I have an intense fear of all things creepy-crawly.  I can sort-of handle flies and ants, but only if they stay away from me.  I don’t mind it if a spider stays motionless on his web.  But pretty much if the thing is moving or disgusting, I don’t want to see it or know it’s around.

I do have a knack for convincing myself that the things I fear don’t exist unless I see them, and even creating elaborate rules for when they will and won’t appear.  For instance, in my last job I had a basement office in the movie theater building in our town.  I found evidence that a mouse had been on my desk (little tiny teeth marks on some candy) one day.  Well, I concocted a ruse for myself that the mice only came into my office in search of food on the one night that the theater was closed – Monday (because there wouldn’t be any popcorn in the theater).  And since the not-for-profit where I worked was closed on Tuesdays, I would never have to fear seeing a mouse during my working hours.  Ok, I know it’s lame, but it worked for me.  Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to sit still and get anything done.

Our newish house has all kinds of pest issues.  We have had mice in the attic, spiders in the basement, and snakes in the yard.  I could deal with the snakes in the yard ok, I didn’t like it but I dealt with it.  But this past week my husband discovered a snake in the stairwell leading down to the basement.  YUCK!!!!!

It doesn’t help that my husband, normally my hero with the things that scare me, is also afraid of snakes.  My dad was at our house, and took the thing out with a pair of barbecue tongs (which I put into the dishwasher immediately after).  The “snake” guy from our exterminator company came to the house this morning, and he is pretty sure the snake came in through our garage, when we left the door open.  I HOPE that is the case, rather than it coming in through some hole.  Then, after the snake guy left, we got ready for work and discovered yet ANOTHER snake in the driveway.  Travis killed that one.

I keep telling myself (and him) that it isn’t possible to move so soon after buying this house.  We haven’t even been in it a year!  At the same time, I think I would rather not live with knowing there are snakes all around us.  We will be plugging up every possible hole with steel wool and cutting back plants around the house (which I don’t want to do, simply because I might run into yet another snake in the process).  Someone remind me why I wanted to buy a house?