Katabasis.

Hey! Do you have any cardboard boxes you don't need? If so, and if you live in my part of the world, I would love to come and get them from you. I need them to pack up a lot of my stuff so I can make room for Mr. and Mrs. Chainsaw.

In other news, yesterday I crawled around under my house and removed all the fiberglass insulation on the heating ducts. And by "on the ducts" I mean mostly just sort of suggestively draped over the ducts, with occasional duct tape decorations for variety. (Remember, kids: duct tape is not effective for long-term heating duct use!)

I was sort of hoping there would be more room to maneuver under there, but no, it is really really tight, even for someone as small as I am. If I had the slightest smidgen of claustrophobia, I couldn't have done it. Even so, it was hard to think clearly when my dust mask fogged up my goggles and glasses; I had to manually override the instinct that said, "Oh, well, must be time to crawl back out now."

The thing that made it all much worse is knowing that I have to get back under there again in order to install the new insulation.

The thing that made it all much better was Scuppers, who helped with extracting and bagging the insulation, stood by for reassurance while I wormed my way under the joists, and dragged me out to enjoy the sunshine when the job was done. This is what we in the industry call a Really Good Friend.

So today is the day I buy supplies and talk to experts (fortunately one of the experts is also a Really Good Friend, and had Excellent Advice and also Discounts to share). It is also the day I groan about having bruises and sore muscles and a scratchy throat from fiberglass dust.

And tomorrow is the day I get back under the house and start taping things to other things. In the process, I hope to permanently seal up any mousey access points, so that my ducts will never again smell of rodent intruders. And that will be such a happy thing.

And as an added bonus, my high efficiency furnace will actually operate at high efficiency! Wooo! It's gonna be so great!

I can't wait until it's over.