Last Tuesday (the 17th), Jeremy got up early (like...8:30. I know, shocking), listened to a voicemail on his phone, and headed out the door. I was still half asleep in bed and I was confused as to why he'd be going outside that early in the morning, but I dismissed it. A little later, I hear "now that sucker's made it personal!!" followed by Jeremy's re-entry into the house. He then proceeds to the extra room closet, grabs his pellet gun (which has the power of a .22) and comes in to our room where he throws the case on the bed next to me. I look at him and ask what's going on. He then tells me what's been going on.
Apparently, our next door neighbor had gone out to his car to go to work that morning, started his car, and realized that not all cylinders were firing. So he popped his hood and found out that some rodent had chewed through two of his spark plug wires. Then he noticed that our Solara (which was right next to his car) had pieces of insulation under it. So he talked to another neighbor and got Jeremy's number to call and let us know to check on our car. Well, Jeremy doesn't answer calls from unknown numbers...well, hardly ever, but especially not when he's sleeping. So Jeremy let it go to his voicemail.
Then, when Jeremy woke up, he listened to said voicemail and went out to check on our car. He popped the hood and found this:
Notice the shredded insulation pad? You can't tell very well in this picture, but there were literally shreds a foot long hanging from the hood. It looked very haunted-house-esque.
The dumb little critter tried chewing on the battery cable. Why, we have no idea. Oh, and notice the insulation shreds all over in this picture? Yeah, they were throughout the ENTIRE engine bay. Such a joy to clean up.Well, then he decided to check our Camry, just in case. You see, it was next in the line of fire. So he popped the hood, and lo and behold, the little critter was INSIDE the car! By this time, Jeremy was so angry at the critter that he just started yelling at it. It got scared and ran back behind the engine block. That was when Jeremy said "now that sucker's made it personal" and came inside to get the gun.
He then took the gun out to get rid of the rodent. He told me later that as he was running side-to-side in front of the car trying to get the best shot and pointing the barrel of the gun inside our engine bay while still not quite fully awake he had the thought of "is this really a good idea?" lol! Well, Jeremy was having a hard time getting a good shot because it was so dark, so the neighbor (the one who notified us about the presence of the critter) had some spotlight that plugged into a cigarette lighter that he shone inside the engine bay so Jer could get a better view. After a few rounds (like...4? I think?), Jeremy finally got one in that killed the beast. (Side note: he felt really bad that it took him so many shots. Well, he felt bad that he had to kill the critter at all, but we couldn't have him coming back and terrorizing cars over and over for fun.)
He then had to extricate the beast from the engine bay. Luckily, another neighbor gave him a broom handle and he and neighbor #1 straightened a wire hanger (except for the hook) and taped that to the broom handle and had a good way to get the critter out. After a quick check, our Camry didn't seem to have sustained any damage from the rodent, thankfully.
After getting ready for the day, we went out to clean up the engine bay of the Solara so I could drive into Spokane for a nonstress test. As Jer was picking up the insulation shreds (I was dutifully holding the trash bag haha), he noticed that there was an awful lot of moisture in it. Then we realized that the little bugger had peed and pooped in our car! To add insult to injury! Dumb thing! (Although when I realized this, I COULD NOT stop laughing. Jer was mad, but I just found it super funny for some reason lol) Anyway, it was going to take a lot longer to clean up than we anticipated, and Jeremy wanted to take the Camry to get it inspected by a pro before we took it on any long drives, so I had to call and cancel my nonstress test. Darn; one less trip into Spokane for the week, lol. Oh, and Jeremy also had a class that morning that he had to miss because we were still cleaning up from the rodent attack.
So yeah, that was our VERY eventful morning. We would be very happy if we never have another morning like that lol. We're trying to find a replacement insulation pad for our Solara...we'd prefer to find one at a junk yard or something because it'll only cost like $40 instead of $200-some-odd. Stupid critter. =/
On another note...a nonstress test this morning and then a Dr. appointment this afternoon. Last week, my doc mentioned something about looking at possible induction dates at this week's appointment, so hopefully by the end of the day we'll know the latest that our little guy will be here. =) I'm still hoping that he'll decide to come on his own; I'm not crazy about being induced. I guess I should talk to the doctor about what the likely procedure will be for the induction and stuff. I'm just not looking forward to using Pitocin to start things off...from what I've found, it looks like things start off a lot stronger and progress a lot faster with Pit. Oh well, I guess we'll see.
