SPRING BEAUTY & ALLERGY, FURNACE PROBLEM, PESKY SQUIRRELS....
By Olivene Godfrey
Well, folks this has not been a good week. And it started out so well with spring in the air and the pear tree blooming, and other plants and trees budding out and flocks of robins landed in the yard every day. It was enough to make ordinary people wax poetic. But, all of that beauty can play havoc with allergy sufferers like me. After several weeks of feeling pretty good and getting out more, WHAMO! The old allergy attacks were back and I have been in pain as my fellow allergy sufferers will understand. And my arthritis pains started acting up. So, I was not feeling so well, when the next WHAMO hit Barry and me.
It was while we were having a cold snap last week and we got up one morning and the house was icy cold. Since the furnace is old, I was afraid it had stopped working. One of our projects for this spring, is to replace the aggravating glass doors that lead to the patio with French doors and I could see that going out of sight if we had to buy a new furnace. Upon checking out at the propane gas tank, Barry discovered that for the first time in 26 years that we have lived here, the gas tank gauge registered EMPTY! I called the gas company and the propane gas was delivered out that afternoon. When Barry got home, we wondered why the house was still cold. And Barry discovered that something was wrong with the gas not getting to the furnace. So with nighttime coming, I called and left what was probably a hysterical message on the heat-gas repairman's answering machine. The next day, the repairman came out and flushed out the gas line and all has been well with the furnace since then. I think we can still afford the new door. Thank goodness, for our electric blankets the nights we slept without heat.
While on the subject of spring, we have a problem with about a dozen or more squirrels who are living not only in our yard and destroying bird feeders, but are spending a lot of time in our attic. Barry discovered a small opening underneath an ease. We called a carpenter who said he could fix it but not until we got all the squirrels out of the attic. I looked in the yellow pages and found an ad for a company that would take care of such varmints. I called and was informed that the company would charge 75 bucks for a house call and an additional $70 for each squirrel removed from the attic. I told Barry and we decided to wait until July or August when not even a squirrel could stand the heat in the attic.
Thinking about the pesky squirrels reminded me that while they look cute occasionally, they are ,after all, rodents. And that reminding me of the time when my late husband, Ralph, a tough World War !! veteran , and I had to live in a cold water flat in an old building downtown because of the housing shortage.
One night we returned home after seeing a movie in town and we were surprised, to put it mildly, by a large, gopher rat in the middle of the bedroom. Ralph grabbed up a poker that was next to the hearth of the coal grate we used for heating the room, and struck the rat. The rat jumped up in the air and tried to attack Ralph. While this dual was going on I was standing in a chair screaming. Finally, Ralph beat the rat to death with the poker and then took it outside. I was scared to go to bed that night because of the rat episode. We moved to a better apartment as soon as possible.
I am hoping this coming week will be better for me. The sunshine beckons me out today but I am not certain if I will venture outside with this allergy raging.
By Olivene Godfrey
Well, folks this has not been a good week. And it started out so well with spring in the air and the pear tree blooming, and other plants and trees budding out and flocks of robins landed in the yard every day. It was enough to make ordinary people wax poetic. But, all of that beauty can play havoc with allergy sufferers like me. After several weeks of feeling pretty good and getting out more, WHAMO! The old allergy attacks were back and I have been in pain as my fellow allergy sufferers will understand. And my arthritis pains started acting up. So, I was not feeling so well, when the next WHAMO hit Barry and me.
It was while we were having a cold snap last week and we got up one morning and the house was icy cold. Since the furnace is old, I was afraid it had stopped working. One of our projects for this spring, is to replace the aggravating glass doors that lead to the patio with French doors and I could see that going out of sight if we had to buy a new furnace. Upon checking out at the propane gas tank, Barry discovered that for the first time in 26 years that we have lived here, the gas tank gauge registered EMPTY! I called the gas company and the propane gas was delivered out that afternoon. When Barry got home, we wondered why the house was still cold. And Barry discovered that something was wrong with the gas not getting to the furnace. So with nighttime coming, I called and left what was probably a hysterical message on the heat-gas repairman's answering machine. The next day, the repairman came out and flushed out the gas line and all has been well with the furnace since then. I think we can still afford the new door. Thank goodness, for our electric blankets the nights we slept without heat.
While on the subject of spring, we have a problem with about a dozen or more squirrels who are living not only in our yard and destroying bird feeders, but are spending a lot of time in our attic. Barry discovered a small opening underneath an ease. We called a carpenter who said he could fix it but not until we got all the squirrels out of the attic. I looked in the yellow pages and found an ad for a company that would take care of such varmints. I called and was informed that the company would charge 75 bucks for a house call and an additional $70 for each squirrel removed from the attic. I told Barry and we decided to wait until July or August when not even a squirrel could stand the heat in the attic.
Thinking about the pesky squirrels reminded me that while they look cute occasionally, they are ,after all, rodents. And that reminding me of the time when my late husband, Ralph, a tough World War !! veteran , and I had to live in a cold water flat in an old building downtown because of the housing shortage.
One night we returned home after seeing a movie in town and we were surprised, to put it mildly, by a large, gopher rat in the middle of the bedroom. Ralph grabbed up a poker that was next to the hearth of the coal grate we used for heating the room, and struck the rat. The rat jumped up in the air and tried to attack Ralph. While this dual was going on I was standing in a chair screaming. Finally, Ralph beat the rat to death with the poker and then took it outside. I was scared to go to bed that night because of the rat episode. We moved to a better apartment as soon as possible.
I am hoping this coming week will be better for me. The sunshine beckons me out today but I am not certain if I will venture outside with this allergy raging.
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