Calvin's Weblog

A 'unique' weekend...

Well, where to begin...
This weekend was chock-full of firsts for me. Ron and I found a nice place to startup a rehearsing/recording studio, and assuming our intended use is permitted, we should be in possession no later than April 1st.
I also made some whopper purchases this weekend - buying some of Carole's brothers recording studio equipment from his wife. I couldn't afford it, but I'm going to need it. I spent last night setting it all up in my home studio, but I suspect I'll be lugging it all to the new studio within a month or two...
Some heavy stuff in there, I tell ya - the Mackie 24x8x2 mixing console is 76 lbs by itself, and is about 4ft by 4ft big - not easy to bring down stairs alone!
So anyway, life changing purchases aside, the big event of the weekend was that I learned how much of a wimp I am. The story goes something like this:
Last week when I was setting up my screen printing burn, I was looking for a dark place to cure the emultion of the screens. I opted for under the stairs in the basement. When I was down there, I noticed what I thought might have been mouse poop. I still have no idea how a mouse would have got into my basement.. (especially in such a nice neighbourhood, my goodness!) BUT, there was evidence, so the next day I bought a couple mouse traps and some mouse poison. Yes, I know - how cruel... look, I would have gladly given the mouse $10 to leave instead of spending $10 to kill it, but hey... he wasn't interested in the offer.
So anyway, the next day I go down the check the traps. I notice one of the traps has been snapped, but nothing is in it. Virtually all of the little piles of rodent pellets have been disturbed, but no dead mice anywhere. But then, as I'm poking around in the corners, BAM! I'm face to face with a big ugly rat! A RAT! In MY house? How the hell did THAT happen? Anyway, this guy was ornery. I think the trap clipped his foot, and the mouse pellets were only enough to piss him off - and this freaked me out.
I tried in vain to trap him, even succeeding in throwing a garbage can lid over it once, but that ornery little varmint scurried right out from underneath it, and into the wall. I set the traps and poison again, right in front of the hole and waited over night again - not really able to sleep, as dreams of this half poisoned, foot dragging, rabid beast jumping on my face and chewing off my nose as I slept kept me tossing and turning all night. I was up about 7AM on Sunday to check the traps - one had been snapped, and the new pile of pellets was all askew. I searched everywhere but couldn't find him. I went up to check the internet to see how long rat poison takes to kill a rat... and wasn't too happy with the findings - if a full lethal dose is injested, two to five days??? This thing could be deep inside my walls rotting before I found it! I went down to reset the traps and add more poison, when I noticed a tail hanging out of the wall - Carole had followed me down at this point, and was none too pleased. I put on oven mits and grabbed a stick and poked it - maybe it had died? This would be easy... nope. it slipped back inside the wall. Argh! I poked and prodded, pulled out the shop-vac, sucked the hole dry, and still nothing.
Cut to about 8 hours later - I'm finished setting up my new equipment in my basement studio (yes, admittedly a little freaked out that there's a rat somewhere in the walls within 6 feet of me) and a sneak a peek into the closet where the rat hole was... still no sign anywhere. I grab a flashlight and look high and low... yikes! I guess I had been looking a lot more low than high, because right at face level about two feet from me is a huddled ball of fur with a tail, protruding from some exposed isulation! I'm totally freaked out for the 2nd time in 24 hours. Man, I'd hate to think of what I'd do if faced with a wolf or bear or crocodile! (all native to this region, LOL). Well, it was breathing pretty rapidly, so it's still alive... day three!
I just left it. A lot of thoughts ran through my mind again, like the shop-vac, the nail gun, hell, even ductape and spray-on-adhesive-glue came to mind! But the short and skinny of it is, I did'nt want to get anywhere near it... what if I screwed up and then ended up with this vengeful hell-beast on my face? Not a chance. Here's my new plan: Sheepishly peek into the room every day until I'm sure it has stopped breathing. Then wait a couple more days to be sure. Then poke it with a stick and run away. Look again a few hours later to see if it moved. Repeat the next day. If it still hasn't moved, utilized the BBQ tongs to get it into a bucket, then throw it over the fence into the 7-11 parking lot. Maybe it'll scare away some of the kids with the boom stereos that congregate there every night.

Oh and by the way - last week when I was reflecting on how busy I had been in January, I totally forgot to mention that I read two excellent Michael Moore books (Dude, where's my Country and Stupid White Men), downloaded at watched 4 Michael Moore movies (Canadian Bacon, Roger and Me, The Big One, Bowling for Columbine) ...yeah, I'm kinda on a Michael Moore kick right now - I really like that guy. Oh, and I also spent about 20 hours playing Uru: Agest Beyond Myst.