Mighty Who?

As agreed with my pastor a dozen or so years ago, I volunteer a few hours at church each week. Most of that happens on Mondays and Tuesdays. This has been good for me and hopefully good for the church as well. In addition to coordinating the small groups ministry, there is a good bit of minor maintenance stuff that occupies a good bit of the time spent there. The business of a little structured time has kept me from a stream of consciousness existence at least for two days a week. There are some other obligations on Thursday and Friday. So, jokingly, Wednesday is my day off and my journey to church Monday and Tuesday is referred to as "going to work". Everything we call work should be so rewarding.

This past Monday, my trip to "work" involved a funny, vibrating noise that I soon discovered changed pitch with varying speeds of the heater fan. In fact, at top speed, it seemed like the dashboard was going to come off. I put up with it (pretty bearable on lowest blower setting) until today (my day off if you recall), Armed with an assortment of screwdrivers and such I disassembled the necessary plastic parts to gain access to the recalcitrant heater motor. Because of where we live, what greeted me at that point was not too surprising.

Living in the woods has been a lifetime thing for me and I would not choose otherwise. However one constant in the arrangement is putting up with the critters that share the woods. It would seem a mouse had taken up residence in the heater system. building a nest with various parts of air filters and insulation material. Mice can get through such tiny holes that it's virtually impossible to keep them from invading such an inviting space. Although cleaning out acorns and replacing the cabin air filter is pretty much routine, the rascally rodent was never in there when I did this in the past. This time was different unlike the larger rodent who choose to come out last week, this little one stayed put and when the heater fan (think centrifuge) cranked up it did him in and, although small, his body was sufficient to really upset the balance of the fan. I can run the heater full speed now. But, hopefully, the larger rodent. Phil, was right and it won't be necessary.