Things that go bump in the night...

Let's see... where do I start?

As I type, there may be something flying around in my husband's office across the hall from my sitting room.  The minute he heard something buzzing in there, he asked me to get the bug spray, which of course was downstairs in the kitchen (it's never right where you need it).  By the time I got down there and back up here, the flying thing had disappeared somewhere in his office..... either in the fan-light or behind a bookcase.  My husband refused to "just spray the whole room till the can is empty" (my suggestion) so he spritzed some of the bug-spray behind a bookcase and kept the door shut. Tomorrow morning, we'll either find a dead winged insect in there, or a bunch of live ones who were invited to a midnight fly-party by the first invader. Needless to say, I won't be the one opening that office door in the morning.

At some point during last night's sleep, I got bit by a spider. I have a huge swollen bubble on the ring finger of my left hand. I'm pretty sure it was a spider because there was a dead black spider on the floor by my side of the bed this morning. I vaguely remember scratching my hand in the middle of the night, so I'm thinking that I must have felt the bite while I was sleeping, and inadvertently slapped the spider from my hand and onto to the floor, killing him in the process. (Bad spider karma, for sure.)  First thing this morning, I took the sheets off the bed and tossed them into the washing machine.  I resisted the urge to make a little map for the next spider, giving directions to my husband's side of the bed.

In the past five days, there have been two little mice caught on glue traps in the utility closet that holds the furnace/air-conditioner units.  The first mouse must have been stuck there for days, and he was barely breathing when I noticed him on the glue trap. Into the trash can he went, poor thing, with me apologizing as I used a long clippy-thing to pick up the trap.  The second little mouse looked like he had just been caught, and my husband was here when I found that one. My husband picked up the glue trap, with the mouse wriggling away and trying to escape, while I cringed in a corner of the kitchen.  Into the car went my husband, with the wriggling mouse and a bottle of nail polish remover.  He drove down the road towards the main highway, got out of the car with the glue trap and the polish remover...... and poured that remover onto the glue trap.  The polish remover softens the glue after a minute or two, which frees the mouse. No doubt, that was one happy mouse. And no doubt, that little mouse will find his way back to our utility closet sooner or later.  (Good mouse karma for my husband.)

Tonight just before I shut out the lights downstairs, I heard something on the porch. I turned on the light and there was a raccoon, looking around for the bowl of Meow Mix that's out there for the cats during the day. (And it's out there sometimes at night when I don't remember to bring it inside.)  When I turned on the light, the raccoon looked up at the kitchen door, squinting his eyes a bit as the light hit him. I opened the door and told him to go away.... which he did. But I've no doubt he came right back when I turned off the light. Tomorrow morning, I'll find the cats' water dish turned upside-down and my husband's garden shoes will have been moved to the other side of the porch.

So here I am.... it is after 1:30 in the morning as I'm typing this.  Tomorrow morning, my husband will ask me how I slept.  When I tell him that my mind was filled with flying insects, biting spiders, glue-trapped mice, and back-porch raccoons, he will tell me that I'm letting my imagination get the best of me.  Pooh to that.