Tuesday, April 5, 2011

A Life More Open

Our house is a bit older, and as a result, there are some things that occasionally fall apart. But after today, I'm starting to feel like I'm fighting a losing battle.
#1. Our mailbox is wide open. The door rusted off on one side, and then the other. Now the mailman just leaves the whole door inside the box with our mail.
#2. A big storm blew our trampoline net off completely. Now it sits wide open. Don't worry, we'll get a new one soon. Come check it out anytime - you can see it easily from the street because our gate is wide open - it won't close.
#3. Our door frames are pulling out from the wall. This nice open gap also means nails stick out of the frame, one of which left a nice bruise on Rachelle's forehead the other day. She is tough, though, and is using it as impetus to walk all the sooner. Yeah.
#4. This one's the kicker. Today our garage door broke. I don't mean the mechanism that opens and closes the door is not functioning; I mean the door is broken. As I was pulling out of the garage, the door came down on our car. I managed to get it back up with the help of a neighbor, but a bolt on a hinge that holds two panels together is toast, and some of the wood has splintered apart. The door is broken. Tonight we'll go to bed with the garage wide open.

Late night addendum: Apparently this is theme that transcends our household. Tonight at choir practice, I left Rachelle to wander the choir chairs under the watchful eye of the choir at large while I filled in for the missing pianist. She found an open mousetrap (this kind) and was discovered with it stuck to her face. Some kind sopranos swept her away to the bathroom for some soap and water, but stopped short when they noticed her skin coming off with the adhesive. Don't worry, she's been completely de-stickified quite humanely by a very attentive mother in a very soothing bath. Poor little mouse.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

We used sticky traps to survey lizards once in a study. The way to get them off is with oil (veg, olive, whatever). We would use small paint brushes and a bottle of oil and just paint and lightly push around the edge of the lizard to unstick it. We would then wipe off the oil from the lizard.
Hopefully there won't be a next time for you though, so your mouse doesn't need to be treated like an anole.

Anonymous said...

Yikes, that's a little too open for comfort! But I did laugh out loud about your mail box. How kind of the mailman to continue to put the door back in the box each time. Special delivery!

Jeannie said...

Um, that last comment was from me. Somehow I must have missed the correct button. Guess I should go to bed now...

Jenessa said...

I love that you are still smiling through it all!:) You are the best & I'd love to visit sometime!

Valene Harris said...

I just walked through my house looking for you family and thinking for sure you must live with us :) This was the most fun blog to read. Not fun for you, however, to live, but so fun to read. Mean mouse trap! Mean Choir Practice. I am telling you. Primary is the only safe place to be :)

Maggie said...

From the half full side of the glass - at least you are a renter and not a homeowner. Hopefully your landlord will be attentive. Remember when I got back from our honeymoon to find that the dishwasher, clothes washer, disposal and water heater were ALL broken? Still, no fun. Give the mouse and her brother a hug from, GrandMaggie

Maggie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
keine.angst said...

It was so sad! I hope she still likes me after trying to clean it off. She is so cute!