Togs, I was starting to wonder where you've been! You'll definitely want to take care of the raccoon situation.
As the street in front of my house is torn out, I've been exiting the house via the back yard, crossing through my neighbors back yards to get to my car, which is a block away. This morning I found a 'gift' from one of the neighborhood cats: A very abused squirrel carcass. Once it gets dark, I'm going to toss is over my fence into my neighbor's weed patch where it can finish decomosing in peace.
My GOD the animal kingdom is gruesome.
On another note: I have no cold water! I washed a load of light colors in the FL'er and was shocked when I reached in to pull them out. They were quite warm. I looked at the control, which was set at warm/cold. It finally dawned on me: The block-long garden hose feeding water to my house from a still-unspecified source had been lying out in the sun all day. Hence, no cold water. Very weird for Minnesota, where our water stays pretty cold, even during the summer months.