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Wed 3 Aug, 2005 09:04 pm
It was a hot sunny day, with me chasing some important jobs, mostly without even shade. I was happy to get home. Shizumi, my neighbor nearly ruined it, asking me to load up a mattress and turn right around and drop it off at the Teams location, all the way back in Tomball. I begged off, wanting nothing but a cold drink and a quiet half hour in my chair.
Well, Effie had told me there was a dead animal under our floor, but I persisted in not believing in her extrasensory depth of smell. That is, until I came to the door after work today and the stench assailed even my nearly disfunctional nostrills, both inside and outside the confines of our pitiful little mobil home. I went right to work; that is, spent fifteen minutes locating a bit for the electric screwgun so that I could open up the vent hole and another ten stringing a drop light; then went right to work. Whisking away spider webs and holding the light like a torch, I followed the drone of many flies to the inner skirting behind the add-on porch. As I pulled away the panels, one caught on a pvc pipe and separated it at the joint. Simultaneously, I saw the body of the possum as a flood of water rushed me and my electric light. After scrambling literally for my life, I went and dug out a wrench for the water meter. The meter box was full up to the top with mud. It required five minutes of digging to expose the cut-off valve. Well, I got the possum in a bag, right when Effie came up in her Toyota, and she sprayed everywhere with lysol while I sprayed the dozens of aggressive flies that still wanted meat. Then I drove off to find some pvc glue.
Well, I got off work at five, and at nine was able to turn the water back on. We boiled a package of wieners and ate them on bread, using just mustard as a condiment.
And, how was y'all's day?
Well, I was watering and weeding and happened to look at a pile of mortar rubble - long story, never mind - and noticed a 3" pvc pipe that hadn't been there before. Looked a little harder and see a break at one end. Pick it up and study... and look over to my right for where the drain clean out is.
Or was. It wasn't there anymore.
So, when I was in Albuquerque back in April some fellows came in and gave my yard a good weeding and in the process moved some soil around. (My business partner checked up on them but had missed this.) I hadn't noticed this drain thing until today. The cleanout is at the meeting of the perforated pvc pipe with the nonperforated pipe that daylites down grade. So... with the cleanout probably broken off by the weedeater, I probably have a drainline full of soil. Now I have to go digging to find what's going on and fix it. I have enough to do, grrrrrr.
Not quite the story yours was, though, Edgar..
It's one hell of an aggravation to have these extra jobs pop up right when you desperately need to rest. Of course, we're resilient and will get through it all, no doubt.
I hate Days with Detours.
This weekend my air conditioner blew a capacitor. I'm just in one of those cycles where nagging little problems pop up at every turn. Nothing to do but slog through it all.
Edgar--
Sometimes life is just one damn thing after another.
Hold your dominion.
Edgar
Edgar, be smart and teach your wife to be a handywoman, but promise her that you will do the cooking and laundry as a trade off.
My husband was lucky. I was very handy at building things and fixing things around the house and yard, even the car.
I raised my children the same way, to be independent. Girl learned male skills and boy learned female skills in addition to the traditional gender assignments.
BBB :wink:
My wife and I have a pretty good balance. I'm satisfied with her contributions. She has never been a lazy person, and she often keeps me on an even keel when otherwise I might falter.
Sounds like a normal day to me - at least my days can get sort of scattered about if I don't take care.
Ah, but I yearn for simplicity - meaning, little to no extra work in times of stress. Is that too much to ask? Wait; I think I know the answer.
For reasons hard to explain, I have an extreme reaction to the odor of anything decomposing. I can get violently ill and lose my lunch from dead animals that I come across. I have to wear a breathing mask with charcoal if I have to clean up a dead deer or something along the road.
I would have to "suit up" with a fresh batch of cartridges to go under there and get the possum. Then Id have to take a shower with lavendar soap or some strong deoderant soap.
I fished this one out with a three clawed garden instrument on a long pole. The tricky part was getting it into the first of a series of heavy duty plastic bags.
I had long suspected there were possums still getting under there, after finding the very young, one at a time, on a daily basis, and taking them off in a have a heart trap.
Farmerman
Farmerman wrote: "I would have to "suit up" with a fresh batch of cartridges to go under there and get the possum. Then Id have to take a shower with lavendar soap."
Our Farmerman using lavender soap? My gawd, I will have to spread this news on every A2K thread.
BBB :wink:
Farmerman
Farmerman wrote: "I would have to "suit up" with a fresh batch of cartridges to go under there and get the possum. Then Id have to take a shower with lavendar soap."
Our manly-man Farmerman using lavender soap? My gawd, I will have to spread this news on every A2K thread.
BBB :wink:
whut. I often use lavendar oil, INSIDE my mask so I can cover up any errant molecules of puke inducing decay smell that may get inside.
Anyway, I love the smell of lavendar, I even have a special blend of Gucci and a lavendar after shave that I have made up by an herbalist in Rehoboth Beach Del. (This is perhaps the gayest place on the planet and , of course, I get hit on , so I dont wear the lavendar smell-good when me and Mrs F are walking in the old part of town ). Imagine, me in Rehoboth with my sketch book and wearing lavendar Gucci. Hell Im a damn fudgie magnet.
Woes and tribulations continue. Last evening I came home to no phone service. Turned out, the phone company had a cable severed. It was restored less than an hour ago.
So how'd those weenies taste going down so soon after kneading that possum around?
And don't tell me you just picked him up by the tail or used a shovel, either. I know you, ed; you like to get your hands dirty...
Not that dirty. The possum was too decomposed to even consider touching any portion by hand. My hands is dirty, but not fetid.
How many possums must a man drag out
Before the day is done
The answer my friend
Is hopefully none
The answer is hopefully none
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