we must have racoons, or else squirrels of enormous proportion. last night, between the (still) mysterious dribbling basketball sound and the rattle caused by the huge gusts of wind blowing through town...there was a new sound. it sounded like something (or someone?) was going through my trash. i don't mean to insinuate that some delicate little animal was gingerly picking through bits of food waste while sipping tea and reading last weekend's new york times. no way. these racoons were having a strong-racoon competition, tossing our trash cans instead of full kegs. i also think they set up a bowling alley, rolling trash cans at a properly assembled triangle of glass bottle pins. checking this morning, a few bins were knocked over but no sign of a critter frat house party remained...so i guess they can stay as long as they keep cleaning up. but why didn't they just invite me in the first place?