Bats in the Bellfry

I had a different topic planned for today, but life was just too strange to ignore.

So, while at work Sunday afternoon, I received a panicked text from my daughter that there was a black widow spider in the house.  I laughed it off because well, she does share my DNA.  It stands to reason that she too would believe that all black spiders are black widows and all brown spiders are brown recluses.  They are!  I'm sure of it!

Thankfully my husband arrived home before I did and took care of the spider situation because.... It really was a black widow!  A rather large one!  A big black widow spider in our house!  Hanging out, plain as day in the front entry area!  Yikes!

We (meaning Sarah & I) are a little jumpy now and flinching at every shadow.  But, we (meaning Mike) are doing a lot of painting inside the house, some of it near our front door and maybe the black widow came in on a tarp that had been stored out in the garage.  The idea isn't great, but it's better than believing we've been sharing the house with Mrs. Killer Spider for any length of time.

But then things got weirder.

Late that night, I'm hanging out in the living room reading a scary book (Disturb Not the Dream,) and suddenly hear my burly, tough-man husband screaming like a little girl.  

There was a bat flying around the bedroom.

What kind of zoo are we running here??

Bat removal protective gear

And guess who had to get rid of it.  Yep, me.  (In good faith and to not totally emasculate my husband, I did already have shoes on.)  Good thing it wasn't my first bat rodeo and I had the proper protective gear.

As for the scary book, I read Disturb Not the Dream many, many years ago as a teenager.  It terrified me!  If memory serves, it was the first hardback book I ever bought for myself as an 'adult' and it still sits proudly on my favorite books book shelf.  The title recently showed up on my Amazon You Might Like This Book list and since I didn't remember anything about it at all other than shear terror, I decided to read it again.  I'm only a quarter of the way through it and haven't been terrified yet, but I am shocked at how brutal and violent it is.  I imagine the terror won't be too far into my future.

Kroy Sock blanket 

And to throw a little knitting into the story, I've been focused on re-knitting my Kroy Sock blanket instead of working on the beaded cowl.  I really, really want to finish the cowl but I can't read and bead at the same time.