There are only a handful of things that truly terrify me. I'm not talking about things that make me jump or scare me for a moment, then leave my mind. Spiders can surprise me, but then I realize I can smash them and end the problem. My boys being reckless can scare me, and then they escape without a scratch.
Some people are afraid of heights, or swimming, or flying. My top two are mice and snakes.
I had thought mice scared me more than snakes. Let me give you a little background. When I was in college, still living at home, I had two years in a row, a mouse or two in my bedroom that woke me up in the middle of the night. In the roughly 7 years of being married, we had 1 mouse in the house about a year and a half ago. Even months later, I was still watching for turds and other signs of more critters.
Then we had to decide to go and buy a different house this last fall. Out of town, a foreclosure that sat empty for close to a year. Great idea, right? Overall, yes. But the over grown yard and grain bins across the road should have prepared me for uninvited house guests.
Before we moved, I had put out some glue traps, just in case. Moving day came, and we tried to get settled in, despite the unfinished kitchen remodel. Our first morning, I went downstairs to see what Brian and the boys were doing, and noticed one of the traps was missing. Brian didn't know where it had gone, so he did a little searching. The trap had been moved a few feet away from where I had it, and the peanut butter was gone.
This was not going to be an easy battle. It was time for war.
I went the next day and got some of the old-fashion snap traps. We were sitting in the living room that night and heard the ominous sound from the basement. It was the first of six in our first two weeks.
I wasn't going to take any chances, and left a few traps out in the basement. Then one day in January, we got another one. I looked at Brian and said, "If we get any more, the cat is going to come into the house for a few days." He didn't argue. The next night, there was another one. Granted, it was the first week where the temps hit -20 degrees, but that didn't make me feel any better. The traps have been empty since then.
Fast forward to today. I have started to be more comfortable in the basement. I've even ventured down there to ride the exercise bike again without too much worry. I still check the traps as soon as I get downstairs, but it's just habit. I woke up, got my Kindle and ear buds, and went down to ride the bike for a while. After that, I set up my quilt frame and worked on tying a quilt until lunchtime, doing a few loads of laundry in between. I had taken a load out of the dryer, and was moving some clothes from the washer to the dryer when I saw it.
At first, I thought there was a string, maybe a shoe lace tangled up in the floor drain. Then I saw said string move. I couldn't get upstairs fast enough. Forget that the boys were down there watching a movie. I paced back and forth in the kitchen, vocally expressing my discomfort and disgust. Tyler came up and asked what I thought was gross. I didn't want to tell him. I sent Brian a text to find out how soon he would be home, and let him know what I saw. He asked if it was dead. I said *$%# no.
I calmed myself down enough and went back to the basement with my phone. I wanted to document that I wasn't crazy. A few minutes later, I slowly approached the drain and snapped a picture. Tyler was curious enough to look. I sent it to Brian and my cousin, who couldn't believe it. I didn't want to either.
Then I decided to call my mom. She suggested covering the drain, so I took an ice cream pail and made Tyler cover it. It made me feel a little better that at least it wouldn't be able to go anywhere.
It's funny how being scared out of my mind makes me want to clean. Before long, the kitchen was spotless, and all the clean laundry was upstairs. When Brian did get home, the snake was no longer tangled in the cover. He did pour hot water to flush it out, just in case.
I put the bucket back over to make myself feel better. I still need to finish that quilt, but I'm not sure how long it will take to heal the mental scaring from today.
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