Ohhh, Noooo!

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while are not gonna believe this ...

I went to my storage under the house, a basement of sorts, to put another box there until the garage sale, and when I opened the door, there was a distinct aroma I'll call "Eau de chair de décomposition" or if you prefer Spanish, "carne de la descomposición." Yep. I have a dead critter down there. And I'm beginning to smell it here in the office.

ARRRRGGGGHHHH!!

What is it with me and dead animals under my house?????? Am I the Angel of Death to animals, luring them to my premises and willing them to die and stink up my house???

If you're new to my blog, this and this might help you understand my frustration.

This means I have to go down there, move all the boxes out of the way, find IT, remove IT, air the space, replace all the boxes. Well, that will be a good three days shot to hell in the schedule of getting on with life.

Hey, Caroline ... wanna come help me again?????

Damn.

~ ~ ~ ~

PS @ 2:49 pm mdt

OK, I'm taking a break again. I'm exhausted. I'm aggravated. I have now removed everything, checked the whole area that I can reach or see (the ground slopes up at one end) and I can find nothing. I also can't smell anything noxious. I don't know what is going on. I need to rest, too, because I have now cracked my head three times ... yes, THREE ... on the steel girders. Non felt good, but the last one was just above the left temple and it hurt like a ... well, you know what. I need to finish up, but I do need to just let the throbbing ebb.

There was clearly something down there as evidenced by the multiple paw prints over the suitcases. I couldn't ascertain what kind of paw prints because it had been tracked over several times, but there was certainly something there.

I've now rearranged everything. I drug in some wooden shipping palates that were in the yard, leveled them for safety, and loaded my Christmas decorations, luggages, camping gear, etc. on those. There were already tarps on the dirt floor, but this gives another couple inches f protection from moisture. Everything that can fit is in plastic tubs, too. The organization is going to help. Even with the garage sale boxes back in there, it will be less cluttered. I think I can get it finished today. I hope so, because I'm so disgusted that I don't want to have to work with it again for a long while.

This has afforded me the time and incentive to get out the banquet table, saw horse legs and other things I will need soon to set up for the garage sale. Some of those things were at the back, and I would have had trouble getting them out. Now I can begin to move to the next stage of my unloading process.

OK, I'm going to go outside, sit in the porch swing with a glass of iced water and wait for my cool, calm collected self to return!

~ ~ ~ ~
Another update @ 7:07 pm mdt

Well, everything is put away, but I never found IT. I have no idea. The smell seems to be gone. I'm leaving the door open tonight to air some more and just hope I don't catch another IT when I close it tomorrow!!

I love how organized everything is down there now. I hauled a pickup bed full of crap from the previous owner off to the dumpster. When I came in the house after that, I walked straight to the shower, peeling off clothes as I went. I was SO hot! I threw the clothes in the washer and crawled in the shower. [Why do we say "crawl in the shower"? I actually step in!]

When I got out, I felt much better, but I was very keyed up still. I looked at that big bath tub, which I've never used for myself, and I ran it full of barely warm water with lots of aroma-therapy bubbles, put the head rest in place, got a cold beer and just slid in the water. I soaked for over an hour! And I feel very good now. I'm gonna use that tub more often!!

Wish me luck on the stink. I hope it is magically gone!