delight | (no subject)

Updating has mostly been too hard for my brain, as has everything else in the world, because of the fact that I'm in almost constant darkness.

(My office has no windows, and "standard" time means that I'm in the dark for the majority of the commute, and am in the dark when I leave again at the end of the day. My problem isn't just SAD - I actually have so many cognitive issues from lack of daylight that I have not been able to think clearly past 9pm since my stroke ten years ago.)

But I am getting very very tired of the mice in my office. They have now destroyed two slow feeders for my dog. I can't store food in my office, even in airtight containers, because that might bring more mice. Every Monday I have to clean mouse poop off my desk.

They only are an issue on weekends because they apparently stay away as long as they can smell the dog.

I have no more money to replace the things they've destroyed, and I sometimes go days without eating during the day because I don't want any hint of me being responsible for this even breathed. I have a lot of paper clutter, all of which is stored in cabinets/drawers/shelves becaue I don't have the time or staff to file the overwhelming amount of documents I get handed, but most offices in health care have paper clutter. Many of my colleagues have paper clutter. What they don't have is terrible mouse invasions.

And it's not that the building doesn't care at all - there have been exterminators in here three times.

I'm just so tired of dealing with it.

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Damn.

Oh no. :( I'm sorry you're dealing with this.

My experience of mice is that they are uninterested in paper. At my first clinic, despite an abundance of paper clutter, the only place I found mouse shit was around my tower PC. That's right, the little monsters have gotten with the 21st century and gone paperless. (No doubt they're mooching off the wifi, too.) Meanwhile

tn3270 discovered that mice had somehow managed to get into a tool chest(?!?!) in the garage and were treating it as a high-rise. The little fuckers installed their own insulation.

I am now very afraid to look at the back of my computer tower! D: (It's in a little skinny spot between my desk hutch and the wall and a hassle to move around.) But if mice want to be all high-tech, that explains everything, since my office has the server closet for the entire hospital. It was just a server room until I came along and needed an office. The router is in here.

... okay, I was slightly joking about the wifi, but. Maybe they're in your office for the warmth? Can you do something on Fri eve before you leave to radically lower the temperature in there? The computers would probably appreciate it, since they're usually happiest on the chilly.

It might not be enough to discourage them from being indoors at all, given it's now ~freezing at night outside, but maybe if your office is a local temperature minimum, they could go shit on someone else's desk?

Oh, don't worry, I know you were joking but if it was true it would make so much sense. XD

I am not allowed to touch the computers that aren't mine; they've got a big metal cabinet built around them and it is locked. But I can do things to lower the temp in the rest of the room and see if that helps! Things I normally wouldn't do but maybe should like turning off my monitors.

P.S. Actually, thinking more on it, it might just work to keep them off your desk surface to have a fan blowing across it?

... and I can also do that, which I hadn't thought of either! Thanks for the insight!

That sounds so aggravating and exhausting. :( I hope some of

siderea's thoughts help.

That sucks, I'm so sorry.