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Speaking of old homes and repairs — don’t even get me started on ceiling fans and ants

Forgive me for doing so much personal moaning and groaning here. This has been the sort of week already that's just about driven me up the wall -- up the living room wall, across the ceiling, into the kitchen, and down the wall alongside the kitchen faucets, perhaps, landing somewhere near the old cat's ant-infested food dish.

All right, perhaps things haven't gone that badly.

We live in a part of the country which, especially since global warming has hit, is extremely humid with daily highs in the 80s and 90s from about May through October. This week we were given an advanced forecast of temps in the mid- to upper-80s. I immediately began fretting about getting our broken living room ceiling fan replaced. I bought a new one, and got a commitment from one of my neighbors who's younger and more agile than I to come over and slap it up there on the ceiling. (Removing the old fan first, of course.)

His schedule changed radically, so I spent most of my work day Monday getting things ready then waiting for him to be able to get the job done. But, we "got 'er done," and all was well.

I was only kidding about the kitchen faucets, really, there are no leaks, drips, or runs there, presently. (A different neighbor replaced that plumbing nightmare for me a few years back and, so far, all is holding steady.)

But I wasn't kidding about the old cat's food bowl woes. If you've had ants invade the house, you understand how difficult and persistent they can be. If you haven't, well, there's no way to explain the frustration involved.

We have a patient old cat, though, and with "mommy" and "daddy" cleaning, scrubbing, spraying, and setting up ant-trap/ant-bait city in the kitchen -- we won this year's round with the little devils. They'll be back. Sure, they'll be back. That's what ants do.

But maybe by next spring we'll have won the lottery and be living where gentle breezes blow across our beach front property in paradise and ... yeah, well, anyhow. Life in Missouri goes on, beach front or not!
[tags]kitchen faucets, home repairs, ant invasions, just a guy who reads the papers[/tags]