I got my ducts cleaned today.

Not a medical procedure, it was the heating/AC ducts; and therein, of course, lies a story.

It seems a small woodland creature crept into our house, probably by burrowing under it, up into the understory, and thence through the moisture barrier and next to a duct joint where it got all warm and cozy, and immediately died.

We eventually figured this out with the help of Eddie, the Angies List Recommended Duct Cleaning Guy. Eddie is extremely knowledgeable and very good at what he does. If duct cleaning were a religion, he would be its Pope.

According to Eddie (TALRDCG), the first Sign was the appearance of flys in the house. Not many, but some. And it wasn't fly season and we don't leave the doors open. Surely this was a Sign. Spontaneous generation? Immaculate conception? Virgin birth? (How does one tell if a fly is a virgin [and why would one want to know?]) Eddie did not speculate or comment, but I'm sure he knew.

The second Sign was the smell of a deceased woodland creature. An unmistakable a Sign and the first such that indicated a new and unexpected presence. According to Eddie (TALRDCG), if the smell goes away within a week or two, its a mouse. If it takes a month, its a rat. If it takes longer it may well be the possum who lives (lived?) in our back yard. But more likely it is simply a mole, a mouse-sized woodland creature, who somehow lost his way and found our home and made it his crypt. We'll see.

Eddie (TALRDCG) knows that whatever it is or was, it didn't get into the ducts themselves because there were no other Signs (bits of fur left on projecting sheet metal corners, feumets, nesting materials, etc.) Eddie knows because he said he could see all the way through our ducts, from end to end. Eddie has powers allowing him to do this and many other things, which is why Angie recommends him.

It is good to rest one's faith in the powers of Eddie because the ducts needed vacuuming anyway, having never been cleaned in their eleven-year history, though Eddie (T . . . etc.) recommends ritual cleaning at least every five years.

Our ducts are cleansed now and Eddie is gone, leaving almost no trace of his own passage other than our good wishes for him, a modest entry in our checkbook, and (as soon as I finish this) another recommendation in Angies List.

Signs of our small woodland creature are still present, hanging softly in the air. But such Signs are fading and there are no further flys, so there is hope.

Perhaps we have been blessed.