It’s Sunday morning and later today Brenda and I will “check out” of our home and check into an airport hotel for the night before we catch\u00a0our flight on Monday to Tortola. \u00a0And that flight leaves at “0 dark 30”, the tender hour of 05:50. Early, early.<\/p>\n
When I returned home about a week ago from deliverying Pandora to Tortola I began setting traps around the house with the hope of catching any mice that might be planning to take over once we winterize the house and leave.<\/p>\n
I have to tell you that I have been astounded with the number of mice that I have caught compliments of Victor. You know, the Victor mouse traps? Those little wooden traps? \u00a0Yes, the ones that are so impossibly hard to set without “catching” your finger. \u00a0Yes, those traps.<\/p>\n
Anyway, at first I set about 4. \u00a0One each in the kitchen, Brenda’s studio downstairs, in the basement and up in the attic above the garage. Well, let me tell you, it turns out that there was a “regiment” of mice waiting to invade once we left. \u00a0I have caught mice nearly every day since returning home, sometimes’s more than one.<\/p>\n
I caught them in the laundry, downstairs bath and even in the kitchen behind the toaster oven (Brenda just loved that. How about a nice piece of toast Brenda?). However, the largest number, upwards of 8 or so, were caught way up high on a shelf in the garage where I store towels to dry the car.<\/p>\n
Yes, I dry the cars EVERY time I return home if it’s been raining. And yes, I know that’s pretty anal. However, I’m proud of anal as it works for me. \u00a0So, way up on the shelf I have been catching mice every single day and that’s a lot of mice.<\/p>\n
When we first left the house five years ago, we discovered, to Brenda’s abject horror, that mice had eaten into everything edible in the pantry while we were away. So, every year since then we have set traps and move all the staples to the refrigerator.<\/p>\n
So now you know, if you leave your home for months at a time, THE MICE WILL COME! \u00a0Or, to put it another way and to torture a phrase “set\u00a0<\/em>a better mousetrap and\u00a0mice\u00a0<\/em>will beat a pathway to your door”. \u00a0And they do…<\/p>\n Perhaps more than knowing that we share our home with myriad mice is knowing that the largest concentration of these furry pests is on a shelf that’s 6’off of the ground in the garage. For some reason, this makes me think of zip lining but I’ll get back to that in a moment.<\/p>\n I can just imagine us blowing out all the pipes, putting antifreeze in the toilets, sink traps, washing machine and dishwasher, turning down the heat and shutting the front door…<\/p>\n And THEN, once the front door clicks shut…The mice come streaming in with high pitched little cries of joy. Can’t you just imagine them climbing all over the furniture and swinging from the chandeliers? \u00a0I guess that’s why all of this makes me think of zip lining.<\/p>\n “So, where, where, where are you going with this Bob?” \u00a0 \u00a0Well, I’m thinking Antiqua of course and zip-lining through the rain forest canopy. \u00a0 Yes, that’s what I want to do. Why should it just be those little mousies in CT that are having all of the fun?<\/p>\n We hope that our travels this winter will take us to Antigua, 160 miles south and east from the BVI. \u00a0And there I want to try my hand at zip-lining through the rain forest canopy. vYes, that’s what I’ll do while thinking about all the fun that the mice will be having in our home while we are away.<\/p>\n Check out this short video. \u00a0Looks like fun Brenda? Right?