it's raining?

I saw a big red fox in our backyard one morning last week. It was checking out the fort. All this time I've been silently cursing the person who has been allowing their dog to cr** in our yard, and I think I've found the real culprit. So I'm sorry to all the dog owners on Greenleaf, and I wish you and your dogs long, happy lives.

By the way, if you visit the Arbor Day Foundation, you can sign up for a six-month membership for just ten bucks. And in return, the foundation will send ten trees your way. Cool deal.