(Last) Wednesday again already.
Still frigid in Connecticut. I think last week’s overnight low was around 6. Karl loaned me his “Kill-a-Watt” device that checks electricity usage, just in time for this cold snap where I’m burning the stove higher than ever. We’d calculated I didn’t need to get more pellets before England. At this rate they’ll be hard pressed to stretch what I have til I get back. The house can stay coldish, but some of the plants would die back if it’s below 60. The Aralia is already about half gone from the summer; the Blanche Dubois of my collection, she is fragile and does not like the cold. She will, of course, have to rely on the kindness of strangers for a few weeks.
After relocating mouse #8, I have had no catches for the last two nights. Everybody on Facebook keeps asking me if I don’t think it’s the same mouse coming back, each inquisitor unaware that everyone else has already asked me that in some other post. I take most of the meeses to where I work, about 16 miles away. The other ones are still far enough that I think it’s highly unlikely they’ll travel all the way back.
The new capture and release system is working nicely. I hope I’m not out of mice by now; I’ve only gotten to use it twice. I got a little plastic carrier with a vented top and a handle at a local pet store. There is shredded brown-paper bedding and kibble cubes, and a dish of water. This is in case I catch them at night and don’t want to go out in the arctic temperatures right away. They can hunker down overnight and have basic needs met. Every so often they can emerge from the bedding to see if an escape route has opened up. Karl was quite amused by all this; “You bought that?” was his response. Yes, I bought these things for my wild mice so they wouldn’t have to spend eight or ten hours in a Havahart trap. “I’m going for quality of capture,” I explained. “Plus, this way I get to see them, and I can tip the whole thing out on release and don’t have to come back later to pick up traps.” Of this he approved. Rose said I was running a mouse hotel. “You give them a bed for the night, and then escort them to the town limits.”
Work is nice and busy, though dealing with my hands (and, I confess, getting distracted by the ready usefulness of my phone) reduces productivity somewhat. I’m finishing a build of speakers that Belinda started a few months ago. There are mistakes in the build – wrong connectors, wrong wiring, a multiplicity of different volume knobs when they all should be uniform – and much time has been spent correcting things. Some builds are straightforward; this one wasn’t. I should finish today, though, and then I might be able to move on to another large, half-finished build that got interrupted by a few crises. After that one, my agenda will be fairly clear. There is another build coming up shortly, too, mics with metal boxes, a whole lot of them. There is a through-hole board to be built – my favorite part. Belinda was going to come back this week, but called Monday and said she has to go in for yet another surgery on her shoulder. I guess things aren’t going as well as she hoped. That is such a painful healing process, the shoulder. Rose went through it last year and it was just about the hardest physical thing she’d ever endured.
Last summer Karl and Rose met a woman who recently moved here from California. She owns one of the historic houses in town, and has experience with all sorts of things including restoration, wiring, and electronics. He’s got the go-ahead to hire her temporarily while I’m gone. She’ll come in in a couple of weeks and I’ll train her – as best I can, as I don’t know everything by any means – and I’m hoping she knows her stuff. Poor Belinda. She’s been there 10 years, and I know she fears doing things wrong and is very careful, but we’ve found a lot of kind of sloppy work she left behind, and many things out of place. Stuff we haven’t been able to find for a long time is hoarded in her desk. She had five pairs of scissors. Karl and I have been sharing a coveted pair of long tweezers for microscope work for the last eight months, and it turns out B. had the other two pairs in her desk. It’s a little aggravating.
Well, enough of that; it’s time to get ready to go to that very place. I am so grateful for my job.
The Following Saturday
Busy weekend as usual. I’ve been on a mission to find a couple of sweaters that can be washed and dried by machine. That’s how I’ll have to do laundry overseas. No time to “lay flat to dry.” More exciting sweater news as it breaks.
I am determined to finish my tax preparations in record time, and to take some actual time OFF tomorrow from running around.
The day will begin with breakfast at the new little eatery that just opened up down the street. We support local businesses!
Melancholy continues.
Sunday Night
I relocated Mouse #10 this morning. Feisty critter – ricocheted all over the cage. I took him to a local (not too local) woods where I’ve released two others, and noted many sets of tiny tracks in the snow.
Breakfast was quite serviceable, and the new place is so nicely appointed. It used to be a dive, maybe 15 years ago, and the old lady who ran it eventually died. It remained empty until some local folks bought it up and renovated it. They’ve only been open two weeks. It was packed!!
Karl told me Pearl has been served with a lawsuit pertaining to a car accident she had last year. It wasn’t a big accident, and there wasn’t even any damage. She sidled into a bus or something on a turn. Everyone was fine, and the police came and looked at it and let everybody go home. Now, a year later, somebody wants to claim whiplash. Something like that happened to me once about 20 years ago. I felt naïve and unable to stand up for myself. It took me a long time to get kickass about anything. Pearl has massive anxiety issues, and will throw up at the first sign of trouble, but she does also have a lot of guts. Only Rose was there when the papers were served, so as of this morning P. didn’t know about it yet. Karl wanted to hire someone who breaks people’s legs for a living, but said he no longer knew any of them.
I know you’re waiting for the sweater news, so I can tell you I scored SEVEN machine-washable-and-dryable sweaters for $34 at a place called Savers. It’s like an upscale Goodwill. Rose has been touting this place for months and I finally went. What finds! I’m so excited about my sweaters. They’re in various colors and styles, and they’re all fab. They will comfort me when I am far from home.
I did some tax work, cleaned four mouse traps and a vaporizer, made lentil soup and did some vacuuming, and now must practice in a flash so I can wash my hair in a flash and get to bed. It is horribly cold. There is no end in sight yet to the cold snap. I hate it. I can’t wait to see Spring at my house.
Healer, Musician, Bookmaker, Poet 
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