Unwanted

At the end of last summer, we had these black droppings on a piece of our deck right up against the house. I foolishly thought is was some bird roosting on the window sill. It was back again this week. Sharon said someone had bats in their entry way and I thought , Oh no, I don't want bats in our attic.

Well, guess what. The bats did not make it all the way into the attic but were inside the vent up at the peak. They could not get into the attic because of the wire screening. 

I hate bats. Did I mention that I do not like bats. I do not care if they eat insects. They can eat all they want as long as they stay away from me and out of my house.

I hung a light in the attic and as of this morning, there are no bats in our vent. They are unwanted by me. They need to live else where and come out at night to eat the bugs. If you try to tell me bats eat mosquitoes, the research is not very good on that unless you confine the bats in an enclosure with mosquitoes, otherwise they prefer other bugs. They sure did not clean the mosquitoes out of our yard last year.

Having driven them out of our vent, I was concerned where they would roost next. I lit a fire in one of our fire places just to give them some smoke in case they went into the covered chimney for a new home. We have 4 chimneys so I am keeping an eye on all of them.

Spent some time with Cody and with Irv and his crew this week. In the picture above Irv put a new sewer line in a house we had sold with the promise of a new septic system. Turns out the old line was full of tree roots.

Irv and crew (I know Tim, you were there but I don't know the other guy's name) pulled out the old bell tile and put in new PVC line. This was the 5th line we have had plugged this month. Cody has cleaned out 4 for us and I hope we are done for a while. The tree roots are looking for water and are growing through cracks in the lines. The shortage of toilet paper has caused some things to be flushed that should not have been. This has made the problem worse as various wipes and paper towels get caught on roots and block the lines. I do not want the roots in the lines and I do not want the non-flush-able products in the sewer lines.

My week was a week of stuff being where I don't want it. This morning I received a phone call from a woman who was crying. She said, "Mr. Royce I am calling the people I had contact with. I was tested for covid and I feel awful. The test will come back in 3 days. I am headed back to the hospital now. " Great, I met her Friday morning just a couple of hours before her health went down hill. Only 14% of tests come back positive for covid so the odds are high she will be negative and I can go on with life as normal by Tuesday morning. But I will guarantee you it is not something I want in my life. Right now I am staying away from everyone as much as possible, so if she is positive and they start doing a contact trace, at least I will not have messed up a lot of other's lives by exposing them as well.

Every Sunday Sharon and I have been going to church because I am the Elder chairman of worship committee this year. There were just a few of us there. Pastor Jon, the accompanist, maybe 3 or 4 singers for the praise team, the sound tech, the video person to put the service on-line and Sharon and me as the congregation. This week is the first week our church will be having attended services again and we will not be there. Kind of strange, we went every week when no one else could and now that services are opening up again we will be at home waiting for a covid test result.

We take so much of our normal life for granted, until it is taken away from us. Many of us are now living in a new reality. No hand shakes, no hugs, staying 6 feet away from others. Shopping once a week. Businesses we can not get into unless we have an appointment or order over the phone and they set the purchase outside the door. We are living with a lot of unwanted things in our lives.

I have a dental appointment on Wednesday, at this point I am assuming she will be negative and I will not be quarantined, but I did laugh when I was told I would have to wear a mask to the appointment. I know, it is for protection of staff and other patients until you sit in the dentist chair but still the vision of doing dental work on a patient wearing a mask amuses me. 

I hope and everyone can find a little humor in the unwanted stuff in their lives. Oh, did I mention I hate bats?