A Mouse in the House

My tenant saw mouse doo-doo in the laundry room. Mouse Guy said mice are climbing in through the dryer vent and then handed me a bill for $90.

To access the vent, Gary had to move the dryer. To move the dryer, first he had to move the washer. Then he had to crawl over both appliances to get to the vent. In the process, his foot got stuck, and he broke a $70 switch. That switch will be here next week.

While Gary mouse-proofed the vent, he decided to clear lint out of the dryer hose. He bought a $40 vent-cleaning kit, but it didn’t work. “Something else is wrong,” he said. Despondent, he added “I just can’t go under that house again.”

The crawl hole of that house is smaller that Grandma’s hat box and it’s always swarming with wasps — but I’ve seen Gary jam himself in there plenty of times. I offered to hold the flash light and hand him water. Ultimately, though, we paid a youngster to do it. Youngster slithered through the hole, as if it were easy, til he was in the the exact spot where the mice live. I said a little prayer.

Pretty soon, Youngster shouted from under the house that the dryer hose was unattached to the vent. Gary handed him appropriate materials, and Youngster put it all back together. Later we tested the hose and discovered that it was, in fact, clogged.

In addition to being young, Youngster is a chimney sweep, so he grabbed sweeping equipment from his truck and unclogged the line. Unfortunately, one of his sweeping tools got detached during the process and languished inside the dryer hose.

All three of us reached for the missing part with no luck. Resigned, Youngster crawled back under the house and tilted the dryer hose to dislodge the part. Gary used the leaf blower to force the part to move. And I stuck my hand in the hose from the outside, cringing, ready to catch the part when it came shooting out.

About that time, Gary surreptitiously expressed remorse because, in retrospect, he determined that he could have crawled under the house after all. I looked at him like he was crazy.

Youngster inch-wormed out of the hole. I handed him his part. Gary turned on the dryer. Perfect.

Everything is all better now. Except for the switch.

Gary will get that fixed next week.