I’ve been sleeping very badly lately, which has been at least partly due to mice returning to the loft. Just as I’m about to drop off, there is a “scrabble scrabble scrabble” sound as a mouse runs from one end of the loft above my bedroom to the other end – right above my head. In the middle of the night that’s very loud, and enough to jerk me right awake. Then, just as I relax again, it runs back in the other direction. This can go on all night – to my certain knowledge from 10:30pm through to 3am. Which is extremely frustrating – particularly if I have to be up early the next day to get to a meeting the other end of the country.
I have the local pest control company on an annual contract, so it should have been a simple matter to call out Tim to deal with the infestation. Usually, he will fit me in the next day if I have mouse trouble. But I’ve been working away from home a lot recently, with early morning starts and not getting home until late, so I just haven’t been home to let a tradesman in. Another disadvantage of being on my own – when Chris was alive we rarely were away on business the same day, so it was more straightforward to arrange to cover house calls. However, I had a Malvern-based day today, so Tim was able to come over this morning before work and do his stuff. I’m hopeful that will fix things for a while, though it’s not instantaneous. In fact, things tend to get worse (i.e. louder) before the sounds stop altogether. So I think it’s going to have to be ear plugs tonight – at least I don’t have an early start tomorrow, so it won’t matter too much if I fail to hear my alarm!
So once again I’ve failed in the challenge I’ve been set to have 10 consecutive tradesman-free days before Christmas………