at least that's what i keep telling myself...

a little chicken wire should do the trick.

sometimes when i sit outside at night, and the night gets quiet, i can hear the little mice talking to each other in the trees off to the side of the house.

last summer one of these said mice decided it would be a good idea to build it's nest in my car. i think the mouse had a line on my daily schedule though...i seem to recall hearing scurrying on occasion, hints that something may be lurking in my car's duct system. but one day the mouse slept late, or maybe i had to be at work early. it was a reasonably cool morning for summer, but it is new england, so time of year doesn't really mean a God damn thing when it comes to the weather. either way, i'm sure our little furry friend was burrowed deep in it's little nest of warm fuzzy goodness.

anyway, i turned on the ignition, felt the chill in the air, saw the dew on my windshield, and instinctively turned on my defroster, at full blast, to get it warmed up. *crassscckkrrrrsshhhrrrccchhhrrrss...* it went something like that. i immediately turned it off. hmmm, but there was just something about that noise that made me want to do it again. something was stuck in there and maybe if i just let it run a few more seconds it would clear itself out. i live in the "country" (as country as you can get in the great state i guess), so i'm always driving over shit and stuff is forever falling on and into my car. i turned it back on, and sure enough it got itself straightened out and did what it needed to do to get me to work. i don't use my air conditioner in the summer, i'm a windows down kind of girl myself, so i didn't turn it back on until a couple of days later when there was another cool morning.

i turn on the ignition, feel the chill in the air, again with the dew on my windshield, and on goes the defroster. this time there was a strange scrapping noise. nothing to get excited about, my car makes noises sometimes, it's kind of a toy car really. the defroster heated up, and there, on my way to work was the foul odor of rotting carcass. oh God, where did that smell come from? it was horrid. and even after i turned off the defroster and opened all the windows to the fresh morning air, it lingered in my nostrils all the way to work.

as soon as i stepped into the office i called the garage to have them clean my system. the coming week was supposed to be the hottest of the year thus far, which meant baking mouse carcass in my engine and fan system unless i got it the fuck out. they couldn't get me in right away...so for the next three days i drove with the windows down, trying to breath as quickly and shallowly as possible without passing out, to avoid the reek. the guys opened her up and cleaned her out. i'm thinking it was pretty horrifying and from what i understand, there was a little bit of mouse in every nook and cranny. but they are good guys, even put the mat down on the floor of the drivers side so as to not get the floor all nasty during the cleaning. this is normally a good thing and i usually appreciate it. but when i pulled the mat up to throw it away, there on the floor, just next to the acceleration pedal, was a perfect little mouse butt. apparently i had chopped it clean off.

i still wonder to this day if the guys put it there for having to clean out all that nastiness? i question it's ability to fall out of the vent and have such perfect placement under the mat. even worse, i still wonder if said mouse rear end had been riding along shotgun in my car with me for all those days, right there next to my foot, without me noticing it?

today's forecast...

i went to pick up baby girl this afternoon from her grandparent's house in vermont. it's really not that far, about an hour and a half north. today's drive took two and a half hours one way and went from driving in rain to sleet, then into this...


i guess ski season has been extended this year...who knew?

it is the middle of april, right? ahhhh, new england weather, gotta love it!

Today's Message of the Day is:

Life is short, Break the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly,
Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably, and never regret anything
that made you smile.

Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we're here, we should
dance...

(thank you david, this made me smile.)