She keeps all kinds of wonderful snacks for our many volunteers in a large room that also houses my two main furnaces. She buys and stores the food. I buy and store the mouse traps.
“They’ve been in the candy bar bag here,” she pointed out as she began removing empty wrappers.
I counted as she pulled them out and when she reached thirty, I knew we had a problem. Now…these are only the bite-sized variety…but thirty? Either I had a mouse weighing around twenty pounds and diabetic, or a village. Either way, it was going to be a challenge.
I set the traps with peanut butter and both were cleaned out the next day without being triggered.
“Okay…it’s more than a diabetic, fat mouse. I think it’s also a very clever mouse…like Caesar from Planet of the Apes smart,” I told Lisa the next day. Then it occurred to me. Snickers was the bar of choice by far and so I loaded some of the gooey bar into two traps for the night. Next morning, I had one dead and one tripped, but no mouse. There was a trail of blood leading from the trap, though.
We were breeding a Super Mouse, I feared.
Over the next several days, I disposed of 12 mice and finally three days went by with no trap being disturbed in any way. Epidemic over, I think, but the possibility of a Super Mouse – too smart to mess with Snickers-laden traps – has moved on to other hunting grounds.
I picked up Alaska Paul and took him to Dodd’s Camera where he was purchasing a mini-camera for his upcoming trip to Nepal. He will be spending a week hiking above 17,000 feet and even visiting base camp for Mt. Everest. Sherpas are mandatory and he will only be carrying ten pounds a day, but at that elevation tying your shoes can be exhausting. I have watched so many different documentaries of climbs in that part of the world and have no interest in the pain and agony, financial investment, time, and danger people must put themselves through to be there and climb. Paul is doing his part on the cheap; just hiking and camping at lower levels and taking in the beauty of the world’s tallest peaks. He can only do what he does at his age because he always takes care of himself. He maintains a trim weight, hikes, cycles, kayaks, or runs daily. He is my hero when it comes to retiring and seeing all the sites of the world he wants to see. He’s checking off his bucket list, and has been, for as long as I have known him and that goes back to high school.
We put in a four-mile hike before returning to my place where he wolfed down two plates of spaghetti, quinoa, and garlic bread. He always eats like he’s been on a 7-day fast. He will be in town for the week and so I’m thinking we’ll get in some more good hikes. With a blizzard approaching, hiking may be our only option.
Hike: One hour.
Training Heart Rate: 70-90 bpm.
Calories Burned: 350.
Bonus: 22,000 steps
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