Aging Capriciously

Ahh life!  Told Karen when we got back to Wisconsin, I did not want to see anyone or have any visitors or guests for at least a month.  Time for us to get settled in, relax and get the house back together.  Not to mention and fight the mouse wars.  Which, while we are on the subject, I think may be over.  I am almost ready to proclaim VICTORY!.  Twelve mouse traps in the house and 16 around the outside of our house.  I settled on a “perimeter defense” as the best strategy for winning the war and it may be working.

I went to our local hardware store and came home with something like 40 mouse traps the day we found the mouse in our bed.  I put up our “army” of traps.  I kept several in reserve.  That night NOTHING.  The next day after I came back from my library group, I walked in and I could not believe my eyes.  Sitting on TOP of a trap was this cute fuzzy little grey mouse happily eating his crunchy peanut butter.  I tried to grab a broom but was too slow and he ran into Karen’s sewing room.  I quickly shut the door.  I then went into our bedroom and noticed a sprung mouse trap.  I figured the mouse had eaten the bait out of that trap and then went for the second one.  I flipped the trap over and low and behold, there was a dead mouse in it.  I was overjoyed.   One for two, or fifty percent was not bad.  I disposed of the dead guy or girl and debated on tactics for the trapped mouse.  I decided to stick two fresh traps into the room and quickly shut the door.  I figured that unless there was another way out of the room, he/she would get hungry and hopefully the trap would work.

I called Karen and told her the above facts and that under no circumstances was she to open the sewing room door.  We waited several hours after she came home and later that evening, I slowly opened the sewing room door to peak in.  Defying my belief, was one sprung trap and one deceased mouse.  My joy was beyond description.  It has now been almost two days and none of my other traps either inside or outside have been sprung.  Is it too soon to proclaim victory?

Returning to the subject of NO visitors.  We had one friend over for dinner last week.  She was driving through town and “How could we refuse?”  Today we are having two friends over for the weekend.  They want to visit a local maker of Tiny Homes and it is a 200-mile trip for them to come here, so “how could we refuse?”  After they leave on Sunday, we have another pair of friends who are coming to see us to exchange birthday presents.  Not sure why we are doing this exchange now, but “you guessed it”, “How could we refuse?”

After our last pair of guests leave, I am going to toss my cell phone in Coon Lake so that I cannot get any calls from anyone and put up a NO VISITORS sign.

There are reasons I can understand for hermits and ornery old people.  Both would seem to be strategies for keeping people away.

I am just hoping that none of our guests are treated to the sight of a plump grey mouse on their beds.

By the way, I suggested to Karen that since many people have cats, dogs, hamsters and other pets, we could simply call her bedroom mouse friend “Fluffy” and treat her as a sort of house guest.   Calling her or possible him Fluffy, seems to dignify the idea of a mouse on our bed somewhat.  Karen opted for the traps instead.

“Every house guest brings you happiness. Some when they arrive, and some when they are leaving.”  — Confucius