A Cure for Creaks

Creaky Doors No More

   Do you have creaky doors? I did not too long ago. Want to know how I fixed it? Because that's what I'm sharing in this post: a surefire way to quiet those creaky hinges.

This is a door hinge. Image from askthebuilder.com.

   First, let's talk about doors. Doors are things you open in the walls of buildings to move through them. Doors can be made of many different materials, like grass or dead bodies. Doors generally have knobs and hinges, possibly also windows and locks. You can cover up the windows with things called curtains - some people are unaware of this. Some doors are very pretty, while others aren't so much. Doors keep things out that we don't want in, and things in that we don't necessarily want escaping, like Granny or the kidnapped body before you kill it. Doors are important to our well-being and protect us from wild animals, or the police, depending on who you are. They usually don't fail in doing their job, but again, that depends on who you are and what you're trying to keep out or in.

   Sometimes, doors get creaky, or start making some groaning sounds, like that dead body you don't know exactly what to do with. Some people have absolutely no idea what to do to make such things shut up, so I'm writing this post to help those of us who've never dealt with a dea-, I mean, door, a creaky door before, and don't have the handyman parents to help them out.

   Now what usually causes doors to make creepy, annoying noises are the hinges. Yeah, those things that attach it to the wall and possibly hold it up off the floor. No, I'm not talking about the dead body now. Most hinges are made of metal, kind of like nails, or most nails anyway, and when metal moves against other materials, like other metal, it sometimes makes a noise or two. Some people are bothered by these noises, and others can have an inhuman ability to totally block them out, as if they don't exist. I mean, it really is inhuman, like they don't even know the sounds exist, they just pretend there isn't anything lying on the floor, uh, I mean, creaking, creaking in the door.

One of those oil brushes. Image from zappos.com.

   Anyway, what I thought was, hey, if we just put something between what's rubbing to make those sounds, then the sounds will stop. I considered WD40, but I didn't want to spray black oil that close to white doors, I thought that could look pretty nasty, so that was out. Then I thought, hey, vegetable oil! It's clear, I just had to figure out how to get it on the hinges without making a terrible mess, because you know how cooking oil just goes everywhere when you try pouring it down someone's, I mean, over the hinges of a door.

   I used one of those oil brushes from my kitchen. Put it in the dishwasher afterwards, came right clean again. Mine's made of some rubber stuff, so it's pretty flexible. Made the job real easy. Anyway, I took one of my oil brushy thingies and dipped it in a really small bowl full of vegetable oil, then took the brush right down the middle of the hinges, both sides. Then I worked around the door a bit: open-shut, open-shut, a little weight on it open-shut, open-shut, lifting up on it a bit open-shut, open-shut. Then voila! No more groaning, creaky doors.

   That was at least a week ago. My house is still as silent as the dead are supposed to be, you know, when they're in the ground, six-feet under. And no smell!

Life and Death

When Is It the Right Thing to Euthanize Your Pet

   Today's a sad day. When I went to clean out Scarlet's mouth this morning, I realized she has to be suffering. Scarlet is our snow corn snake, for those of you who may not have read my last post. She's had a respiratory infection this spring and more recently mouth rot, and though those two things have seemed to have gotten better with the care of a vet, special treatment, and medicine, she still seems like she's getting worse. 

   Her condition got me to thinking about what my husband's been trying to tell me he thinks we need to do. Until this morning, I couldn't even think about euthanizing our pet. I admit, I am one for the lame duckling - I am one who holds out hope until I see that there's no hope left - but at what point is it the right thing to do? 

   I know people euthanize their pets all the time. I know animals at the pound get "put to sleep" when they become too burdensome or whatever. But what determines when to let go and end a pet's suffering, especially when you can't be 100% positive that they are suffering? Is it when the pet has cost too much money, more than they are worth? Is it when the owner thinks they cannot be saved even with vets and special treatments and medicine? Is it when their medical care is too expensive for the owner? Is it when they are thought to already be on the brink of death? What conditions have to be met for it to be the right thing to do? Does it only depend on the person who's caring for the animal?

   Scarlet may be a snake, but she's our pet. I don't know how my husband feels about our pets, but I feel like I'm a kind of mother to them. I love them. I love Scarlet. But she's lost color in her eyes and tongue, which have both become duller or more whitish. She's lost her healthy shape and has a few concerning lumps on the second half of her - though I've considered these lumps may be unfertilized eggs that she can't let go of and I've tried techniques that would help her pass them, these lumps are darker in color than I think eggs would be. She's become pretty lethargic and feels light and limp when I pick her up to care for her. The last time we fed her, she threw up everything and hasn't eaten since. 

   She has cost us more in medical bills than we could get two new snakes for, but I don't want to trade her for two new snakes. I want her to get better and be healthy again, though I know her chances are becoming slimmer by the day. I want to take her back to the vet, but there were so many unanswered questions the last time I took her, that I think maybe the underlying cause of her recent illnesses is a mystery even to our vet. I don't think the vet can help her any more than she already has. 

   So, I'm asking you, you who are reading this: at what point should I let go and admit that it's her time? When is "putting a pet to sleep" the right thing to do?

The little bugs that look like woodlice...

The small crustaceans have disappeared!

Image via woodlice.co.uk.

     In my last post, I mentioned that when I returned from a week-long vacation, the gnats in my apartment had been taken care of by a small and friendly spider. He is doing well, going from this corner to that, keeping the apartment free from gnats and getting woodlice trapped in his webs (but they just die there and wait for me to vacuum them up, so they are obviously not part of his diet like the gnats). But back to the woodlice (or what I assume must be woodlice or something closely related to woodlice) who began their subtle invasion during my time away and first appeared to me on the floor in the living room the very night I arrived back home. I saw them crawling in every room but the kitchen, mostly near inside doorways and near (and even IN my bed - not cool, and I'm still paranoid though I've only ever seen one there). I couldn't figure out where they were coming from, why, or how, but my best evolved guess was that they were somehow coming through the a/c and heater vents.

     I've recently replaced my vacuum bag, which was overflowing and stopping up the vacuum's suction, lit the gas fireplace a few times, and officially switched from a/c to heat. Surrounding one of these incidents, the woodlice have dramatically retreated. My guess is the source from which they were coming was either gassed or burned. Yay for the forces greater than our understanding!

Pesky Gnats
How the Gnats in My Apartment Disappeared

     I tried a few things: vinegar, cider vinegar with a hint of vanilla, bleach down the drains, a scented diversion, covering the thought-to-be source of the gnats with masking tape. These things did not work. The gnats were drawn to light sources, which killed many of them, the water coming from the faucet and not going down the drain, and occasionally the carbon dioxide me, my husband, and any guests breathed from our noses and mouths. They continued to come, live, and thrive despite my meticulous cleaning and our 4-5 smashings upon every entry to the bathroom. 

Image via orkin.com .

      However, I went on vacation recently, and when I returned after more than a week gone, the gnats in the bathroom, where their main hangout was, were nearly nonexistent. Rather than search for the source of this change, I merely accepted it, busy with catching up on my cleaning, unpacking, and getting all my photos sorted out and posted on Facebook. During my shower one day though, I noticed my accomplice. I'm not a big fan of the little guy, but as long as they stay in his/her corner and leave me alone, I am grateful for nature taking its course. I'm not sure how or where this creature came from, but it was probably the same hole the gnats constantly crawled through, and I hope he doesn't get burnt out on the reason he's allowed to live where he's set up his camp. 
      Every time I look up into his web, I see at least one gnat. For the record, I'm pretty sure the spider is harmless to humans, but if he strays too far from this corner, I might just smash him anyway... Well, maybe only if the gnats are completely taken care of, or if he has babies.

For a free USA spider-identification poster, visit http://www.termite.com/spider-identification.html.

Now, about those little bugs that look like woodlice...