Mighty Mouse - or "Friends, Romans, countrymen...... LEND ME YOUR EAR!!"

Here I come to save the day !!!!!!!

So Mom visited for the weekend - in from Wisconsin. Although this visit caused pre-arrival hustle and bustle (AS ALWAYS - need no criticism, RIGHT?) to be sure the house is "acceptable", it's always "nice" to have her visit (you know what I mean). Actually having her here motivated and gave me a reason to dig the rest of my daughter's bedroom set out of the basement - where the dampness was affecting the particle board - gotta "love" THAT !!!!!!!!

Anyway, opting not to sleep on my daughter's somewhat "broken" futon (I have NO idea what she does to that thing - yeah right !!!), mom "attempted" to sleep on the couch (she doesn't like to intrude). After 2 nights of sleeping on the couch, Mom's back was too sore to continue. The "die was cast".... OUT with the futon, IN with the bed (and dresser).... again, multiple motivations here !!!!

While CJS (son - and proven Cracker Jack Stealer) and his friend were lugging the furniture up from the basement (they're a lot younger than I am), my attention focused to the ceiling fan in the room which has never worked since we moved in last December. Obviously July is good time of year to have the fan operational so I starting flicking switches and spinning the blades by hand in a futile attempt to get the fan to work.

While the blades were spinning, I noticed "dust balls" falling from inside the fan - uh, inside the motor housing to be exact. Upon inspection of said dust balls, I realized that they look more like nesting material (remember the Mickey and Minnie post). AHHHHHH, maybe THAT is why the fan doesn't work....

Deciding it would be better to at least clear out as much of the nest as I can for now, I started to pull out as much of it as I could reach. I got to this one part of the "nest" that wouldn't come out with an easy tug, so I tugged a bit harder. OMG, when it still wouldn't come loose, I realized that it wasn't part of a nest at all. No indeed, this piece was actually a dead mouse's ear sticking down between the "housing" and the motor (a gap of less than half an inch) !!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOEEE !!!!! Step back !!!!

As the decaying mouse stench (if you've smelled it, you KNOW what I mean - "good" thing I have a FEW times in my life - NOT!!), steadily wafted through the room, I knew I must get that guy out of there. Rather than immediately dismantle the fan to do so, I did the smart thing - I grabbed a pair of pliers, clamped on to any part I could (uh, the ear is the only thing accessible) and tried to pull this dead mouse through that 1/2" gap.... BAD MOVE !!!!!!!!!!

After tugging enough to completely wedge the mouse carcass inside the fan, the grip of the pliers "slipped" off of the dead thing's ear.... WRONG !!!! IT RIPPED THE EAR OF THAT DEAD THING'S HEAD !!!!! So now I stood there with a dead mouse jammed up in my fan and the mouse's ear jammed in the jaws of my pliers. Obviously Mom was totally grossed out at this point - and I was on the verge also (NOT really but had to make HER feel better - actually I laughed)... I think she would have jumped up on the bed in "fear" but that would have put her closer to the mouse !!!!!

Needless to say, I then had to totally dismantle the fan to get that [bugger] out of there. As every cloud has a silver lining, I needed to remove the fan anyway to fix it - or figure out why it doesn't work at least. And I needed to get that furniture out of the basement. So, missions accomplished !!!!!!!

Y'all come back mom, YA (h)EAR !!!!!!!!

-Nuf Ced