The Dangers of moving
by Susan Rodriguez

Imagine living the tale of the popular movie “The Money Pit” right in New Jersey? Last year we bought this fixer-upper, “as is” home in Hillsborough, New Jersey. It’s our first real home. We were thrilled to get out of our outgrown condo. The move went pretty smoothly; it was just the first weeks of living there that were disastrous.

I decided to be patriotic and put up the American flag on the front porch. Everything was going along fine, until I felt the 50-year-old flooring give way and grab hold of my left leg. There I was, no one at home but me and the dog, and me screaming for help. Vigilant neighbors were nowhere to be found. My beloved husky got scared by the sounds of the wood cracking and my crying, and retreated upstairs. Yes, I was in pain, but now I became fearful because I realized that there was some kind of wild animal living under the porch. All I could think of was my foot and leg dangling before the critter like fishbait.

I had no more energy left to cry, so I decided to pull my leg out. Bad idea! The wood just splintered more around my leg. Finally, my husband came home with my sons, and they extracted my leg from the antique porch. My new Walmart sandal was lost in the abyss. I had no desire to find it since I didn’t want to stave off any wild animals. It kind of reminded me of a “Little Rascals” episode when Alfalfa’s foot was under the bed, and all these cats came to attack his foot. Fortunately, all I had was a bruise on my leg about 2 feet long. That wouldn’t have been so bad but I had been gardening earlier in the day, and didn’t realize I had secretly been attacked by poison ivy. Both legs looked rather attractive, especially the one with the long scratch and bruise with the poison ivy blisters.