Of Mice and Son

"When the mice laugh at the cat, there is a hole nearby." - Nigerian Proverb

I started my day with a text message from Jacob.  He is having roommate and girlfriend trouble and he's at his wits end.  Unfortunately, what he really needs to do is move out of the house he has been living in the past three years.  When he started dating one of his roommates last term, he knew it could get complicated and messy.  I don't think he realized just how complicated and messy it would get.  Suffice it to say, another of his roommates hasn't handled the romance well.  She has made it her personal mission to make Jacob and Courtney miserable.  And she has succeeded.  He is so unhappy that after speaking with him this morning, I spent an hour looking for housing alternatives that I could suggest to him.  Though decent, temporary housing is expensive, I'm prepared to move him this weekend if need be and to keep him there until we can figure out a better alternative for next term.  In the interim, I've suggested he might have a couple of straightforward conversations with some friends and at the very least do a reality check with the help of more objective views. 

Hearing that he is so unhappy, was a tough start to my day because if he's unhappy, I'm unhappy.  It's taking all my strength to stop from getting in my car, and setting his roommate straight.  How dare she hurt my baby.  I won't do it but I want to.  I know that it's in his best interest to work this out for himself and that my role is limited to giving my best advice only when asked.  It's hard.

Unfortunately, my day deteriorated from there when I opened the cupboard under the kitchen sink to find evidence of mice.  The exterminator was here within a half hour.  He tells me it is a minor infestation, very new and limited to the cupboard under the sink and the adjacent cupboards containing cleaning products and pots and pans.  In consideration of the severity of my rodent phobia, there is no such thing to me as a minor infestation.  When we last had this problem, three years ago, Merv caulked the wall between the garage and the house.  Some inspection this morning showed that some of that caulking had been pulled away.  He promises me he will redo it this weekend.  I will empty all the kitchen cupboards, sterilize them and seal all the spaces around the pipes and hope that I can sleep again sometime in the next month or two.  No guarantees.  The exterminator laid all the bait boxes out and is confident that should take care of the problem.  But I'm nervous.  If worse comes to worse, I'll be looking for temporary accomodation for me too.