Last night Vince was sitting in his recliner, and unlike most of the time when he’s in his recliner, he was awake! He jumped up and when Vince moves at a rapid rate of speed, something is dreadfully wrong! There was a scorpion walking along the arm of his recliner. Of course, he fell (the scorpion, not Vince) so I had to grab my black light and find him. He’s dead (the scorpion, not Vince) so we calmed down and things proceeded as normal for the rest of the evening til bed time. I almost always take Speck out and I know . . don’t fuss at me . . but I go out barefooted! I never get off the back porch. Speck is on a leash and he goes right off the edge of the porch. Since I’m a bit under the weather and I’m determined to make it last as long as I can string it out, I asked Vince to take Speck out before we went to bed.
Vince put on his flip flops so at least he wasn’t barefooted. He opened the back door . . said a bad word, shoved Speck back in the house. There was a rattlesnake right there at the back door.
Within one hour, we had a scorpion in the house and a rattlesnake at the back door. You can bet I went through every wrinkle in the sheets and every fold in the quilt on the bed with the black light looking for scorpions. Didn’t find any but I know there are more in the house. Rattlesnakes . . every time I walk outside, I wonder how many see me and I don’t see them. I guess there’s one less to see me now but unfortunately, there are probably way more than I want to think about that are still out there . . watching my toes!
This can be a hard place to live! I’m trying . . bloom where you’re planted . . I keep telling myself that. No rain . . it’s hard to bloom, you know?
Howdy says
LOL I love your clarifications… ‘the scorpion not Vince”… LOL
I miss a lot of things about TX… the sky, the mostly flat horizon, bluebonnets, warmer winters… to name a few…
but the bugs, 100 degree days, and tornadoes – not so much!
Hope you are feeling better each day!
Mary in VA says
You do a wonderful job of blooming there! And no matter where you go, there are always things to surprise us. Here in Va it was a beautiful black widow spider hanging in a web between the cabinet and the toilet. She wasn’t there last night when I brushed my teeth but she was there this morning. I did take a moment to admire her before removing her.
Sherry V. says
Dumb question. . . . is there a reason that you use a black light? Does that cause the scorpions to glow or something?
The only thing I know about using black lights is that they show up where there used to be blood or other bodily fluids! LOL I know, I know, I know. . . .I watch WAAAYYY too many cop shows and too many reality shows about hotels! LOL
Howdy says
yeah they glow… Google – scorpion black light – lots of creepy pics!
Dianne S. says
I would be packing and moving!
Stephani in N. TX says
Kidney stones, a scorpion, and a rattlesnake. Makes for exciting living in TX. Fortunately, we are more urban, meaning a real town, so we don’t see so many of these things. We did get our car detailed and then I had a quilt class for which I had to drive down a not quite-paved TX road so I collected the requisite amount of really fine white dust all over the car. Hoping for rain to wash it off tonight. Take care, Judy, hope you can recover without any further ado. I’m wondering if we don’t see scorpions because we don’t have a black light. Sure hope that’s not the case.
SaraF says
I shuddered just reading this. My husband got stung by a scorpion at a hotel in Phoenix – a nice hotel – a couple of years ago. Then got on an airplane. By the time he got home his hand and arm were numb and he was a little freaked out.
Hope you are healing up from your surgery and getting back to normal.
Jackie says
Once again up go my feet just reading the heading. I’m so glad you clarified who was dead I nearly fell out of my chair while reading. Glad your both ok.
Diana says
I sure am glad you told us who was dead or not !LOL I was cracking up …
Thanks for the laughter I needed that tonite !LOL
amy says
so many times your posts make yoour home sound like such a great place to visit,, this one, not so much! Stay safe!
Helen P says
Judy,
I keep up with your posts, just don’t comment too often but this time I had to.. you make me laugh about Vince’s reactions to things.. but a scorpion does hurt when you get stung! I picked the dish cloth up out of the sink and was rinsing it off when all of a sudden my pinky finger was stinging and burning, when I turned my hand over to look, I saw that booger on the backside of the dish cloth.. yes it died and was washed back down the drain. Keep a bag of frozen peas handy for the swelling .
We have copper heads here and there are supposed to be some timber rattlers but so far they stay in the woods more.. it is so dry that is when they start to come close to the house. We have a nice supply of feral cats and for over 15 yrs I have only seen one copper head but in the last two years I have killed two coral snakes.. I don’t know if having cats will work re: rattlers or not ,, but it has made a difference in how many copper heads are around..
Stay safe, get well, and milk it as long as you can get by with it..
Eileen says
My cousin grows mint by her doors to keep snakes away. Have you heard of that?
Nope, I’d be moving!
Lee says
Hah! You have given me NO reasons for ever wanting to move to Texas! I’m so glad you’re such a good sport and ‘blooming’ though so that we can read all about these um, interesting, moments. Love to drop in – electronically! ;p