Living in the suburbs has it's ups and downs. Last night, I was awaken to the howling of several coyotes. Loud and clear in our back yard. This went on for about half an hour. The coyotes were howling at the beautiful moon and I was trying to sleep through the noise. It's nice that National Geographic likes to cut through our back yard as it makes its way through North Stamford. Since I am still Matthew's private limousine driver, this morning we saw an opossum who was sadly mowed down by a vehicle. In fact, we see lots of animals big and small who meet their unfortunate demise on the road. Sometimes, I can hear the raccoons trying to break into our garbage cans. Luckily for us, it's locked pretty tightly. Otherwise, it would be a bloody mess in the morning. A skunk passing through our backyard will leave the tell tale sign that it's passing through. In Shanghai, we didn't see anything like this. If we did, they were in a jar located at the local herbalist or at Carrefours. The Chinese believe that the animals help with their inner qi mixed with the right herbs. It's not uncommon to find deer, bear claws and what not. So, in China these animals would be fermented in some type of rice wine or in some sort of soup stock. In the U.S., we find them running free until their unfortunate demise.
