Beat the mouse continued

The mouse has decided to stay. For those who suggested fabric softener sheets as a deterrent, they didn't work. My RV smells like laundry and the mouse just ran right over them in his dashes around the floor.

I pulled out the kitchen drawers revealing a large open space under the counter all the way to the exterior wall behind the sink. The most noxious chemical I have in the RV is Lysol, so I sprayed it liberally inside the opening. He was next to it this morning.

As I was working, he boldly ran out onto the carpet from under the shelf on the desk. As I stood up, he ran back under the shelf. I sat down. He came out. I didn't want to keep playing this game so I stood up again and stayed standing. He peeked, crept out again and dashed to the bedroom. Great: now I won't be able to sleep tonight.

The guys in maintenance are going to bring me a humane trap and that should take care of him before he brings additional family and friends to join him.

No traps in maintenance but Beat came running out of the bedroom and went under the desk again to hide. At least I'll be able to sleep.

I told my friend about the lack of mousetraps and he immediately found a company to ship a humane trap to me here. He reminded me to release my mouse companion to an area where he can hide and feel safe. At least I know what to bait the trap with: peanut butter and cheese.

Update: this morning at 5:40, I heard the plastic bag lining the paper garbage sack rattling and realized I had forgotten to hang the sack off the floor on the key hook. I turned on the kitchen light and expected the mouse to run out of the fallen bag. Somehow, he had found a way into the bag without knocking it over and must have been nibbling on the popcorn kernels I had dumped there last night. I picked up the bag by the handles, opened the door and threw the bag outside next to the trees. Plenty of places to hide and feel safe in the bushes. Now I wait to see if he was alone.

Beat the mouse

I have a mouse in my RV. Again. He's small, brown, very fast and clever.

I have headphones with small earbuds that I use when I watch DVDs or listen to music on my laptop. Occasionally, one of the foam covers will come off and I have to search for it. A couple of days ago, it was missing and I looked everywhere with no luck.

The next night as I was watching a DVD, I noticed a small brown blur running across the floor and making a sharp right behind the desk. Drat. As I peeked behind the desk, he ran next to the wall, across the driver's floor mat and disappeared behind the dashboard. Swell. Now I know what happened to the foam cover.

I have no mousetraps so I tried to think of a way to catch him. I do have super-sticky wide Velcro strips. I cut a six-inch section of each side, turned the sticky sides up, overlapped the fuzzy side slightly across the looped side, and pushed the looped side into the carpet to hold it in place. I took the remaining ear foam, pressed it open side up into the middle of the tape, filled it with peanut butter and pressed a small piece of Monterey jack cheese about two inches away.

The following morning, I found the ear foam empty, the peanut butter and cheese missing, and no mouse. My friend started laughing when I told her about my trap and I was a little miffed at her. She said, "I have a picture of this small mouse full of peanut butter and cheese shaking his leg trying to get the Velcro off." OK, it's funny. I picked up the useless trap.

My friend said if I had the mouse for a roommate, I would have to name him. His name is Beat. Since he does nothing around here, I was going to name him Deadbeat but he's not dead. Yet.

Yesterday, I hadn't seen him so I started the engine. If that didn't get him to leave, nothing would. I haven't seen him since but when I took out the coffee filters from the lower cabinet this morning, I found mouse poop in the filters. Gee thanks.

It's raining and I want him gone before he brings the rest of his family and friends inside. Tomorrow, I'm getting a couple of traps.

F-word R.I.P.

Today is April 18. On this date in 1775, Paul Revere made his famous ride warning the colonists that the British were coming. A rather large earthquake shook San Francisco, California, on April 18, 1906. 40 years later, my mother married my father for which I am very grateful.

Today, April 18, 2009, I declare a moratorium on the F-word. I don't want to hear it any more. It's used as a noun, a pronoun, a verb, an adverb, an adjective, a preposition, an interjection and a conjunction. It's an interrogative and an expletive. Can you tell I was an English professor in a former life?

Today, I heard it in many forms from adults as well as teenagers of both sexes in several sites in the campground. There were small children riding bicycles and playing in the immediate vicinity, and they heard the word used too. Children should not be subjected to a word with such a vile connotation. I don't think anyone should.

The English language is rich with words to cover any utterance. Why aren't we using them? My friends and I used to play a game where we would make up a curse without using curse words. It was fun and we thought we were pretty clever. What happened to the clever phrase? The bon mot? The witty retort?

The first time I heard the F-word was in college (no really--child of the 60s and all that, we never used that word at home) and I was a bit surprised. I understood its context and it seemed appropriate under the circumstances: the photographer had just accidentally exposed an entire roll of film. But the word itself has been watered down to cover everything. I wonder: what does a person say when they're really hurt, angry and frustrated? Does the person say the word twice as loud? Twice as much?

When we were kids, we dared you, double-dog dared you, and then the ultimate: triple-dog dared, from which you did not retreat unless you looked forward to the remainder of your childhood living as a chicken. Anyone who has ever seen "The Christmas Story" knows about the triple-dog dare and about what happened to our hero when he uttered the F-word. By the way, Lifebuoy tastes awful (that was my triple-dog dare).

Why is the constant use of the F-word acceptable? And if it's not acceptable, why are we creating a generation who would rather ignore our extensive vocabulary and replace it with one ugly word? To me, that's a sign of stupidity and low class.

I'm not perfect by any means and yes, I have used the word before as an expletive. I was alone and I said it under my breath. I would never say it around children and try to restrict its usage to situations of extreme stress. I have substituted "Aarrgh!" and "Gah!" and "Duh!" and "Grrr!" with good results.

Maybe I'm old but hearing a 14 year-old woman using the F-word repeatedly makes me angry and a little sad. She may be the finest young woman I could ever meet; however, the perception of her character changes with the words she says and I want nothing to do with her. She is selling herself short to fit in and that's wrong. We're smarter than that. Aren't we?

Another reason I'm glad to be an RVer

We had a windstorm in northern California on Tuesday that affected several counties. Outside the state park where I camp host, a tree fell and blocked one lane of the access road. The Marin County Fire Department removed the tree and the two state park rangers directed traffic around it, finishing in 30 minutes. However, there was other damage: the power lines into the park were down as were several others in the neighboring counties. The electricity in the majority of the campground was out. My rig sits just outside the grid and I had power.

I was feeling pretty good about being able to work on the computer and sip a cup from my freshly perked pot of coffee. Then the heater shut off and the screen dimmed. Uh oh. I still had some electricity but it was around half power, 15-20 amps perhaps.

Out came the 400-watt inverter and I plugged in the laptop to finish what I was working on. The batteries were fully charged and I wouldn't need the generator for hours. The electric heater drew too much power so I turned on the electric blanket and it warmed the bed. The refrigerator beeped to let me know there was low AC and since it was set to Auto, it transferred to running on propane. I finished my work and went to bed.

At 7, I turned on the water heater, took a shower, dressed and went to the office to check the reservations. With the computer down, I could only go by the previous day's printout. I had to post signs with the incoming reserved sites listed so drop-in campers would know what sites were available. This was the last spring break week and many decided to visit the park. The sign was set up in Excel, I took it home, looked it over, created a similar sheet and entered the names. I plugged in the 800-watt inverter with its two connections, added the printer to the laptop and printed the copies. I used the copier to dupe the reservation list and went back to the office to post the signs. I left the list on the counter and noticed PG&E was there to work on the power.

Returning home, I heated water on the stove and poured it through the one-cup Melitta drip. I could have made an entire pot but this would do. I watched the campers go in and out of the dark restrooms and take showers. I worked on the computer and at 12:30, the refrigerator beeped. The power had returned--for me. I warmed a sandwich in the microwave and reset the clock. I checked the reefer. It had returned to the AC setting. I unplugged the computer from the inverter and plugged it into the power strip. All was well.

Thursday morning at 7, I was at the office squinting at the Post-It notes on the monitor. I found the campground reservation website and access codes, and brought them home. Success: I printed the new 7-day reservation list and that day's incoming reservation list for the buildings. Now I could post the reserved signs on the sites and address the drop-ins with confidence about which sites were available.

The campground power was restored on Thursday at 2 with the exception of the restroom building next to me. I watched the campers emerge from the cold showers and they didn't look happy at all. The electricity in the building should be restored on Friday morning.

The RV back-up systems worked perfectly. Power outage? Reefer, hot water and stove on propane; computer and printer on inverter; and all else on batteries. Food stayed chilled, coffee was hot and work was completed. With an RV, a power outage is an inconvenience easily handled.

Dining in Point Reyes Station

Now that I'm a volunteer camp host at Samuel P. Taylor State Park, I am six miles from Olema Ranch RV Resort and Campground where I began my workamping experience. My friend who lives in Inverness and whose husband, my former co-worker and supervisor, is now the manager at the campground, picked me up and took me to Point Reyes Station. The small community is two miles north of Olema and has many fun places to visit: Toby's Feed Barn, the Cowgirl Creamery, the Pine Cone Diner, the Station House Cafe and now, Stellina.

What a lovely and delicious surprise! We were greeted at the door by the owner, a former chef, and our waiter recognized the Good Samantha on my windbreaker. The restaurant is on the edge of upscale without making you feel you should dress up to dine there. We had lunch so I can't vouch for breakfast nor dinner. It was terrific.

We started with a potato soup with pesto and nettles accompanied by bread from the local bakery. Most of the menu consisted of local and organic food. My friend was happy with a bite from my entree: penne pasta with cannellini beans and sun-dried tomatoes with asiago cheese. For dessert, my friend had a Meyer lemon ice cream sandwich while I enjoyed a coffee pot de creme with chopped walnuts and Straus Dairy whipped cream. I can duplicate the soup and entree at home, but I would be hard-pressed to create the desserts.

If you decide to drive the California coast and camp at either Olema RV Resort and Campground or Bodega Dunes (another state park), you'll find Stellina on your way in Point Reyes Station.

No, I received nothing for this review but I love locally-grown organic food used well in creative dishes. Try it and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.