It was a long night last night. A squirrel got stuck in the interior wall next to my desk yesterday. Being the problem solver I am, I called and scheduled an animal rescue guy to come out and get the little bugger out of my wall today. Obstacle one – overcome. Obstacle two arrived home last night with his own ideas about how to solve the problem.
So now I sit at my desk, next to an empty wall with the exception of two holes, a couple of five gallon buckets, a piece of plexiglass, some tools and a squirrel that has now been fed peanut butter and is resting for another round of ‘jump up the wall and slide down, claws scraping all the way’.
Not to say that I don’t have compassion for the poor little bastard. But an inexpert rescue by hubby and yours truly that allows a funniest home video to be shot of a squirrel attached to my face, is not in my rescue plan. I’m sure our animal rescue guy won’t be surprised by another couple of homeowners attempting to solve the problem themselves.
My husband and I have always been relatively self-sufficient and he, stubbornly so. And that was fine when we didn’t have a child or jobs with loose boundaries. These days I’m more inclined to hire an expert, prior to turning our home into a demolition site. I am always reminded of the children’s song about the old lady who swallowed the fly and then a spider to eat the fly and then a bird to catch the spider. This is the nature of solving problems inexpertly. More problems are created.
When you’re younger, with fewer responsibilities, solving your own problems is character-building. When you get to be middle-aged, your character has done been built and now it’s all about other challenges – saving for retirement and the kid’s college education. The likelihood of you falling off a ladder is not only higher, but the injuries more significant and the consequences more dire for your earning power.
Spring is on the horizon. I do all the landscaping and gardening. I’ll be re-staining our decks and fences. I have rooms to paint in the house, the garage to reorganize, various other patch and repair jobs. Somebody else will be replacing the gutter screens and trimming the taller trees. I have my limitations – but it allows me to spend my time doing more of what I enjoy and am capable of doing instead of creating bigger, more expensive messes.
For now, the squirrel and I await a little assistance.
The Green Study 