A Spider in the Bath and Mice in the Cupboard

I really had another subject In mind for my blog today. But nature prevailed again and there was no getting around it. We couldn’t put this off. But again the cavalry rode in to save the day in the form of my very handy husband, who reluctantly showed his varied engineering skills yet again to his not so handy wife.

So after discovering an enormous creature in the bathtub that seemed to have brought his own dirt with him for a soak, the wife of the vintage establishment summoned the husband overseer of all things too messy or revolting for wife to deal with, and he escorted the hairy legged and rather confused arachnid outside to another more appropriate locale. All was well after that for at least two hours of glorious washing in the new super washing machine with the new super washing products and wife dutifully hung the washing after husband escorted it outside in the laundry basket. What a team.

But then the wife discovered a stupendous scattering of teeny tiny mouse poos on the bottom shelf of the kitchen dish cupboard that extends to a very hard to reach area of darkness and mystery. So after removing every piece of enamelware and glass bowls and whatever else lurked in the unknown corner, then vacuuming up all the droppings, then disinfecting the space, washing all the millions of items that came out, several times, putting them in appropriately sized cardboard boxes, screaming quietly to myself, and then engaging the not so interested man tinkering around outside on his own projects, I sat down. Then, by the grace of God, John took over, lying on the ground, grinding down the foam someone else put in the corner to block the passage of the mice, which didn’t work permanently, and soon he’ll install a piece of wood to block another cupboard off from whatever is coming in and doing their mini business on the shelf. I believe he’s got it in hand. Looks like he’s got it in head. But then he’s putting on two covers, one to block the newly rediscovered mouse hole next to the foam. Then he can vacuum all over again and then disinfect the entire surface again and then I can come into the picture and put some of the stuff back. And oh yea, he also painted the disgusting site. What a guy!

Old buildings have these challenges cropping up regularly. We are lucky to have had a pretty clean run so far but we have removed everything on all the lower shelves just two months ago, although I didn’t do this shelf on the bottom of the dish cupboard. So I’m thankful that John actually knows how to fix this situation and that he’s doing it now. That’s part of living in the country. If something breaks it’s tough luck but everyone around here repairs most everything that’s broken by themselves. So another crisis averted. Lucky me, to be living with handy man. Actually, I thank my lucky stars for that over and over.