queerbychoice (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
queerbychoice) wrote2002-09-11 12:20 am
queerbychoice) wrote2002-09-11 12:20 am
"Terror"
Just now, I attempted to go to bed.
This attempt was promptly interfered with by an alarming noise from behind my blinds.
Soon, I was sitting straight up in bed, staring intently at my blinds, trying to figure out what kind of monstrous huge bug was thrashing around behind them. A moth? A cranefly? I stared raptly for at least ten minutes, afraid to look behind the blinds for fear of letting something horrible escape into the middle of the room. At one point I watched the shadow of it crawl up the other side of my blinds halfway to the ceiling before crashing back down onto the windowsill, still out of sight.
Something about me: I'm rarely terrified of bugs if I know what kind I'm dealing with. But when I don't know, it's an entirely different matter.
I had the lights off all this time. I feared to turn them on because if it was a light-seeking bug that had been drawn to the window in search of light then turning on lights indoors might draw it out into the middle of the room. But anyway, all at once the THING toppled out through the lower blinds onto the windowsill, about six inches from my face. Since the lights wer off all I could see was that it was dark-colored and it was HUGE. Like, more than an inch long, and a good half-inch across too. I picked up a blanket from my bed and attempted to squash it on the windowsill. I had a feeling I'd missed, but wasn't sure.
I turned on the lights after that. Looked around hesitantly. Didn't see the THING anywhere. Dreaded the thought of what it would look like squashed onto the underside of my pretty ivory-colored blanket, and how very unpleasant the task of removing squashed bug parts from my blanked was going to be.
Tentatively lifted up blanket. Could not find squashed bug parts anywhere. Shook blanket around. No squashed bug parts fell out.
Became suddenly even more disturbed than ever.
Put on shoes. Armed myself with large can of Raid from under kitchen sink. Lifted blinds all the way to the ceiling (forgetting for a moment in my panic the fact that the combination of indoor lights on, blinds open and me clad only in underwear was not a terribly wise one). Dragged bed away from wall. Scrutinized entire floor in a panic.
And THERE it was. A big black cricket. Not such a bad bug, once safely identified. I drowned it with Raid until it stopped wiggling, then put on rubber dishwashing gloves and used a plastic grocery bag to throw away the corpse (because a single layer of just gloves or just grocery bag between me and it was not enough of a buffer for my by then deeply rattled nerves).
It took half an hour for my heart rate to return to normal.
Funny the things that terrify us. Next time, Osama bin Laden should just drop a plane-load of crickets upon an American skyscraper.
This attempt was promptly interfered with by an alarming noise from behind my blinds.
Soon, I was sitting straight up in bed, staring intently at my blinds, trying to figure out what kind of monstrous huge bug was thrashing around behind them. A moth? A cranefly? I stared raptly for at least ten minutes, afraid to look behind the blinds for fear of letting something horrible escape into the middle of the room. At one point I watched the shadow of it crawl up the other side of my blinds halfway to the ceiling before crashing back down onto the windowsill, still out of sight.
Something about me: I'm rarely terrified of bugs if I know what kind I'm dealing with. But when I don't know, it's an entirely different matter.
I had the lights off all this time. I feared to turn them on because if it was a light-seeking bug that had been drawn to the window in search of light then turning on lights indoors might draw it out into the middle of the room. But anyway, all at once the THING toppled out through the lower blinds onto the windowsill, about six inches from my face. Since the lights wer off all I could see was that it was dark-colored and it was HUGE. Like, more than an inch long, and a good half-inch across too. I picked up a blanket from my bed and attempted to squash it on the windowsill. I had a feeling I'd missed, but wasn't sure.
I turned on the lights after that. Looked around hesitantly. Didn't see the THING anywhere. Dreaded the thought of what it would look like squashed onto the underside of my pretty ivory-colored blanket, and how very unpleasant the task of removing squashed bug parts from my blanked was going to be.
Tentatively lifted up blanket. Could not find squashed bug parts anywhere. Shook blanket around. No squashed bug parts fell out.
Became suddenly even more disturbed than ever.
Put on shoes. Armed myself with large can of Raid from under kitchen sink. Lifted blinds all the way to the ceiling (forgetting for a moment in my panic the fact that the combination of indoor lights on, blinds open and me clad only in underwear was not a terribly wise one). Dragged bed away from wall. Scrutinized entire floor in a panic.
And THERE it was. A big black cricket. Not such a bad bug, once safely identified. I drowned it with Raid until it stopped wiggling, then put on rubber dishwashing gloves and used a plastic grocery bag to throw away the corpse (because a single layer of just gloves or just grocery bag between me and it was not enough of a buffer for my by then deeply rattled nerves).
It took half an hour for my heart rate to return to normal.
Funny the things that terrify us. Next time, Osama bin Laden should just drop a plane-load of crickets upon an American skyscraper.
no subject
**shudder**
no subject
in the swimming pool of my high school.
it was during PE class and suddenly ALL
my female classmates began screaming
at the top of their lungs and thrashing
helplessly about. "it's just a cricket,"
i said, and i took it to a nearby bush.
after that, i was a pariah. :D
no subject
Recently, I had to just vacuum up a whole colony of spiders that were setting up camp in one corner of my apartment. I *so* wanted to rescue them all by taking them outside, but I couldn't figure out how to do so with any degree of effectiveness. So off they went into mr/s. vacuum.
I know it may sound silly, but I always think that there's no ultimate reason at all why I am a human and that little critter is a spider (it could have been reversed), so I try to remember that I ought not assume too quickly the privileges given to me as a human. As I said, though, I am a hipocrite sometimes and do extinguish bug lives when liberating them is impossible or impractical. Sorry little dudes!!
By the way, Gayle, I'm listening right now to Bowie's song, "Life on Mars" (it's pretty) :)