The "Tick".

I think Mrs. Bum wanted to wrap my Christmas presents today. She surprised me by reminding me that I hadn't been out collecting in six weeks. She said I had developed a tick in my left eye that meant I was going through withdrawal. I've been traveling back and forth to Florida helping my father after his stroke. I hadn't realized that it had been that long. But there was a front and back yard knee deep in leaves that needed racking. So I instantly realized that she was up to something. But who am I to question the wisdom of Mrs. Bum. The next step was to decide where to go. Since Xipodan had been in the area recently I figured he had found all of the Oligocene material. And since it hadn't rain in weeks I ruled out the Eocene pits. That left The Pleistocene, Miocene, Paleocene and Cretaceous. I knew where there was a lag area that had Cretaceous, Paleocene and Pleistocene all mixed together. Three out of four would do the trick today. So I drove off to the pit and within a few minutes my eye tick had gone away. Wise Mrs. Bum! When I got to the pit I found that mother nature had thrown a wrench into my plans. The side of the pit, where I had exposed the lag area, was now covered with dirt. The whole side of the pit had collapsed. That's when the eye tick returned with a vengeance. Not wanting to waste a two hour drive, and suffer permanent eye damage, I grabbed my shovel and went to work. It took two hours to get the layer exposed again. Every time I though I had it cleared the dirt above the hole would slid down. By then I was sore and wished I had remained home and raked leaves instead. Instead of trying to sift through the layer there I decided to fill a couple of buckets and take them home. By the time I got home I had regained my energy enough to clean the material. It turned out to be a good haul. But I did notice one thing when I got home. The lawnmower had been move in the garage. Been hiding something in the garage attic Mrs. Bum? HO! HO! HO!