Thursday, January 25, 2007
I've got another dead mouse. They're usually in the wall near the refrigerator. You can smell them for a few days, then they finish drying up, I guess, and the smell goes away. This one seems to be in the heat duct near the master bath. When the furnace blows, it blows the smell right into my bedroom. I don't know if I can outlast this one. Even after the smell's gone, I'm not sure I like the idea of powdered dead mouse blowing across my bed. I guess I'm going to have to rig some kind of flexible extender for the vacuum cleaner.
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Between the garage and the kitchen there's a laundry room. The garage door is half glass, and the dog-flap is on a side wall. I've hung a curtain in the doorway so it would block the ugly view of the garage and pantry shelves, but still let the animals through.
The lower corner of that curtain is standing out about three inches, blown out by a strong very cold breeze.
I immediately suspected the garage door. I ran a lighter all around it, and the flame stayed upright. Then I ran the lighter around the dog-flap (which has been sealed off with plastic and tape), and again, no draft. Around the window. Nothing.
Just to be sure, I replaced the plastic over the dog-flap with bubble wrap, taped all around.
There's still a lot of cold air blowing under the curtain. A lot. More air, and colder, than just rolling off the window glass and door surface.
I don't understand. Where's all that cold air coming from? The clothes dryer vent duct goes into the basement, then outside through the wall. I guess I should check the outside flap on the vent, anyway, to make sure it's not stuck open, but I didn't feel any cold air around the dryer. (Last time it got stuck open a chipmunk was storing seeds in there, and you could tell because the inside of the dryer got very cold.)
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The new local Mensa governing board has taken office. I read on the website that there were still a few vacancies, Ombudsman for one. I immediately thought, "I can do that." I'd been a volunteer mediator in the county court system back before Jay got sick, and it's unlikely to take much time because there's rarely any serious crap in the local group anyway. This morning the new president (FirstWoman, as a matter of fact) called me and asked if I'd be willing to do it. She was surprised when I said yes without apparently thinking about it (I'm already on the dues hardship committee). She said it was unlikely to be much work, and then cracked up when I said that if things got boring, I'm sure I could stir something up.
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The gathering for Roman's parents has been moved from his sister's apartment in Manhattan to his parents' apartment on Long Island, which is a relief for me. I had spent literally hours on Tuesday night trying to figure out the easiest simplest way to get to his sister's (a few blocks from Central Park). The Mapquest driving directions would require a passenger navigator reading them aloud to me to avoid missing a turn in the city.
Not that getting lost on the city streets is that bad - they're nicely numbered and I could feel my way around, but it's the parkways that scare me. I often find myself zooming across a bridge I know I shouldn't be on, and then I have to pot around streets in scary neighborhoods where people leap out and try to wash your windshield and bang on your doors, and I can't find a way back to recross the bridge. There are too many places where you can get off, but can't get back on in the same general area.
I decided the train would be best, and then had to decide whether Amtrak to Penn Station or MetroNorth to Grand Central would be best. Grand Central put me closer, so then I had to figure out what subway line I wanted, and how far I'd have to walk. I also asked for pointers from other Mensans on the Yahoo group.
But then the venue changed, yesterday. Roman sent very specific driving directions to his parents' apartment, and they look pretty simple. I'm not worried about that at all.
All that research was not a waste. I found so many good maps and got so many suggestions that I'm no longer afraid to go myself. I'm now thinking I might go into the city alone on warm weekends, just to play tourist.
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Still haven't heard from Piper.
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