Roadkill Bingo

To be honest, I haven't been exactly "unemployed" since December, more like "underemployed" or "multi-ployed." I've been working at several part-time jobs and projects to try and make some money. (This being one of them. If you like my little stories, recommend them to friends!) One of my jobs is at a non-profit breastfeeding center here in Lincoln, MilkWorks-a fantastic resource for families who want the healthiest options for their children.

So I have a teenager babysit my kids for the few hours I'm at my part-time job. She lives out in the country which is one of my favorite things about living in Lincoln, NE. You can drive a half hour in any direction, and you're in the country. Good Nebraska country. I love it! No plastic cows to "milk" like the Science and Industry Museum in Chicago. Real, honest to goodness farms with animals and their various smells. (As Sally Ganem, the Governor's wife once told me at a real working dairy farm in Firth, NE, "That, my dear, is the smell of money!")

This morning I drove out to pick my babysitter up with all three kids in the back of the minivan, and we see it. A dead critter in the middle of the road. The six-year old noticed it first. "Mom, you just passed some roadkill." I usually get the heebeejeebees when I pass road kill, but I thought that maybe I could turn this into a learning opportunity.

"Roadkill?" I say.

"Yeah, some animal is dead in the middle of the road," says my adorable 5-year old daughter.

"Well, what do you think it was?"

The six-year old pipes up, "A squirrel!" The five-year old guesses, "A moose!"

The wizened eight-year old, not even looking up from his Nintendo DS says in the cool even tone of an old west sharpshooter, "Nope. That critter was a skunk."

We pick up the babysitter and decide that this could be the most fun contest that we've ever had: Roadkill Bingo. She was guessing that it might be a raccoon and I suggested possum. We drove slowly past. Speed limit was 55 miles an hour, but we were crawling in order to correctly identify the carcass of a wild (although not so wild now) animal. Bets were placed. It was all on the line. And the winner was.......

Dead skunk. And then we caught a whiff. No mistaking that smell.

That, my dear, is the smell of money.