When I first saw the topic for October, I thought, really? Phobias? But then it is the spooky month and what is spookier than coming face to face with something you fear.
I have two things I fear. Many would say it is irrational, but hey, when you hear my stories, I'm sure, when you quit laughing, you'll see why I have my phobias.
First phobia - Mice. Hear me out. They are disgusting. They can make you very sick.
The first house we lived in as a married couple was infested with mice. My hubby was a truck driver and would be gone for several days at a time. I'd have to set the traps and toss the dead mice when he was gone. I hated it! One night I was sitting up reading. The bedroom was small, almost too small for the bed and the chest of drawers. One drawer didn't shut easily and was open about an inch. I heard a noise and looked up from my book to see a mouse peeking its head out of the drawer. I swung my legs out of the covers and slammed the drawer shut. It stayed that way until my hubby came home, got rid of the mouse and I then washed everything in the chest of drawers.
Then there was the time, same house, I was 8 months pregnant. I was still dressed and bent over to turn on the faucet to the bathtub. A mouse ran up the inside of my pant leg. I screamed, hopped on one leg, and shook the leg with the mouse. Hubby came in, started laughing, and continued, until the mouse flew out of my pant leg, hit the wall, and almost ran up his leg.
And the second house we lived in and rented was also full of mice. Hubby and his friend would watch TV with BB guns and when a mouse ran across the floor, they'd shoot them. Before bed, Hubby would pick them all up and throw them outside.
Every house since, I have filled every hole a mouse could get through. I make sure the house is mouse-proof.
Second phobia- Bats. And it's not even the big nasty-looking vampire and fruit bats. It's the little ones that look like flying mice (see story above).
Growing up, we lived in a two-story farmhouse built in the first decade of the 1900's. The brick chimney from the woodstove in the living room ran through the open upstairs main room, which was where my older brother and I slept. There would occasionally be a bat that made its way into the upstairs by crawling down the outside of the chimney. Later on, that was sealed because a metal pipe for the oil furnace went up through there. But then my parents put a metal roof on and made more entryways for the bats until my mom would find a bat on the back porch or hanging from a curtain nearly every day.
And when my hubby and I visited, we stayed in the upstairs bedroom. You could hear bats flying around at night. One night, I couldn't sleep hearing a bat flapping its wings back and forth over my head. Even with the covers pulled tight so it couldn't touch me. I woke my hubby to catch the bat and get rid of it. He was romping around the room in his underwear with a hat and a shirt trying to catch the bat. When that didn't work, he tried to get out of the room to get a net that was down on the back porch., But every time he opened the door the bat would try to fly out, and I'd scream when he slammed the door and the bat would fly over me. Finally, he tried the hat and shirt again and finally caught the creature, taking it outside. The next morning my parents were curious about the noise they heard in the room above them.
So, there you have it. My phobias. I think I have a good reason for my phobias. What about you? Do you have phobias that are small creatures?
Do I put up bat decorations for Halloween? No!
Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 55 novels, 8 novellas, and short stories of murder mystery, western romance, and action-adventure. All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters.
Website: https://www.patyjager.net
4 comments:
Thanks, Lynn. Yes, the last two houses we've lived in, we built. Our oldest daughter and I spent many hours crawling around sealing all the holes before inside walls were sheetrocked and the flooring was put down.
One of the greatest things in life is having a mouse free home. Our last two are mouse proof and I love it.
Usually I'm pretty much a live-and-let-live kinda person IF the critters including insects stay on their side of the wall i.e. outside. Of all the rodents, squirrels and rats (even though they are on their side of the wall) cause me the most problems in terms of property damage.
There was a time Many decades ago when I was feeling particularly connected to the whole wide world when I saw a mouse in my house and asked it to leave. You are all probably laughing hysterically at that sentence. I did it several times thinking it was the same mouse. Needless to say, the mouse did NOT pay attention to my words, moved his or her family in or perhaps just had a family. It was a challenge to get rid of them. On the bright side areas of my house that seldom got scrubbed were squeaky clean!
And I did vow "Never Again" and I've kept to that. No mice, ants, etc. in the house. We do get spiders this time of year and also have a few silverfish from time to time.
Paty- I can totally relate - both flip me out. And I have lived in houses with both. I remember when my cat brought in a bat (across my bed) while I slept and left it on my bathroom rug as a kitty present. Thankfully, I put the light on in the middle of the night and didn't step on it. After that, I slept with the windows closed all summer long. After that, NO cooling night breezes for me. One time I sat on our kitchen counter for several hours, waiting for my husband to get home and get rid of the mouse running around the kitchen. UGH
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