An Attempted Solution

I was mowing the lawn and noticed many wasps near the corner of my house. I looked up and saw a great mass of these insects crawling all over each other. Then I noticed a hole in the wood trim about a hand’s width away from where they were congregating. I imagine that this hole had been made by the wasps themselves; or, on second thought, maybe a rodent chewed it open; it also could have been the work of a woodpecker. Anyway, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to sleep if I left this hole unfixed; but I didn’t want to tear off the entire piece of trim and nail up a fresh new board, because I feared that all the prying and pounding would disturb the wasps and they might inject me with venom. So I went and got a can of some stuff called “wood putty,” which seems like a powder made of sawdust and glue: I put on some gloves and added water to the powder and mixed it with my hands until it felt like pliable clay. Then I climbed up a ladder until my head was level with the roofline, and I pressed the blob of putty into the trim hole. While I did this, I was trembling, because not only am I afraid of heights, but the wasps were writhing in a mass very close by: I could have reached out and touched them without even stretching my arm. 

Once the hole was plugged, I descended the ladder swiftly and shakily. Then I went on a bike ride.

Later that night, I baked a dessert called “apple crisp,” which can be eaten with ice cream; and I also made chocolate-chip cookies. (I did not ever return to look at my patchwork of the house’s trim, but I hope that the putty solidified and is securely holding.)