Critters

I must confess that it’s not just flowers and birds that are to be found in greater extravagance down here. I have also already had encounters with a much larger number of bugglies than I ever did in Chicago. True, we had the occasionally scurrying roach or rodent in the Elaine Place apartment and plenty of little spiders but at least they all knew their place and were mildly embarrassed to be caught. They didn’t saunter around snickering amongst themselves about the pale new girl in the neighborhood and making snide personal remarks about my weight and housekeeping skills.

In Chicago I never opened my eyes first thing in the morning to the sight of a huge granddaddy roach sitting calmly, high up on the wall right in front of me. I never had to pull multiple ticks off myself in one day either. Or, walking down the sidewalk in the evening, ever saw giant roaches scurry past on some important errand. (Rats, yes, but not roaches!)

Here it seems that either we have constant run ins with said leathery winged things Or a nice man with a big shiny canister comes around every month or so and walks through the kitchen and living room spraying poison… Neither is a perfect solution.

Fortunately Dan has taken very well to the role of knight in shining armor and I am not quite so squeamish about the roachies as I first was. Most creepy crawlies don’t bother me that much but there is something so stomach turning about a roach. It’s completely irrational, I confess, but to see one implies to my subconscious that there are Thousands more hiding in the dark all around me and there is nothing I can do to stop them.

I was, however, completely calm tonight as Dan tried to catch a high flying cricket to take it outside. Despite all his efforts we never caught the silly thing. It had legs like little jet packs and made the most astounding leaps. Very differently shaped from the crickets I am used to. It looked something like this one.

And then I found this fat slug in the bathtub as I got in for my shower. How did he get there? I probably don’t want to know. I just calmly got his mug shot and let him go with a stiff warning…