Tag: home owner

RIP Mouse… Jerk

Well that was fun.

I logged into a video conference call at 10:00am. At 10:02am a mouse tried to climb the floor lamp next to my desk. It almost got to the top before falling off. It was equal parts startling and freakin’ adorable.

A mouse. I mean, it is that time of year, right? The weather is getting colder and the critters are looking for warmth. I get it. It’s not surprising.

This mouse was either an arrogant asshole, or supremely stupid. Why? Because when I first saw it I made some noise and moved around. I was on video in a meeting so I couldn’t get up and chase it. I made my very large presence known and that should have scared it off, right? Nope. The little shit hung around. It tried going up the light a few times, and it was running in and out of the pile of stuff in the corner next to the desk, and it came strolling out from under my desk a couple of times. It didn’t get the hint.

When my string of three consecutive video meetings ended I got up and kicked some stuff and made a lot of noise. I had a minute or two where I thought I was in the clear. Then I heard it behind me. It was standing next to my amplifier. Yeah, my Fender ’65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue that costs over a grand. It was curled up next to the power cable. Oh no, you little shit. I got up and it ran. It went under my desk and hid behind my little foot rest. I kicked it… hard. It dashed to the other side of the room. I went after it. Eventually I lost it in the closet. I hoped that would be the end, but somehow knew it would be dumb enough to come back.

I logged onto Lowes’ website and started shopping for mouse traps. I was thinking of capture traps because I don’t want open traps that Patches the Wonder Cat could accidently trip and mangle herself on. That’s when I heard it again. It was next to the amplifier again. I got up, walked over, and kicked it. It smooshed between my foot and the wall.

The end.

Fucking mouse.

Cold?

It’s 93 degrees out. My city has declared a heat advisory and setup cooling off stations all around town.

My office is in the cellar. Every time the air conditioner (central air) kicks in the temperature in here plummets. I have a jacket in here with me for when I can’t take it anymore.

It’s roasting hot outside, it’s freezing at my desk. It’s getting uncomfortably hot upstairs where Jen and Harry are because I keep fudging with the thermostat to keep it from getting too cold down here. I can’t do that anymore. I just lowered the temp so that the central air will kick on…

…and I turned on the space heater next to my desk. Yeah. Heatwave, babie.

Here’s a double exposure I took at lunchtime for no reason at all.

DSC_0002

The temperature outside is about to drop, I think, because there is a very noisy, very active thunderstorm rolling in. Also, Harry is no longer at risk of heat-discomfort upstairs because he just left for work.

Transparency, thou art my middle name, babie.

What’s Next for the Cellar

I am on a late lunch break right now, posting a late lunch break bloggie post. So what, you ask? Well I’m doing it from the cellar, the new location of my home office.

This morning before work I brought my desk and filing cabinet along with both computers (one for work, one for not-work), my gigantic monitor, all of the hardware I use for work (camera, headset mic), and a few other things. Most of it is setup now. I have a podcast playing on my MacBook, airplaying through an old HomePod, and a few lamps with internet connected light bulbs. It’s nice and bright down here and everything is working fine.

There is just one hang up, and it’s one we saw coming a mile away. It’s a little cold down here. Not too bad, but a little chilly. I have a light jacket on. I’m fine and dandy. We have a little space heater upstairs that isn’t being used. I’ll probably bring it down here at some point.

So what’s next for the cellar? Tonight we’re going to mount the new TV in the little living room space. There are a few more things to bring down from upstairs, like the exercise bike and the guitar nook. We have some pictures to hang and some signs and things like that. There’s a shelf we want to put on one wall, and a curtain we want to hang in the one little cellar window. We have a bookcase coming and another little cubbyhole looking storage thingie.

After all of that? Just sit back and relax and watch a movie and have my internal organs hacked up and stapled back together. Yeah, that.