There Be Dragons

Grace and I have been watching 'Life on Our Planet' so she might have had dinosaurs on her mind, but she has also been reading a book about dragons, so it could have been that which inspired her. Or it could have been her fertile creative imagination. We have swung between wild racing from one end of the house with Spike in hot pursuit to quietly sitting on the couch reading. Sage is teething and a bit cranky.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. We were all up early in expectation of the arrival of the pest patrol. When they hadn't appeared by 9:30 we were trying to decide how to fit everybody, including the stroller and the dog, in the car to go to the farmer's market and beat the rain. In the end it was decided that I'd stay home with the dog and deal with the pest patrol while they made a dash to the market.

The pest patrol, two young guys and a truck, arrived just as they were leaving and promptly disappeared underneath the house. They were surprisingly quiet but sounds of sweeping and raking could be heard from time to time. They took the moisture barrier away, sprayed disinfectant and  found and plugged a few entry holes. The rain began as one of them made the rounds of the foundation vents, and he was thoroughly soaked by the time they took their leave. They will be back to check the traps and clear the attic another day. 

It was a clear case of mission creep when a repeat cleaning of a greasy pan led to a thorough scrubbing of all the frying pans, which led to a deep cleaning of the stove top and then the oven. The oven is supposed to be self cleaning, but like most beautifully designed Italian things it isn't wildly precise and sometimes not very functional. 

There was a kerfuffle when the two guys finished and one of them came in to ask for partial payment. John said he had paid it and produced the entry in his checkbook. Phone calls were made...there was no record of it being deposited, a second check was written, and a massive search was made for the estimate form. John was fruitlessly searching through a pile of papers on his desk so I turned my attention elsewhere and found the estimate and the previously written check. Finding things has not been John's strong suit lately.

The afternoon has passed relatively peacefully considering that there have been few options for going outside....and the queen's private closet and bathroom were off limits since the entrance to the crawl space under the house is in the closet.