Put a sock in it!

It was twenty-five BELOW zero outside for the third night in a row. Every time I got up to use the restroom in the middle of the night, I would assume the position and immediately feel like a cold breeze was going to freeze me to the seat.  By the third night I woke up enough to discover there was a hole in the wall next to the light switch.  A hole normally covered by the door.  I had never noticed it before. After all there are so many crazy things in our little community of owner built homes, like the neighbor who has squirrels living in the walls of their house. (Yes, they’re squirrels, not rats or mice. We know this because they’ve been live trapping them.) Compared to that, a little opening from an improperly cut electrical socket hole is no big deal. UNLESS, the hole is on an outside wall and the wind is blowing in the “right” direction when it’s minus twenty-five!

Still mostly asleep I knew something had to be done before I forgot about it again until the next midnight potty run. So…I put a sock in it. Before bed I had put an Under Armour sock with a hole in the toe in the trashcan by the sink. I name the brand Under Armour because it ticks me off that I bought six pair of white socks and all but three individual socks are already in the trash for poor quality. Useless in two months.

Useless, until I stuffed it in the hole in the wall.  It worked perfectly.  I guess I was using the socks incorrectly.  I thought they were made for your feet. Evidently Under Armour made them to patch holes in walls.

It’s been a month since the cold snap.  The sock is still dangling from the wall. Maybe, we’ll patch the hole in the spring. Maybe not. I like the pioneer homesteader mentality of using what you have to make repairs. Besides, the irony of a holey sock repairing a holey wall fits my style.