Life Inside the Accelerated Entropy Field
Everything inside and outside my house has been going to hell in a very large handbasket for the past couple of weeks, and that process seems to have speeded up since I returned home last Saturday. Here's a list:
Saturday: the dryer in the basement started leaking water from its vent all over the floor, so I disassembled the whole shebang, cleaned out the ducts, and reassembled everything with hose clamps. Later in the day, my son slid into a curb while driving his mother's car in the snow. Afterwards, we noticed a serious shimmy in the front-end, so I took it to the shop this morning. Prognosis: the impact split the bead of the left-front tire, rendering the car totally unsafe to drive. We were extremely lucky that we didn't have a blow-out while driving it this weekend. Cost: $270
Sunday: the high-water alarm in the lift tank of my septic system went off. This can mean one of two things, either the sump pump is broken, in which case my basement was about to be flooded with backed-up sewage, or else the float switch got stuck in the freezing cold. In order to find out what was really going on, I had to pry up the 100-lb concrete cover off the lift tank and hang over the edge of a 15-ft shaft with a long copper rod while inhaling large amounts of poo gas, while slowly getting frostbite due to the 5-degree temperatures outside yesterday. Fortunately, it appears that the switch was just stuck. Nevertheless, I decided to play it safe and had my septic tank pumped today. Cost: $100
Today: the power supply in my son's computer ah-sploded with a very loud bang this afternoon. It was filled with dust, so I imagine that a capacitor overheated and blowed up real good. I had a spare supply on hand, but the wires to the motherboard connector were too short, so I had to drive to Radio Shack, pick up a bag of butt connectors (huh-huh, I said "butt connectors"), and splice in longer wires to make it fit. Cost: $3.98
Still unresolved is the mystery of the disappearing mouse in my son's room. We discovered large piles of droppings behind his computer desk, but no holes or nests. The 3 traps baited with peanut butter remain unsprung.
Blogging? [sigh] Yeah, I'll get back to it someday. I should have plenty of time when my family and I move into the Red Cross shelter after a freak winter tornado sends our house off to Oz.
Comments
I spent $160 today getting my dishwasher fixed. We will have to replace the entire filtering unit, and are now waiting for the parts. Turns out it's my fault it got this way in the first place, because I ignored the manufacturer's recommendations and never used water softener in the unit. I will from now on.
But at least I didn't have to breath in poo gas.
Posted by: Kimberly | January 29, 2007 8:34 PM
Poo gas is quite dangerous. It's not unusual for people to be overcome by fumes while working on septic tanks. I made sure that Mrs. BH watched me while I was dangling over the edge.
I should probably check our dishwasher manual to see if I should be adding water softener to it as well.
Posted by: MrBaliHai | January 29, 2007 10:07 PM
yay for radio shack.
Posted by: mod*mom | January 30, 2007 3:02 AM
I'm glad you're back, but a big boo-hiss to everything that's broken. Peanut butter on the mousetraps is the best thing to use, and the mouse will be a goner in 1-2 days. I don't know how those critters get into houses; I was never able to figure out where the 2-3 mice in mom's house came in from.
Posted by: Stacia | January 30, 2007 3:07 AM
We used pb to bait the traps, but Mr. Mus Musculus ain't goin' for it so far. We can hear it scrabbling around in the false ceiling over our basement den, so we know it's still around. As for how they get in, it doesn't take much of an opening. Mice can flatten and narrow their bodies to squeeze through very tiny holes.
Posted by: MrBaliHai | January 30, 2007 5:51 AM
The mice got wind of the hot Tiki action at the Hai De Way and of course wanted to be part of the scene.
My advice would be to make them a miniature Pu Pu platter complete with mini Warfarin spiked Mai Tais
Posted by: Fritz | January 30, 2007 8:28 AM
Nah, I tried this with the skwerlz last year, and they just drank up all my good rum, then hurled up chunks of Crab Rangoon in the corner behind the pinball machine.
Posted by: MrBaliHai | January 30, 2007 10:48 AM
Glad you're back.
Sorry that the bear seems to be gnawing on your leg.
Your mouse is too smart for you. Try leaving a little bowl of whiskey near the trap. Once the mouse gets drunk, he or she will get reckless, and probably forget why he shouldn't eat the peanut butter.
Posted by: Rob Pingel | January 31, 2007 10:11 AM