Visitation

[howeird]

First thing after getting drugged, dressed & fed, I grabbed four latex gloves, a tall kitchen bag with built-in tie ribbon, got a rake and shovel out of the shed and one by one raked the rodent traps with rodent onto the shovel and deposited into the bag. The rats were gross and smelly, one had live maggots on it the other had already been eaten as much as the maggots wanted and had eggs planted in it. One thing which prompted me to do this and not wait for Terminix is the smell was coming up into the bathroom, which is above the traps.

Tied off the bag, put it in the garbage bin. Got some Lysol and Fabreze sprays and squirted a lot of both where the traps had been.

Waiting for the electronic traps to arrive...

Windows 7 on the main PC was complaining that there was an uninstalled update. After doing all the available updates, it was still there. Looked up the error code, and it said Windows 10 was now available for my machine. I downloaded that, which turned out to be a launcher for a URL which pointed to a download link. The download took half an hour, and it launched a Media app which let me download Win10 Pro installer to a USB drive, and to a DVD. I made both a Blu-ray and DVD+R and a USB image. When I have time I'll do the other option and install directly.

Time to go to SJC and pick up my cousins. Their plane was early, and their bags arrived quickly. We were out of there before 3.

Home by way of Fry's Brokaw drive-by, then 1st street then GA Parkway to Tasman and home. So they got to see some familiar company names and the stadium.

At home, Spook was a deer in the headlights, finally dashed into my bedroom, and as we watched she opened the closet door and ran inside.

We hung out a while, I gave them the Grand Tour, and iced drinks, and we watched the sunset & hummingbirds, and went to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner. They pointed out the woefully non-intuitive layout of the place, and were amazed that the soups and potatoes and pasta and desserts were free, and you could go back for more.

Back home, chatted, discussed my sisters and their progeny, and their progeny. I explained what the connection of grand-nephew Wesley's name was to The Princess Bride, and why his baby sister was not named Buttercup.

We discussed plans for tomorrow: Take the 9 am Capitol Corridor to Sacto, see the state railroad museum (cousin Brian is a train nut and his wife Viv is an enabler. As am I). I booked the train reservations when Amtrak finally came back up (the app and web site were not allowing member logins before we went to dinner). 

They are in bed, Spook is in my bedroom closet - though she came out to the window while we were on the porch, and was in the bay window when we came back from dinner.

Plans for tomorrow:
SJC Diridon by 9
Sacto around noon
Train museum
Old town
Back on the 5:40 and home by 9

Comments

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

Good thing you got the rats out before the visit.

You should get on Yelp and give terminix a bad review. Seriously, If all they did for $300 is put out some traps, and then never came to pick them up, that was a waste of money.

I've read reviews of electronic traps on Amazon. Scary. Be careful - it's easy to zap yourself.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

Additionally, it occurs to me if the odor was coming up through the floor, there are cracks or holes that need some sealing.

[howeird]

Did the Yelp thing. Will check my contract, I believe there is a customer satisfaction clause.

As for the odors (other post) there is some un-caulked area around the tub under the rim, it's been there since I bought the house and too minor to do anything about.

Zapping from the electronic traps is also nothing to worry about. Just don't put hands inside until after it is switched off. I'm more concerned that 4 C batteries can't produce enough wattage to kill a rat.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

if you were planning to pay to get other work done (insulation/sealing to keep pests out), you might want to include sealing & caulking that bathroom properly as well. Who knows - one day California might have a cold day in the winter. Plus, smaller vermin (insects and such) could become a problem.

Glad you did the yelp thing - those people sound scummy.