A few days ago I heard a sound in my utiliy room I’ve never heard before. Loud clanging! It was alarming because it sounded like it might rip off half he house! I decided to call my heating, plumbing and AC people hoping they could come in time.
This was the same day I’d scheduled a nurse to come and assess me for insurance purposes. (Medicare likes to do this once a year for us older folk.) The lady arrived and we settled comfortably at the dining room table . We chatted while she took my blood pressure and talked about my medicines. When we were inturrupted my the HVAC repairman, I ushered him into the utility room. Ironically, the noise had quieted an hour or so before, a mystery to me but I was grateful because it would have been tough to talk over the din. I was also grateful that it no longer sounded like the utility room would explode, taking the kitchen with it.
The young man gave me a short course in home air handling units as he checked it out. He said the alarming noise could be caused by many things, including a mouse in the squirrel cage (Huh?) Oh, yes the squirrel cage is the colorful name for the enclosure of the powerful fan that brings room air into the cooling area before it goes to the house ducts.
That settled, I returned to talk with my nurse. After about 20 minutes the technician returned and stood politely to the side waiting for his cue. Once I acknowledged him, he turned into a thirteen- year-old boy as he held up a dead mouse by its tail.
“Here’s your problem, M’am. I believe the fan decapitated him. “
Then he left to check out the AC unit. The nurse, grinning widely suggested I get a cat. She followed with her own story about the benefit of community cats in a neigborhood. I did not share with her that I already had a cat, a cat who stayed clear of the utility room, much preferring the sofa or the bushes outside, which is where he was at the moment. 🙂