The sound of the garbage truck woke me up this morning. I'd forgotten to plug my alarm clock back in and set it since I was so exhausted yesterday, but they show up about 5:30 AM these days. It's a compromise between heat (109 forecast) and daylight. I tried to roll over and go back to sleep, but realized I wasn't all that tired, after all, and today was going to be another day of hard work in the house. May as well start.
Yesterday was truly exhausting. I mentioned that, didn't I? Rich and I went totally over two bedrooms with a new spray chemical for bedbugs - has good reports about effectiveness, and reasonably people/pet -friendly as soon as it's dry, just shower after applying - and a follow-up with new diatomaceous earth. We took practically everything apart, did loads of more laundry, hit all the baseboards, behind pictures and furniture, soaked rugs and dresser covers, and relocated electronics temporarily. (Hence the clock.)
There was a moment in Steve's room where I thought I might be hallucinating about a spot on the ceiling moving. We were at the end of spraying, we thought, and I was willing to believe anything. I watched it a few seconds. Nothing. I turned to ask Rich and there it went again. This time he saw it too. So we - OK, he - even sprayed the ceiling, including the rim of the cover plate where the fan attaches.
Then there was shutting doors till everything dried, going back in later to open windows, noting a plethora of new dead bugs futilely trying to have escaped.
My room was even more interesting. We'd been a little blase about trying to get behind all the built-ins along the wall the bed butts up to first time around. Not this time! Uff da! All those large save-the-planet plastic shopping bags got repurposed into holding clothes from the drawers. The bagged blankets from the first go-round got their bags carefully examined. All but one passed with flying colors - clear is a color? - and that one got everything physically removed. And yes, eggs are large enough to be seen, not to mention being tan against a bright white zipper. Nothing left was alive, but taking no chances.
Every break we got, Rich slept. I sat and watched TV or read.
By 8 PM we were able to put the beds back together and make them. Just in time to collapse into them, after yet another shower, having been out and about - OK, mostly sitting, big time - in the untreated part of the house. But I was able to sleep in my own bed again with complete confidence that there would be no bites in the nights.
But for how many? Fingers crossed. Supposed to be a two week residual....
This morning there was more garbage to take out. With a new supply of energy, I decided it was time to remove the dying foliage from the birthday bouquet Steve had delivered. The pink roses, ferns, earliest orange lilies, and unknown but fragrant purple somethings needed to go. Luckily it still left more lilies, some unknown green things, red freesias, and different unknown purple things. After that, there'll be a vase big enough to be a canister.
Big mess of foliage, full bag for the garbage can. When I took it out, I saw both a line of ants across the driveway, reminding me of the rotting strawberries I'd thrown out, and a still full can! A call to the garbage company secured the promise of a work order for another truck to come by and empty our can. Which, incidentally, now has three more bags in it. (See? Busy. Sidewalk and driveway swept too, except near the ants.) Hopefully the overhead costs will get whoever skipped our house a bit of a lesson coming down from on high. Those trucks are fuel hogs. Their usual procedure is to stop the truck two or three times a block, send 4 guys out running with huge wheeled cans, emptying our garbage into them along with neighbors' garbage, and loading it all into the truck when it pulls up for its next stop, normally very efficient.
Except for the human staff. We have offered them bottled water on occasion when they're here. They didn't turn it down.
So. I've been busy. Mostly killing time waiting for Steve to get up so we can organize the living room schedule for its spraying. Yesterday I had no idea we'd be so ambitious with the first two bedrooms, so I also emptied the areas around the chairs and couch of electronics, food and dishes, miscellaneous crap.... And of course, in the process of not actually getting to them yesterday, electronics, food and miscellaneous mysteriously reinhabited those spaces.
Sigh....
We have developed a plan for that bit where we have to exit the living room area today while spray dries. A phone call from an acquaintance introduced us to a possible (grain of salt here) "real" deli close to us. We've been looking for one down here. We miss Cecil's in St. Paul, down on the south end of Snelling Avenue, Highland Park neighborhood. Phoenix downtown is not desirable, nor are others even further. This one is supposed to be about a mile and a half away. The plan is to do the living room early and hit the deli for lunch. Maybe take a drive out of the metro for a while, go see some desert. Maybe find something not burning.
Of course, we'll see how exhausted the driver is this time, eh? Hmmm, maybe there'll even be another bag for the garbage by the time they get here?
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