Things not to do in a Scary House/Sci Fi Movie

We've got a bit of a project going on these days.  It's going to take a fair chunk of my time, energy and sense of humor. 

My dad passed away some years back, and about six months ago my mom went into memory care.  My parent's house had gotten into a pretty bad state.  In the usual fashion of people struggling to hang in there, and with some extra challenges that need not be delved into for our story.  

Suffice to say there's a mess, and our family has to deal with it.

Now, the first rule of every movie featuring a Scary House is:  DON'T OPEN THAT DOOR!

Jars of pickles, long forgotten.  How long?  I think we helped move my folks into this home 25 years ago.  These jars of pickles made that trip.  How old were they at that time?  Well, there's probably some dates on the jar tops but this is as close as I got.  You'll notice that some of the jars are mostly empty.  To switch genres, in every sci fi movie where cryonic preservation chambers are used as a plot device...a few of them fail. 

Here too, some of those jars contain the desiccated, hideous mummies of pickles from the last century.  

Things were actually worse in other parts of the house.  A quarter inch of dust was everywhere.  As areas started to be cleared we of course wanted to vacuum a bit.  One of my brothers was sent to the basement where a vacuum cleaner had been sighted some time ago.  When he dragged it up the stairs I looked behind him.....and saw the corpses of several long dead mice that had fallen out when he moved it!

The vacuum sat in a room for a bit.  I even found the instruction manual.  It boasted that this was "The Machine of Tomorrow, Today". But before we got around to powering it up it became clear from the smell that there were more, probably many more, dead mice inside.

Out the door it got chucked.  Next session we bring in a shop vac and throw the rodent charnel house into the trash...

By the by, this is a "Rainbow" brand vacuum cleaner.  Although in recent years they've apparently been a staple of the sort of door to door salespersons that preferentially prey upon the elderly it is said to be a decent brand.

Out of curiosity I tried to figure out just what model it was, and just how old.

Unclear....might also be 25 years or so.

Ah, The Machine of Tomorrow.  It does look futuristic, and I'm thinking the mice mistook it for a cryonics pod.  Guess they should have watched a few more sci fi movies....