Hello, my friends, it seems like forever since we last talked. Summer is now over and fall is upon us. I remember as a child going back to school in the fall and feeling so excited about starting a new school year. On the first day of school one of the assignments for the class was to write an essay entitled "How I Spent My Summer." So, I thought that I'd share some of the events of my summer with you.
My summer was filled with heat, ants, vermin and just consternation in general. This summer was one of the hottest on record in Raleigh. Most days the temp soared to over 90 degrees. Every time I walked back into the house, I said " Thank God for air conditioning." Hot weather brings with it many consequences. Ants come into the house in search of water. I walked into my kitchen one night and there was a trail of ants running in and out of my sink. That made my skin crawl, and amidst a barrage of expletives I dealt with the intruders with a can of Hot Shot. My pragmatic husband has a different way of dealing with our little guests. There is an ant killing substance called Terra that gets to the root of the problem. You spread a little of it down, and ants eat it and carry it back to the colony. The only problem is that it takes a few days. My husband expects me to just let those creepy crawlies share my kitchen until the colony has been demolished. Usually I break down and counterattack with my trusty can of Hot Shot. Hey I refuse to let those little critters win. We fought them all summer, maybe they've moved on......
Oh and I've found out something else about these particular ants. Let me tell you first that my research shows that the ants that we've fought all summer are little black ants commonly known as "sugar ants." Fortunately the red fire ants have stayed outside(TYJ) they can give one a nasty little sting. However, I've found out that some of the black ants bite also. Apparently, the soldier ants will bite when threatened. I was bitten twice on my pinkie finger. The actual bite itself was a little sting. It was the itching that drove me crazy. Ah such is my life, bested by a mere ant. But my critter fight didn't end with the ants.
One night when I went to find a roll of toilet paper, I noticed that the last roll in the cabinet was shredded in places. I thought perhaps there was a reasonable explanation, but I couldn't figure out what it was. The next frightening thought made me look for "droppings" but I didn't see any. I kinda forget about the tissue until I spoke to my mom and mentioned the incident to her. She said casually "Oh it sounds like a mouse, and if the tissue was tattered it is probably building a nest." Great! Not only did I have a mouse, but now I had to worry about a whole mouse family. Uggggh!!!!!!!! Time to do rodent battle!
My house has a crawl space and I think that the little critter or critters reside there most of the time. I think they crawled up the bath room plumbing into the cabinet where I kept the TP. Well we weren't going down there, so we decided to get a trap. I was tasked with finding the proverbial better mousetrap. It really turned out to be an easier task than I had imagined. I just wanted to make sure that I didn't get the old fashioned trap, you know the one that leaves em flailing and squealing! Not fun. I found a mouse hotel, mice go in, but they don't come out. Poor little Mickey! I was satisfied with my trap of choice and scurried on home for the hand off. I had bought the trap, surely my husband could "set" it.
And set it he did. The process only involved placing the trap in the cabinet,and then waiting for the deed to be done. On one hand I felt sad for the little intruders, but then there's bubonic plague and other diseases...hmmmm. The next morning while I was in the kitchen cooking breakfast, I heard my husband's elated shout "Got him!" With a little trepidation, I hurried to see. I was afraid that I'd see a bloody mass of tail and fur. It wasn't quite that bad, all that I could see was the edge of a tiny little mouse foot. It was really rather sad, but such is the circle of life. I draw the line at sharing my TP with a mouse. As it is, I think that I've developed a phobia that makes me sweat and breathe rapidly when I have to open the bathroom cabinet. I'm always afraid that I'll see the tip of a rodent's tail disappear into the corner, just as the cabinet opens. Ding dong the mouse is dead! I hope that there aren't any more! We only did away with one. As you can see I spent some of my summer fighting bugs and mice, but it wasn't all bad. I did get in some quality time with friends and family .
I visited with some good friends from college; and in the same trip I got to see more of DC, courtesy of my little sister. I also was able to spend a little time with my great nephew, he's a precious lil thing. You know he's spoiled rotten, but nowadays lots of kids are, (spoiled I mean.) My mother's side of the family had their regular summer family reunion, and I hung out with my younger cousins and my son. On one occasion I didn't get home until 4:30 in the morning. It took me a few days to recuperate from that one; I did however, learn a new skill. I can now tie a cherry stem into a bow with my tongue. Ok, so I can't put that on my resume, but it's a cool party trick. All in all it was fun hanging out with my family, they are nice fun folks.
Fall is here, my favorite time of year, and the beat goes on. I continue my quest for self fulfillment and to find a meaningful job. I did get a bit of good news, I'll start a temporary job mid Oct. and that's good. Things are looking up! Thanks for checking in with me. Hope you have a great week and weekend. I'll talk to you again soon! Ciao!
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