Tuesday, June 7, 2016

How Artists Work

home repair, mice, summer, writing

It's the second day, and I'm trying to figure out how to work things.  Yesterday and today, we've got lots of repair and life-enhancement professionals visiting our house to take care of a bazillion things we've put off forever.  I mentioned the furnace and the roof.  There's also the refrigerator, the gas range, the internet and and the complicated a/v remote controls that we can't program ourselves.  I try to be self-sufficient, but there's a limit to my skill set.

Yesterday, one of the furnace replacers told me there were a couple of dead mice in my gas turn-off valve closet.  Awesome, I said.  I planned to remove the mice immediately, but then I didn't know exactly where the gas turn-off valve closet was located, and looking for mice in the crannies of the 100 year-old basement was giving me the willies.  

Before the replacer's arrival this morning, I set out paper towels and plastic bag to scoop and discard the carcasses. "I've got my mouse removal supplies ready," I told the guy.  "Can you just show me where the dead mice are?"

"Oh yeah," he said, smiling.  "Actually, I can just get 'em for you."  I followed him down the stairs, handed him the paper towels and plastic bag, and he had them enclosed in plastic in about five seconds.

"You're so brave," I said.

"Yeah," he said, laughing.

And now I have the itchy feeling of sitting here waiting for the other handy guys to arrive. While waiting, I read about W.H. Auden's work habits in the book pictured above.  He took a stimulant each morning and a sedative each night.  Also, he consumed alcohol heavily, smoked tobacco, and drank pots of coffee.  I've considered these rituals carefully, weighed their pros and cons, and decided that the only one I can adopt is coffee.  Coffee, and also punctuality, which was also a compulsion of Auden's.



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2 comments:

mm said...

I might opt for the coffee and alcohol...just saying.

LH said...

Blessings upon the mouse remover.