This past weekend my wife and son left for their annual trip to her family’s vacation spot, and once again I opted to stay home. Our cats not only need company but the older one needs hyperthyroidism medication applied twice per day.
I’m also nervous to leave my house alone for lengthy periods of time, because something always happens to it during my wife’s vacation. I’m only three days into being home alone and it’s already started.
The most dramatic example of something going wrong while I’m home alone was a major rainstorm a few years ago that caused such a severe leak in our basement that water was nearly shooting out through the wall. I emptied out at least a dozen buckets of water and it took me hours to mop up what I couldn’t contain. If I hadn’t been home, we would have come back to major damage to our home.
There was another huge rainstorm last year, but we’d installed a French drain at the problem area and it worked. We’d fixed a major problem and it looked like I was set to have a relaxing two weeks this summer.
Except an old problem has returned as of this writing. We’ve got ants this summer. Big ones. And I get to deal with them all by myself. So much for relaxing.
Honestly, it shouldn’t be too big a deal. We have an ongoing plan with Terminix because ants are a pretty steady problem around here, and that company has done well by us over the years. We’ve had the same technician come by our house for nearly a decade now, and she even gave me a way to contact her directly in case of a problem. I left her a message late yesterday afternoon when I noticed the ants returning.
But as of right now, until I hear back from her, I’m on high alert. I’ve gotten quite good at spotting ants and I move quickly to escort them out of my home. I must have moved nearly a dozen of them out over the course of yesterday, and I have no idea where they’re coming in from. Normandy has proven quite the skilled spotter of things moving across the floor, too, so I have assistance in my vigil.
I hate to leave my house for lengthy periods of time because I’m always the one discovering leaks, or breaks, or ants, or anything else wrong. I have to be here as much as possible because otherwise these things will go undiscovered until they’re bigger, more expensive problems.
I have to stay behind because I’ve become the guardian of this house. It sounds fancy and noble, but it’s a pain in the ass and a pain in the wallet.