Adventures in Lance's Crawl Space, or: The Very Sad Mouse
Since I haven't mentioned Lance, or the blocked off room at all, a brief background is in order:
Lance, my co-worker/good buddy/Seafair pirate type guy rented an older house over near greenlake, and invited a bunch of people over for a barbecue to commemorate the occasion. On the grand tour, Lance pointed out an odd, spackled/duck-taped over section in his room. From the outside of his house, the area had a window, however, there was no way to get to it. We assumed it was a closet of some sort and could only speculate what might be in the area.
We probably would have left it alone, but for the fact that Lance showed us a secret cubby hole behind the shelving in his bathroom. Said cubby hole was full of pornographic pictures. Our necks creaked slowly around toward the shower (in the direction of the closed off room). Yes, our curiosities were peaked.
So, since about Tuesday of this week Lance has been telling me "We're going to check out the blocked off room in our rented house!" Naturally, I was all for the adventure. So, this morning at around 11:45, Lance, jyuu_chan, the Dread Pirate Bunny and myself all began working on this endeavor. Bunny, having brought the ladder, went up first, jimmied the window and peered inside.
After fighting off the zombie hordes who'd been lying in wait for a decade We all had a look in. Each of us remarked on the vague stupidity of climbing a ladder leaning against a house and seated atop a rickety picnic table. None of us actually seemed to terribly concerned, however.
As it turns out, there wasn't much to look at but piping, mouse poop, insulation, an old screen door sans screen, and the back of Lance's shower. After that the situation devolved into 'Caulk' jokes and how to get the window closed again.
Since the previous situation had come to a colosal anti-climax, we all trooped inside to have a crack at the attic, hungrily curious for something other than mouse turds. Since Lance hadn't been able to get to it without a ladder, we dragged Bunny's inside and proceded to head up again. Lance was up first this time.
Lance: "I don't see anything up here but insu--Holy crap! That's a really big mouse trap!"
Sparky: "Is there a mouse in it?"
Lance: ".....Why yes! Yes there is! That's a really big trap for such a tiny mouse."
Sparky: ". . . . Heh."
I had come prepared with Face mask and surgical gloves just in case we found a body, or something disgusting and vile. Well, we did, I suppose, and I got stuck with clean-up detail. I guess that's what I get for being prepared, despite having brought enough for everyone.
On a side note, the amount of turds found was indicative of quite a few mice. My only thought is that whoever was in the house when the trap was laid must have thought it was one big rat, or maybe a squirrel. The trap was 4"X7"(about the size of a paperback book. Go ahead and get one off the shelf. You know you're curious), the mouse was maybe two inches long without the tail. This is what I'd consider overkill.
All in all, a rather entertaining, if not entirely fulfilling outing. Now I want to go digging around more crawl spaces. If nothing else, it gave me a break from the comic, which I have in fact started working on again.
Shall have to hang around with the Seafair pirates more often.
Lance, my co-worker/good buddy/Seafair pirate type guy rented an older house over near greenlake, and invited a bunch of people over for a barbecue to commemorate the occasion. On the grand tour, Lance pointed out an odd, spackled/duck-taped over section in his room. From the outside of his house, the area had a window, however, there was no way to get to it. We assumed it was a closet of some sort and could only speculate what might be in the area.
We probably would have left it alone, but for the fact that Lance showed us a secret cubby hole behind the shelving in his bathroom. Said cubby hole was full of pornographic pictures. Our necks creaked slowly around toward the shower (in the direction of the closed off room). Yes, our curiosities were peaked.
So, since about Tuesday of this week Lance has been telling me "We're going to check out the blocked off room in our rented house!" Naturally, I was all for the adventure. So, this morning at around 11:45, Lance, jyuu_chan, the Dread Pirate Bunny and myself all began working on this endeavor. Bunny, having brought the ladder, went up first, jimmied the window and peered inside.
After fighting off the zombie hordes who'd been lying in wait for a decade We all had a look in. Each of us remarked on the vague stupidity of climbing a ladder leaning against a house and seated atop a rickety picnic table. None of us actually seemed to terribly concerned, however.
As it turns out, there wasn't much to look at but piping, mouse poop, insulation, an old screen door sans screen, and the back of Lance's shower. After that the situation devolved into 'Caulk' jokes and how to get the window closed again.
Since the previous situation had come to a colosal anti-climax, we all trooped inside to have a crack at the attic, hungrily curious for something other than mouse turds. Since Lance hadn't been able to get to it without a ladder, we dragged Bunny's inside and proceded to head up again. Lance was up first this time.
Lance: "I don't see anything up here but insu--Holy crap! That's a really big mouse trap!"
Sparky: "Is there a mouse in it?"
Lance: ".....Why yes! Yes there is! That's a really big trap for such a tiny mouse."
Sparky: ". . . . Heh."
I had come prepared with Face mask and surgical gloves just in case we found a body, or something disgusting and vile. Well, we did, I suppose, and I got stuck with clean-up detail. I guess that's what I get for being prepared, despite having brought enough for everyone.
On a side note, the amount of turds found was indicative of quite a few mice. My only thought is that whoever was in the house when the trap was laid must have thought it was one big rat, or maybe a squirrel. The trap was 4"X7"(about the size of a paperback book. Go ahead and get one off the shelf. You know you're curious), the mouse was maybe two inches long without the tail. This is what I'd consider overkill.
All in all, a rather entertaining, if not entirely fulfilling outing. Now I want to go digging around more crawl spaces. If nothing else, it gave me a break from the comic, which I have in fact started working on again.
Shall have to hang around with the Seafair pirates more often.