Thursday, January 24, 2008

A Good Mouse is a Dead Mouse

I have recently, and by recently I mean before Christmas, had my apartment invaded by mice. picture this, laying in bed almost asleep and you hear this scratching sound in the wall... yes IN the wall. Well, I heard this sound and I shot straight up out of bed kind of like when a coffin opens and the body springs up. I turned to my husband and yelled 'there are mice, I can hear them!!!" (To get the full effect of that sound, scratch your nails against the wall). Keep in mind, he was dead asleep so he's probably has no idea what is going on. So he says "what?" I repeat myself again and add "I cannot sleep in here knowing that they are in here too! I can hear them scratching in the walls". I was mad and it came across like I was mad at him because somehow it was his fault the mice were there. So, my loving husband says "what am I supposed to do?" I just wanted them gone... I didn't care how he did it. by no means was this conversation rational (on my part). So he gets up and goes to our cupboard and gets bounce sheets and puts them in the heat vent. Apparently they really dislike this smell. Is this true? I have no idea. All I know is that it was a placebo for me. In my mind it worked and I was happy. Even if in the real world it did not work... I did not want to read it or hear about it because for me on that dark night... it did work.
The sage continues...
Just after December 1 I was at home sick and I thought to myself... I'm going to put up the Christmas decorations. I went to the storage room and pulled out the big bin and saw it. I saw mouse crap all over the floor in one corner. I suprisingly did not flip out I just continued on my way of decorating. I did call Dave to tell him about the mice crapping all over the floor. Oh did I forget to mention that they chewed through the plastic baseboard?? Ya, that's even creepier. Dave's idea was to get mothballs and shove them in the holes and put plywood in front of the hole. We went searching for mothballs to discover that nobody sells them. Please, if you know where to get them, let me know. I will drive any distance!
Dave and I decided that we needed to clean out our storage room. And when I say 'we' I mean Dave. I was not about to go in there and touch anything. He's the man, it's his job right?? So Dave was cleaning it out and discovered that they defecated all over a quilt his grandma made him. I told him to get rid of it because you never know what could be left even if you do clean it. He was not happy. After he pulled everything out he threw the mouse trap out. He basically decided that the mice were mocking us by crapping on top of it and around it. Plus, the mice had chewed through ever corner in that room. CREEPY!!!
We bought poison and the poison was probably 1 inch by 1 inch... thick. It smelled good too... odd I know. But seriously it did. So I cut some of the poison up and shoved it in the holes. Some of the holes were too small so I would just leave the whole block in the corner. I would discover a day or two later that they were nibbling on it. I was ecstatic about this up until Dave went in five minutes later to notice that the whole block was gone. Do these mice have stomach's of steel?? honestly! I just hope they take it to their leader!!
On New Years Day morning Dave was in the kitchen preparing to make homemade pancakes (my little homemaker)... he pulled out the pan from the oven drawer and discovered mice crap on that. He pulled everything out and the mice had been all over. What's worse is they crapped in every muffin tin hole. They were mocking us. It was almost like they were saying "oh you gave my brother poison, well I'm going to leave you a present to remember me by."
The mice I think are gone or at least that is what I am telling myself to give me peace of mind.
Even though this story is creepy and disgusting, nothing will be as disgusting as the time I killed a mouse by stepping on it.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Remember the ripples.

I have typed and retyped this email so many times... I start on one rant and then move to another only to move back to the first rant.
I think my rant is mostly to do with how stupid some people can be. Stupid may be a harsh word, especially if one of those 'stupid' people happen to be reading this blog. Although most stupid people don't even know they are stupid (reminds me of The Sixth Sense)... think about it.

Why do I think people are stupid you ask? Well, some people really don't understand how the actions they take are a drop in a pond. The ripple goes on forever.
I can admit that I have made stupid decisions but I have never done anything serious enough to cause regret. I never like to say I regret things. I find that when you are in deep regret about something you tend to overlook the things that you should learn from those experiences. Hence, why I never regret anything.
I believe, like you probably do, that there is something to learn from everything. For a long time I would focus on what has happened in the past, not in regret, but more mulling over it... intensely. I liken this experience to driving a car. While we drive we look in our rearview mirror to see what is behind us. When we drive we focus more on what is ahead of us because if we do not, we crash. So when I would focus so much on my past I was missing what is in front and I would crash and burn (not literally).
I notice sometimes while I am driving that I will glance in my rearview and notice a car behind me and then I will turn my focus on what is ahead. It will take me a while before I look back again and when I do, I realise the car that was there is gone and I panic a bit, wondering where it went. I know in driving it is important to pay attention to everything on the road: ahead, behind and to the sides. But I do not focus so much on one that I do not see other things on the road.
Life is a road... we must not focus so much on what is behind that we lose sight of where we are going. We also must not focus so much on what is ahead that we forget where and what we came from.
I started out by talking about stupid people and I was going to rant on about stupid decisions people have made. I do not wish to rant about that. I do not wish to focus so much on the destination but experience the journey... but most of all, I wish for the world to remember the ripples...

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

New Year Resolutions...

Is it New Years Resolutions or new year's resolution or new year resolutions... the latter makes more sense to me but I could be wrong and I probably am.
2007 has come and gone and I ran in 2008 with a nice burn on my hand. I hope this is not an omen of things to come.
I thought about making resolutions for the new year but they generally are broken two days into the year. Although, I think the wording of the resolution makes a difference... for example, I will do this more and I won't do that... chances are you won't do that and you will end up doing the other. Why set yourself up for failure like that? Life is unpredictable. I would love to make a resolution that said I will not swear but c'mon... have you ever driven a car or played a competitive game (video, sport, etc)?? But in my effort to not make new year resolutions... I have already made one.
All one can really hope for in the coming year or years is that they are a better person than the previous year. I think that is a respectable goal... or resolution... or whatever.