It started after I checked Facebook this morning. She was emptying the dishwasher and I joined her in putting things away. Cheerily, I thought, I began reporting on various recent status updates on Facebook:
Me: Margo posted a lovely photo from the waterside on Key West. Phoebe keeps having nightmares about spiders.
She: Phoebe’s having nightmares about spies? [This is such a typical hard-of-hearing interchange between two seniors, you wouldn’t believe it.]
Me: Not spies, SPI-DERS. That’s one thing I love about Virginia. We don’t have many bu--
She: Don’t even say the bug word! Stop! Right now!
Me: Well, we do have nasty-looking crickets. I always thought crickets were cute little guys named Jiminy who hung out on the hearth.
She: Stop talking about it! (Hurries from room.) (Calls to me over shoulder:) I mean it! Next thing you know, we’ll have some giant hideous critter stalking us in the hall!
Peace was restored later in the day:
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I'm in the blog! Sorry, Shelia, to creep you out with my Jungian spiders, though. I'll try not to let it happen again. Besides, spies would be much cooler.
ReplyDeleteI know just the crickets you're talking about---camel crickets. They really are creepy looking---so huge, with that weird hump and those spidery legs. Somebody said once that they look like a grasshopper mated with a spider. *Shudder* And don't tell Sheila, but Tom said one bit him once...
ReplyDeleteHahhaaaaa....
ReplyDeleteI keep hearing the song "itsy bitsy spider" running over and over in my head....
Spiders, oh how I hate them! Luckily we don't have many of those where we are living now. And crickets? No, never ever indoors, and not many outdoors either. I don't think they like our climate. But we do have other bugs. A couple of months ago I met a little fellow flying around in our kitchen. Not a fly, not a mosquito, don't know what his family name might have been. It was just at the beginning of winter, and it was getting cold outside. So, being a big animal lover (!), I said; "Hello, you little guy, do you want to live in here with us this winter?" Obviously he did. A couple of weeks later I met him again. And then again. And again. Hey, he's not alone--he brought his whole family! Yes, even his very remote cousins. I soon found out where they lived. I found out when I was going to bake bread. In my groceries! We had to throw away every kind of grain, rice, pasta, flour that we had, and then some, just to be on the safe side! I will never again be so quick to offer room and board!
ReplyDeleteYour cat picture at the top of your blog and the photo of you are very well linked! Both look utterly content.
ReplyDeleteI could tell bug stories for hours, and y'all probably can, too. Fran, the photo at the bottom of this post is actually Sheila, not me, and Billy. But you are right about the content part. Everyone in this house is good at taking a napper.
ReplyDeletePhoebe made it into the blog! But I like the ending best. :-)
ReplyDelete