Eventful morning...

Eventful morning...

I woke up at about 4:30 with what has become an all too familiar flapping and darting. This has gone from mildly amusing to annoying to really annoying. I'm starting to think the squash racquet might be a better solution, although I don't really want to harm this thing. I just don't want it in my house.

Once it was light enough I started looking in earnest for entry points. I found a spot way way up under the eves where the siding is pulled a little away from the soffit, and directly below there is a quarter-sized gap behind the trim header over my closet door. The roof is too steep to safely climb up there to close it up without knowing for sure that it is the problem. To help narrow it down I've set a tell-tale piece of paper in place over the inside gap to see if it gets moved next time I'm visited. I will learn something, and may be able to take corrective action after that.

Then I packed up and biked to the market. Fresh produce is starting to come in and I bought snow peas and broccoli and garlic scapes and asparagus and STRAWBERRIES! This was followed by stops at the post office, the grocery and the hardware store. It is pretty amazing how much I can fit in my panniers.

I'm seeing a lot more bikers out these days. People are pumping up tires instead of $4+ gallon gas. This is fantastic, but if you're a recently revived biker, here are two tips for you: wear a helmet and, most importantly, ride with traffic. This is a pet peeve: I passed a woman yesterday - actually two women - who were riding facing traffic. Actually they were split: both were riding towards me. One was on my side of the road and the other crossed over to join her after I passed. Dumb.

Once I ran all those errands I settled in to set up my hammock. Last year as a house-warming present my kids bought me a hammock, and it has been sitting in a box for too long. Last weekend I bought the posts and today I dug the holes to hang them from. OK, I just ranted on dumb people, so you can guess what happened next...

I needed to go another six inches down for my second post when I hit yet another tree root. I thought "How did this maple put a root down 26" below the surface?" And then I took another cut and wondered "What's that hissing noise?"

Still can't guess? From here I moved very quickly to the house and called the 24 hour emergency number for the gas company. They told me not to smoke near the cut and that somebody would be there shortly. Thirty minutes later we were excavating a much larger access hole. The NIPSCO guy is still here testing the line and finishing the repair.

With any luck I'll still get the post set this afternoon.