Chapter 5

I read an article on Yahoo and started reading the comments. One of the more political, anti-Obama rants got under my skin. I started writing the reply comment below and it became something more.

It truly grew a life of its own. I'll see you in a few as you (hopefully) read my reply:

I love reading some of these comments. Some go the political way. Some go the "give me satire" way. Some are going places that should be checked out. Not censored, but perhaps rated. R for language. X for "hard to explain" comments. Grandpa was a cross-dresser? Try explaining that one to your curious child.

Okay, I had a squirrel get into my attic. It somehow found its way into the return air duct up there. It fell in some way from the second floor duct down to the first floor junction.

It startled my wife and I in bed. About 6am (alarm usually goes off at 7am) we heard rustling over our heads. Something definitely got into the wall! We both recalled the birds' nests in the clothes dryer exit duct in years past.

We did not hear it again. We really thought it was those birds once more.

Nope.

Everyone had gone. I was closing up the front door and heard a thump. Followed by echoes of tinny footsteps in the duct itself.

I cautiously made my way over to the basement stairs.

Slowly I made my way down those stairs.

My knee was only bugging me a little. Hopefully the Synvisc One injection helps. It will be my first use of that therapy.

I hope I did not lose you here yet.

Back to mister Squirrel.

I made my way into the basement proper. I could hear the little critter running back and forth. It somehow lost its footing near the drop into the actual furnace.

Oh, but it gets better.

I now know why we suddenly have 'something' on the inside panels of the furnace, (mold? Squirrel urine mixed with dust? Squirrel something else mixed with dust? Squirrel blood into the filter mixed with dust?) after our local Plumbing Company Representative was in to do a check up on our unit.

A year and a half ago that darn squirrel did his thing in our house. And no one on the HVAC Pages could help me when I called each one. Thus I called an exterminator. He came out and gave me two options.

1) Bait and set out a trap. The squirrel would eventually get hungry and become locked in the cage.

It could take a day or two to finally get some results. Or, he sympathetically said:

2) He had his handy pellet gun with him and assured me it would be quick and painless.

For the squirrel perhaps. Not for my Furnace!

We will have spent nearly $1100.00 thanks to the fur balls our uninvited guest left behind.

So, now you know why there was blood on the filter. I did say that up above.

Back to our local HVAC representative.

He said he had opened the panel and saw 'something' mold looking inside. He did not want to disrupt anything and so put it all back together.

I was actually on my way down the stairs (it wears you out to go up and down those stairs. Luckily I'm able to tough it out and most times will keep an eye on the people in our home.)

It is not that I'm distrusting, I just am curious about what makes things tick inside those covers.

I would have loved to have gotten a look before he closed it back up.

As it is, our mold-remediation team effort is being led by a third partner in this endeavor.