A true Halloween story
Keith F. Lynch
house on Halloween, I saw a mouse casually walking down the hallway.
This was the first mouse I had seen in my apartment for more than a
decade. It wasn't moving rapidly, as mice usually are, but was just
ambling along as if it owned the place and hadn't a care in the world.
Or as if it were ill.
I didn't want to grab it lest I get bitten and perhaps get rabies.
Rabies vaccinations are expensive, and I'm uninsured. I didn't want
to stomp it and get blood and guts all over the carpet. By the time
I got an empty can I could herd it into, it had disappeared. I
heard scratching noises from the hall closet. The closet was very
cluttered, so I didn't want to dig through it, especially since the
likely result would be that the mouse flees to somwhere else or that
it bites me before i see it. So I set a mouse trap next to the closet
door, and baited it with a bit of banana peel.
At the haunted house I mentioned this to Perrianne Lurie, a physician
who specializes in public health. She said that mice never get
rabies, as anything that bites them kills them. I almost objected
that a smaller rabid mouse could bite them without killing them, but
then I realized the flaw in that logic. (Did the smaller mouse get
rabies by being bitten by an even smaller mouse, ad infinitum?)
When I got home about 12 hours later, the trap wasn't sprung and the
bait wasn't taken. There was a noticeable mousy odor.
The next day, Sunday, the odor was much stronger, and was unmistakably
an odor of decay. It was about equally strong next to the closet and
in the kithchen behind the closet. So I concluded that the mouse
had gotten inside the wall and died there. I Googled around, and
concluded that there was nothing to do except wait for the smell to
dissipate, unless I wanted to tear the wall open or argue my landlord
into doing so. But a mouse is small, and I figured I could put up
with that amount of odor for a few days.
When I got home Monday evening, the stench was overwhelming in the
kitchen, and far, far worse next to the closet door. It was obvious
to me then that something far larger than a mouse must have died.
Nothing much larger than a mouse could fit into the wall, so it must
be in the closet. Something larger could fit in the closet, but how
could it have gotten it open? And how could it have closed it after
itself?
The conclusion was unavoidable: There must be a dead *person* in
the closet. The sighting of the possibly sickly mouse was just a
coincidence. But who, why did they go in there, and how did they die?
There wass nothing especially deadly in there.
I took a minute to brace myself before opening the closet door. What
should I do after seeing the dead body. Call the police? But they
would suspect me of murder. After all, it's not very plausible that
someone broke into my apartment without doing any visible damage to
any doors or windows, and then rather than stealing stuff and leaving,
hid in the closet and somehow died. Suicide? Natural causes?
If I did call the police, should I tell them everything I know, or
refuse to talk without a lawyer? Can I even afford a lawyer?
But if I don't call the police, then what? Leave the body there?
Even if I could stand the stench, which I couldn't even with all the
doors and windows open, others would soon notice and report it. Drag
it away? Away to where? What if someone sees me? Then I'd *really*
have some explaining to do.
Holding my breath -- for more than one reason -- I slowly opened the
closet door.
I didn't see any body. Everything looked normal. I removed things
one at a time: Bag full of useful bags, vacuum cleaner, vacuum
cleaner accessories, gift wrapping paper, suitcase, spare umbrella.
Finally, I saw the dead mouse. I picked it up with a plastic bag, and
carried it to the Dumpster. I removed everything else from the floor
of the closet, looking for more dead mice or other animals, and for
anything that appeared to be mouse-damaged. I threw the bag of useful
bags in the Dumpster, as it had been chewed through. I saw no other
obvious damage.
I washed the umbrella, which the dead mouse had been next to.
Today, Tuesday, the odor is less, but it's still pretty strong. I
have all the doors and windows open, despite the 60F (16C) outdoor
temperature. I also have the heat on full blast. Fortunately,
heat is included in the rent.
I have no idea how the odor got in the kitchen, given that there
are no holes in the walls that I can find. (No, there are no power
outlets, light switches, or phone jacks in the relevant area.) I have
no idea how the mouse got inside in the first place, or why it died.
And I have no idea how such an overwhelmingly powerful stench can come
from such a tiny creature.
Oddly, the odor seems strongest on the opposite side of the apartment.
I don't see how it could have spread that way. Is there a second
dead mouse? I searched behind, under, and through the two bookcases
closest to the odor, but couldn't find anything.
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.
netcat
> At the haunted house I mentioned this to Perrianne Lurie, a physician
> who specializes in public health. She said that mice never get
> rabies, as anything that bites them kills them.
I wonder how do bats get rabies? Who bites them?
> Finally, I saw the dead mouse. I picked it up with a plastic bag, and
> carried it to the Dumpster. I removed everything else from the floor
> of the closet, looking for more dead mice or other animals, and for
> anything that appeared to be mouse-damaged. I threw the bag of useful
> bags in the Dumpster, as it had been chewed through.
A case of useful bag poisoning did the mouse in, then? See, treehuggers
are right. Plastic bags _do_ kill.
> I washed the umbrella, which the dead mouse had been next to.
Perhaps you should have also washed the floor it was on. Preferably with
some disinfectant.
And get some activated carbon for absorbing the odor. Put it in the
closet and wherever you think the odor is strongest.
Uh, and next time you try to bait a mouse, try cheese. Obviously, banana
peels are not the way to go if they prefer chewing bags instead.
rgds,
netcat
T Guy
> Uh, and next time you try to bait a mouse, try cheese. Obviously, banana
> peels are not the way to go if they prefer chewing bags instead.
(Tim):
Cheese as a mouse-attractant is, apparantly, semi-myth. Their top
choice of foodstuffs are chocolate, nuts and cereal product.
Oh, Keith: they can squeeze themselve sthrough any hole one can stick
a ballpoint pen through. There's probably a subtle little hole
somewhere you've not seen, by the sound of it.
Tim
cryptoguy
> ( netcat <net...@devnull.eridani.eol.ee> );
Keith: My sympathies on the stench. Its no consolation, but I've been
there. It does fade over time.
> > Uh, and next time you try to bait a mouse, try cheese. Obviously, banana
> > peels are not the way to go if they prefer chewing bags instead.
>
> (Tim):
>
> Cheese as a mouse-attractant is, apparantly, semi-myth. Their top
> choice of foodstuffs are chocolate, nuts and cereal product.
On the rare occasions I've had to bait traps, I use a chunk from a
Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Works a treat.
> Oh, Keith: they can squeeze themselve sthrough any hole one can stick
> a ballpoint pen through. There's probably a subtle little hole
> somewhere you've not seen, by the sound of it.
I think the size of a mouse's skull is the limiting factor.
pt
netcat
6ccd58...@p35g2000yqh.googlegroups.com>, treif...@gmail.com says...
> On Nov 4, 9:16 am, T Guy <Tim.Bate...@redbridge.gov.uk> wrote:
> > ( netcat <net...@devnull.eridani.eol.ee> );
>
> Keith: My sympathies on the stench. Its no consolation, but I've been
> there. It does fade over time.
>
> > > Uh, and next time you try to bait a mouse, try cheese. Obviously, banana
> > > peels are not the way to go if they prefer chewing bags instead.
> >
> > (Tim):
> >
> > Cheese as a mouse-attractant is, apparantly, semi-myth. Their top
> > choice of foodstuffs are chocolate, nuts and cereal product.
>
> On the rare occasions I've had to bait traps, I use a chunk from a
> Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Works a treat.
Hm. My parents have rat trouble, and cheese has caught some alright.
> > Oh, Keith: they can squeeze themselve sthrough any hole one can stick
> > a ballpoint pen through. There's probably a subtle little hole
> > somewhere you've not seen, by the sound of it.
>
> I think the size of a mouse's skull is the limiting factor.
Probably a tad larger than an average ball-point pen.
rgds,
netcat
Kip Williams
> Cheese as a mouse-attractant is, apparantly, semi-myth. Their top
> choice of foodstuffs are chocolate, nuts and cereal product.
I'd heard they prefer jelly beans. Either way, cheese wasn't the one.
Kip W
Paul Dormer
Williams) wrote:
When I heard scrabbling sounds from my attic a few years ago, the pest
guy who came out baited his traps with biscuits (in the UK sense - he
used digestives).
I thought it might have been squirrels, but he saw evidence of mice.
Never caught anything, but he put poison down and the scrabbling stopped.
My brother found a squirrel nest in his attic and he said the pest people
removed six rubbish sacks of stuff from the nest. "Squirrels are just
rats with good PR," is his view.
Dorothy J Heydt
netcat <net...@devnull.eridani.eol.ee> wrote:
>In article <hcqinl$f12$1...@reader1.panix.com>, k...@KeithLynch.net says...
>> At the haunted house I mentioned this to Perrianne Lurie, a physician
>> who specializes in public health. She said that mice never get
>> rabies, as anything that bites them kills them.
>
>I wonder how do bats get rabies? Who bites them?
I believe the rabies virus can be inhaled, if it's thick in the
air. So they get it from other bats.
>
--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at hotmail dot com
Should you wish to email me, you'd better use the hotmail edress.
Kithrup is getting too damn much spam, even with the sysop's filters.
David V. Loewe, Jr
<treif...@gmail.com> wrote:
>On Nov 4, 9:16�am, T Guy <Tim.Bate...@redbridge.gov.uk> wrote:
>> ( netcat <net...@devnull.eridani.eol.ee> );
>> Oh, Keith: they can squeeze themselve sthrough any hole one can stick
>> a ballpoint pen through. There's probably a subtle little hole
>> somewhere you've not seen, by the sound of it.
>
>I think the size of a mouse's skull is the limiting factor.
I've heard that as well...
--
"A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough
to take it all away."
- Barry Goldwater
Kip Williams
> My brother found a squirrel nest in his attic and he said the pest people
> removed six rubbish sacks of stuff from the nest. "Squirrels are just
> rats with good PR," is his view.
You have pest people too? I wish they'd go away.
Kip W
makes the joke
cryptoguy
> In article <MPG.255b8a1f72348f7e989...@news.octanews.com>,
>
> netcat <net...@devnull.eridani.eol.ee> wrote:
> >In article <hcqinl$f1...@reader1.panix.com>, k...@KeithLynch.net says...
> >> At the haunted house I mentioned this to Perrianne Lurie, a physician
> >> who specializes in public health. She said that mice never get
> >> rabies, as anything that bites them kills them.
>
> >I wonder how do bats get rabies? Who bites them?
>
> I believe the rabies virus can be inhaled, if it's thick in the
> air. So they get it from other bats.
No. It's spread by saliva. Bats groom each other in the roost.
pt
Keith F. Lynch
I've said, only half jokingly, that the worst thing about vermin is
that they attract exterminators. I find exterminators more disruptive
than vermin. So instead of reporting the latter to the landlord, I
deal with them myself.
Keith F. Lynch
> Keith: My sympathies on the stench. Its no consolation, but I've
> been there. It does fade over time.
It's a good thing too, otherwise the reek outdoors would be just
unimaginable after hundreds of millions of years of small furry
creatures dying.
A friend once claimed that hair and fur never decays or dissolves.
I worked out that if that were true, the world would be buried
more than a mile deep in hair. And worst of all, you couldn't
comb it; there's a well known theorem that it's impossible to
comb hair on a sphere.
> I think the size of a mouse's skull is the limiting factor.
I know that rats have joints in their skulls, making it possible
for them to squeeze through absurdly small holes. I'm not sure
about mice.
Keith F. Lynch
> Cheese as a mouse-attractant is, apparantly, semi-myth. Their
> top choice of foodstuffs are chocolate, nuts and cereal product.
I've used cereal grains semi-successfully in the past. "Semi" meaning
that the bait was eaten but the trap wasn't spring. I used a piece of
banana peel on Saturday only because it's what I had handy. I didn't
want to open a new box of cereal.
> Oh, Keith: they can squeeze themselve sthrough any hole one can
> stick a ballpoint pen through. There's probably a subtle little
> hole somewhere you've not seen, by the sound of it.
Perhaps. That would explain the odor in the kitchen.
Right now I'm concerned about the odor at the far side of the
apartment. Yes, odor travels in strange ways. It doesn't fall
off with the inverse square as light does. If you've ever been in
a smoke-filled room, you've no doubt noticed that there can be a layer
of stench, with relatively clear air above and below, even quite close
to the source. But the odor near the back door seems to be getting
stronger. Oddly, it's strongest at a random point about a foot to the
left of a bookcase. I've thoroughly checked in, on, under, and behind
that bookcase yesterday and again today. So I'm baffled as to where
the hypothetical second dead mouse could be hiding.
The air vent over that bookcase is an obvious suspect. I had heard
scratching noises coming from within it a couple weeks ago. And
there's random crud on the books on the top shelf that obviously
fell out of that vent. But there's no odor in the air from the vent.
I'm stumped.
Keith F. Lynch
> A case of useful bag poisoning did the mouse in, then? See,
> treehuggers are right. Plastic bags _do_ kill.
The useful bags had such a baleful influence that the mouse was
visibly ill just approaching the closet that contained them.
They're useful indeed: Muricidal.
> Uh, and next time you try to bait a mouse, try cheese.
I don't have any. Yes, cartoons say cheese is what works. But they
also say that no good comes from banana peels.
> Obviously, banana peels are not the way to go if they prefer
> chewing bags instead.
Maybe I should bait the trap with plastic from a bag.
Morris Keesan
wrote:
> netcat <net...@devnull.eridani.eol.ee> wrote:
>> Uh, and next time you try to bait a mouse, try cheese.
>
> I don't have any. Yes, cartoons say cheese is what works. But they
> also say that no good comes from banana peels.
I've had consistently good results using peanut butter as bait in
mousetraps.
--
Morris Keesan -- mke...@post.harvard.edu
Paul Dormer
Lynch) wrote:
>
> I've said, only half jokingly, that the worst thing about vermin is
> that they attract exterminators. I find exterminators more disruptive
> than vermin. So instead of reporting the latter to the landlord, I
> deal with them myself.
The guy I called in was very friendly and helpful. However, it turned
out he lived just round the corner, so perhaps he lets the pests loose in
the area just to drum up business.
netcat
> netcat <net...@devnull.eridani.eol.ee> wrote:
> > A case of useful bag poisoning did the mouse in, then? See,
> > treehuggers are right. Plastic bags _do_ kill.
>
> The useful bags had such a baleful influence that the mouse was
> visibly ill just approaching the closet that contained them.
Outgassing, I'm sure =)
> > Obviously, banana peels are not the way to go if they prefer
> > chewing bags instead.
>
> Maybe I should bait the trap with plastic from a bag.
Maybe. Also pieces of wiring. Some mice are overly fond of chewing on
it.
rgds,
netcat
netcat
p...@pauldormer.cix.co.uk says...
> My brother found a squirrel nest in his attic and he said the pest people
> removed six rubbish sacks of stuff from the nest. "Squirrels are just
> rats with good PR," is his view.
Squirrels are cute. But the ones I've met in the wild have all been
incredibly stupid. So my sympathy belongs to rats, whom I find cute
_and_ smart, theoretically, except they shat all over my jam storage
shelf in the cellar and squirrels did not.
rgds,
netcat
Kip Williams
Do any of them have little collars?
Kip W
Paul Dormer
Williams) wrote:
>
> > The guy I called in was very friendly and helpful. However, it
turned
> > out he lived just round the corner, so perhaps he lets the pests
> > loose in the area just to drum up business.
>
> Do any of them have little collars?
:-)
Didn't actually see any, just heard the noise. He could have planted a
little robot to go scurrying around the attic for all I know.
Actually, the nearest I have to a pest problem at the moment is that
birds seem to like perching on the window ledge of my computer room and
start pecking at the woodwork. Suddenly hearing a knocking noise coming
from a first floor (UK, as opposed to ground floor) window is a bit
disconcerting.
Paul Dormer
net...@devnull.eridani.eol.ee (netcat) wrote:
>
> Squirrels are cute. But the ones I've met in the wild have all been
> incredibly stupid. So my sympathy belongs to rats, whom I find cute
> _and_ smart, theoretically, except they shat all over my jam
> storage shelf in the cellar and squirrels did not.
Incidentally, to bring this back to the thread title, there was a leader
in the paper a few days ago comparing the grey squirrel to trick or treat.
The grey squirrel is an American import and the native red squirrel has
now almost died out - I've never seen one. Similarly, the leader writer
was complaining that trick or treat has taken over from penny for the guy.
Keith F. Lynch
> k...@KeithLynch.net (Keith F. Lynch) wrote:
>> I've said, only half jokingly, that the worst thing about vermin
>> is that they attract exterminators. I find exterminators more
>> disruptive than vermin. So instead of reporting the latter to the
>> landlord, I deal with them myself.
> The guy I called in was very friendly and helpful.
He didn't demand that you empty your cabinets and drawers? Or that
you move all your furniture away from the walls?
Take a look at photos of my apartment at http://KeithLynch.net/pics/
and try to imagine doing the latter here.
> However, it turned out he lived just round the corner, so perhaps he
> lets the pests loose in the area just to drum up business.
ObSF: _Kockroach_ by Tyler Knox, a fantasy novel in which an
ordinary cockroach wakes up one morning to discover he has turned
into a hideous creature -- a man! After various adventures he finds
his calling as an exterminator.
Daniel R. Reitman
<k...@KeithLynch.net> wrote:
>Shortly before I left to help with the "Fabulous Bungalow" haunted
>house on Halloween, I saw a mouse casually walking down the hallway.
>This was the first mouse I had seen in my apartment for more than a
>decade. It wasn't moving rapidly, as mice usually are, but was just
>ambling along as if it owned the place and hadn't a care in the world.
My Halloween surprise was the morning of Oct. 26, when I opened my car
door to find a large spider spinning a web blocking my entry.
Dan, ad nauseam
David V. Loewe, Jr
<k...@KeithLynch.net> wrote:
>Paul Dormer <p...@pauldormer.cix.co.uk> wrote:
>> k...@KeithLynch.net (Keith F. Lynch) wrote:
>>> I've said, only half jokingly, that the worst thing about vermin
>>> is that they attract exterminators. I find exterminators more
>>> disruptive than vermin. So instead of reporting the latter to the
>>> landlord, I deal with them myself.
>
>> The guy I called in was very friendly and helpful.
>
>He didn't demand that you empty your cabinets and drawers? Or that
>you move all your furniture away from the walls?
No.
--
"When it is broken down, the philosophy of environmentalism is the
philosophy of life on earth without humanity at all. Green becomes
the color of a forest that grows over unmarked graves."
Michelle Minton
Dorothy J Heydt
Keith F. Lynch <k...@KeithLynch.net> wrote:
That's rather like the Lovecraft parody by Randall Garrett ...
I'm blanking on the name but it's in _Takeoff!_, I think.
Traveler visiting the south seas comes upon an island recently
thrust up from the seabed by tectonic action, explores; there's a
ruined city with a big building in the center that was obviously
a temple of some kind. He looks inside and is horrified by the
image of the creature inside. Hideous, eldritch,
sanity-destroying, all the Lovecraftian adjectives...
It had only two arms, two legs, one head, ... and it was *nailed
to a cross.*
Paul Dormer
Lynch) wrote:
>
> > The guy I called in was very friendly and helpful.
>
> He didn't demand that you empty your cabinets and drawers? Or that
> you move all your furniture away from the walls?
Well, as the problem was in the attic, which has no furniture, no.
He did require, after putting down traps, that I check them every day
which involved going into the attic which I hate: it's cold and spooky
and I have no head for heights.
David Goldfarb
Dorothy J Heydt <djh...@kithrup.com> wrote:
>In article <hd015g$47b$1...@reader1.panix.com>,
>Keith F. Lynch <k...@KeithLynch.net> wrote:
>>> However, it turned out he lived just round the corner, so perhaps he
>>> lets the pests loose in the area just to drum up business.
>>
>>ObSF: _Kockroach_ by Tyler Knox, a fantasy novel in which an
>>ordinary cockroach wakes up one morning to discover he has turned
>>into a hideous creature -- a man! After various adventures he finds
>>his calling as an exterminator.
>
>That's rather like the Lovecraft parody by Randall Garrett ...
>I'm blanking on the name but it's in _Takeoff!_, I think.
Yes, it is. The title is "The Shadow Out of Time".
--
David Goldfarb |"Poor dominoes. Your pretty empire took so long
gold...@ocf.berkeley.edu | to build. Now, with a snap of history's fingers...
gold...@csua.berkeley.edu | down it goes."
| -- Alan Moore, _V for Vendetta_
Marcus L. Rowland
<k...@KeithLynch.net> writes
>I have no idea how the odor got in the kitchen, given that there are no
>holes in the walls that I can find. (No, there are no power outlets,
>light switches, or phone jacks in the relevant area.) I have no idea
>how the mouse got inside in the first place, or why it died. And I have
>no idea how such an overwhelmingly powerful stench can come from such a
>tiny creature.
Speaking as someone who keeps snakes and has made the mistake of
forgetting to dispose of an uneaten mouse the same day, I'm not in the
least surprised. The little bastards decay fast.
--
Marcus L. Rowland www.forgottenfutures.com
www.forgottenfutures.org
www.forgottenfutures.co.uk
Forgotten Futures - The Scientific Romance Role Playing Game
Diana: Warrior Princess & Elvis: The Legendary Tours
The Original Flatland Role Playing Game
Keith F. Lynch
> Speaking as someone who keeps snakes and has made the mistake of
> forgetting to dispose of an uneaten mouse the same day, I'm not
> in the least surprised. The little bastards decay fast.
I wish they would hurry up and finish decaying. I've concluded that I
definitely have a second dead mouse, and that it's inaccessible in the
ceiling at the back of the room. The odor which is noticeable next to
the bookcase closest to the back door is very strong right next to the
ceiling in that area. There's a ventilating duct in the ceiling, but
there's no odor in the air from that. There was some crud that had
fallen from that duct, and I had heard noises compatible with mice
coming from that duct a few weeks ago. So my best guess is that that
there are holes in the duct large enough for a mouse to get in or out,
that it (or its relatives) spent some time inside the duct, but it
died outside it, and that some air escapes from the duct into the
ceiling space, creating a slight overpressure there, causing air from
that space to leak into the room, either around the edge of the duct
or through screw holes where the thing that holds the blinds used to
be attached but pulled away. (It's still attached to the wall, so it
still holds up the blinds.)
But of course I could be mistaken about some or all of that, like the
people in Cleveland who blamed a local sausage shop for the stench
in their neighborhood, causing it to do expensive and unnecessary
upgrades and repairs, when all along it was actually a neighborhood
serial killer who was responsible. You never know. There has been
rather a lot of murder in the news lately.
At least the ceiling odor is not as strong as the stench in the hall
closet was.
I turned the heat way up in an attempt to dessicate or mummify the
defunct rodent, or at least to speed the decay to completion. I've
also opened the doors and windows whenever practical. That's not
practical right now, as the temperature is barely above freezing.
Keith F. Lynch
> He did require, after putting down traps, that I check them every
> day which involved going into the attic which I hate: it's cold
> and spooky and I have no head for heights.
Believe me, you wouldn't want to leave a dead mouse in your house,
not even in the attic.
Paul Dormer
Lynch) wrote:
>
> Paul Dormer <p...@pauldormer.cix.co.uk> wrote:
> > He did require, after putting down traps, that I check them every
> > day which involved going into the attic which I hate: it's cold
> > and spooky and I have no head for heights.
>
> Believe me, you wouldn't want to leave a dead mouse in your house,
> not even in the attic.
Actually, he was more concerned that the trap would trap a live squirrel.
But he did say I'd probably hear the squirrel before opening the attic
trapdoor to check.
Robert Sneddon
<net...@devnull.eridani.eol.ee> writes
>In article <hcth5d$s4f$1...@reader1.panix.com>, k...@KeithLynch.net says...
>>
>> Maybe I should bait the trap with plastic from a bag.
>
>Maybe. Also pieces of wiring. Some mice are overly fond of chewing on
>it.
Problem is that you've got a good chance of trapping a backhoe instead
of a mouse with that kind of bait. Google on "backhoe fade" sometime.
--
To reply, my gmail address is nojay1 Robert Sneddon
Keith F. Lynch
> netcat <net...@devnull.eridani.eol.ee> writes
>> Maybe. Also pieces of wiring. Some mice are overly fond of
>> chewing on it.
> Problem is that you've got a good chance of trapping a backhoe
> instead of a mouse with that kind of bait. Google on "backhoe
> fade" sometime.
That's good to know. If I'm ever hiking in the desert, I'll bring
some wire with me. If I become lost and run out of water, I'll bury
the wire. When the backhoe comes along to sever it, I'll catch a
ride back to civilization. Backhoes are much more useful than mice.
But what if I'm trapped in the Andes? How do I attract frogs?
Kip Williams
> But what if I'm trapped in the Andes? How do I attract frogs?
Andes mints, or maybe flycasting.
Kip W
Robert Sneddon
<k...@KeithLynch.net> writes
>Robert Sneddon <fr...@nospam.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>> netcat <net...@devnull.eridani.eol.ee> writes
>>> Maybe. Also pieces of wiring. Some mice are overly fond of
>>> chewing on it.
>
>> Problem is that you've got a good chance of trapping a backhoe
>> instead of a mouse with that kind of bait. Google on "backhoe
>> fade" sometime.
>
>some wire with me. If I become lost and run out of water, I'll bury
>the wire. When the backhoe comes along to sever it, I'll catch a
>ride back to civilization.
You'd be better off with a piece of fibre-optic cable. A wire will get
you one backhoe, maybe. Fibre-optics cable attracts herds of them.
Keith F. Lynch
with. Last night, raw sewage came up in my toilet and bathtub. This
has happened before, though not recently. Fortunately for me, my
next-door neighbor is very slightly downhill, so when the sewer pipe
gets clogged, their plumbing overflows onto the floor, but mine does
not, though it comes within inches of doing so. Needless to say, it
smelled bad even though it didn't overflow.
Plumbers were making electric-snaking noises for over an hour, during
which time the water was turned off. Eventually the noises stopped,
the water came back on, and the sewage went down. I washed out the
toilet and bathtub thoroughly, then wet down the insides of both with
bleach. (I'm not afraid of mouse germs, but raw sewage is another
matter.) Needless to say, the bleach also smelled bad.
Then, after about an hour, it all happened all over again. More raw
sewage. More plumbing noises. This time they lasted until about 1
am, which is well past my bedtime, and made it impossible to sleep.
Once they stopped and the sewage went down, I once again washed the
plumbing and once again doused it with bleach.
Today I got two notes on my door from the landlord, both in Spanish.
One says that the water will be off from 9 to 5 tomorrow. The other
I think says not to flush random trash down the toilet. Sigh.
But compared to some, I'm having a good day. The Beltway Sniper, for
instance, is being executed by Virginia right about now. I'm against
executions, but I can't get too worked up about his.
David Loewe, Jr.
<k...@KeithLynch.net> wrote:
<Keith's building has plumbing problems>
>Today I got two notes on my door from the landlord, both in Spanish.
>One says that the water will be off from 9 to 5 tomorrow. The other
>I think says not to flush random trash down the toilet. Sigh.
Perhaps the people think their toilets are as good as the Kohler brand
one seen in the commercial successfully flushing towels and other large
objects.
>But compared to some, I'm having a good day. The Beltway Sniper, for
>instance, is being executed by Virginia right about now. I'm against
>executions, but I can't get too worked up about his.
--
"Try to learn something about everything and everything about
something."
- T.H. Huxley
rksh...@rosettacondot.com
> On Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:03:50 +0000 (UTC), "Keith F. Lynch"
> <k...@KeithLynch.net> wrote:
>
> <Keith's building has plumbing problems>
>
>>Today I got two notes on my door from the landlord, both in Spanish.
>>One says that the water will be off from 9 to 5 tomorrow. The other
>>I think says not to flush random trash down the toilet. Sigh.
>
> Perhaps the people think their toilets are as good as the Kohler brand
> one seen in the commercial successfully flushing towels and other large
> objects.
Every time I see one of those commercials or similar I think to myself
"that would be hell on the septic system".
Robert
--
Robert K. Shull Email: rkshull at rosettacon dot com
Jette Goldie
> On Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:03:50 +0000 (UTC), "Keith F. Lynch"
> <k...@KeithLynch.net> wrote:
>
> <Keith's building has plumbing problems>
>
>> Today I got two notes on my door from the landlord, both in Spanish.
>> One says that the water will be off from 9 to 5 tomorrow. The other
>> I think says not to flush random trash down the toilet. Sigh.
>
> Perhaps the people think their toilets are as good as the Kohler brand
> one seen in the commercial successfully flushing towels and other large
> objects.
>
Plumbers must love those adverts, like glaziers love little boys
playing football or cricket in the street :-)
--
Jette Goldie
jette....@gmail.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wolfette/
http://www.jette.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/
http://wolfette.livejournal.com/
("reply to" is spamblocked - use the email addy in sig)
Steve Coltrin
Daniel R. Reitman <drei...@spiritone.com> writes:
> My Halloween surprise was the morning of Oct. 26, when I opened my car
> door to find a large spider spinning a web blocking my entry.
http://yetthereismethod.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/eat-like-kings.jpg
--
Steve Coltrin spco...@omcl.org Google Groups killfiled here
"A group known as the League of Human Dignity helped arrange for Deuel
to be driven to a local livestock scale, where he could be weighed."
- Associated Press
Daniel R. Reitman
wrote:
>begin fnord
>Daniel R. Reitman <drei...@spiritone.com> writes:
>
>> My Halloween surprise was the morning of Oct. 26, when I opened my car
>> door to find a large spider spinning a web blocking my entry.
>
>http://yetthereismethod.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/eat-like-kings.jpg
Fortunately, I was able to clear the web away and note the incident on
the Web.
Dan, ad nauseam