A week of events — End of the Day for June 11, 2014

A week of events — that is how I described it to a friend who stopped by to chat today — A week of events. Rosanne was off on her business trip and finishing her teaching semester, but we had a host of other issues, too. For the first time in 18 years we had a squirrel get into the attic. They found the disused kitchen vent on the roof and decided to fight and scratch over if. Another entrance was found on the opposite of the roof, too. We had our exterminator contractor, Steve, come by to shoo them out and seal any holes. Unfortunately, despite all the work and banging and examining, one remained in the attic. I could here him (or her) running from one side of the ceiling to other, checking their previous holes. This meant Steve had to come back later and install a one way door — a trap-out — that would allow the squirrel to escape but not let them back in through the same entrance. I haven’t heard anything sense, so I think our lodger has departed. Steve will come back in a week or so to remove the trap out and reseal the hole.

Our lodger? Who knows?

Next, we had been smelling faint wiffs of natural gas around the front of the house, but couldn’t pin it down to amount or location. Once our neighbor smelled it, though, I called out the Gas Company to check everything out. I had been pulling weeds in a bed that runs along the direction of the gas line and sure enough, I caught a bigger whiff in one particular location. The gas company worker arrived a little while later and his electronic sniffer went positively ballistic at the point where I had been weeding. Two workman arrived yesterday, just after that day, just after Steve had departed to dig up part of the front garden and apply a temporary fix. It seems that when we had the sewer line replaced years ago, the workman damaged the protective coating on the gas line. This eventually caused it to develop several holes. They’ll be back out in a few weeks to pull a new, plastic, line to the house, which should last for our time in this house. Thankfully, they can do that without digging up the yard again. One casualty of the process, though, was a newly purchased soaker. As I have done on a number of occasions, they cut right through it with their shovel. They didn’t tell me, though, and I only realized once I tried to turn it on today. I know they were probably embarrassed by what they had done, but I would have much preferred to hear that they had done it, so I could get to work repairing it. Human nature at work, though.

Videos from the 2013 Publication Party

Tomorrow, we are off to record the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program Publication Party as we have done for at least the last 3 years. It is a fun night of literary readings and a reception afterwards. It is one of our most pleasant, paid, gigs each year. We edit and package all the readings so they can be posted on YouTube and linked to the readers Instructor pages on the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program web site. We were first hired for this gig years ago, as we were teaching a Podcasting course at the Extension. Another happy coincidence brought about by my early interest in podcasting.

This was only part of our “week of event” so far, but frankly, I am ready for the weekend and a chance to slow down and relax a bit. Interesting times can be fun, but everyone needs to put their feet up sometimes.

Previously on End of the Day: