Breaking Point

Today I told a baby spider to go to hell. I feel bad about that. This is out of my character for two reasons: I am a great respecter of babies - even creepy ones - and, I rarely admit to using that kind of language. I realized afterward that I had reached my breaking point.

It started when we first visited Gainesville and everyone kept encouraging us to go see some gators at Lake Alice. So, we did go to Lake Alice but we didn't see any alligators. The unseen threat is far more stressful than the lazing threat asleep at the edge of the water. I'm not "afraid" of gators, per se, but they do in fact kill from time to time. So, threat number one.

Then a couple of months ago, before we moved, I saw an article that said armadillos can carry a leprosy virus. Well, there are lots of armadillos in Gainesville (mostly they are dead on the roadside from what I've seen). Leprosy from armadillos, threat number two.

On the way to Gainesville we stayed in several hotels. While I used to thoroughly enjoy hotel stays I now only partly enjoy them because I've read/heard several sources that say bed bugs are sometimes in hotel rooms and you can easily transport them to your home after staying in a hotel. So, once we actually moved into our home I was on the lookout for stowaway bed bugs now living in our home. I saw lots of bugs, fortunately none of them were the "bed" variety, but it was still on my mind. Threat number three (in case you've lost count - 'cuz I know I'm rambling here).

Then the bug guy gave me a big lecture on termites ("not if, but when" blah, blah, blah), the moving van driver told me he saw a four foot snake next to my yard, the neighbor girl confirmed the snake threat and added that she had personally seen two coral snakes ("red next to yellow, kill a fellow" blah, blah, blah), our friend's son got a chigger in his arm and a wolf spider - a really big one - crawled out of my garbage bin while I was throwing stuff away, jumped off the bin and onto the garage floor. He crawled away out of sight which wouldn't be a really big deal except that I was bare foot. That's threat four, five... anyway, you get the point.

It's not that Florida has more threatening elements than any other place I've lived, it's just the initial discovery of all the threatening elements that can bring a new resident to his or her breaking point. I'm usually pretty good about spiders - in fact, I like to catch them and show them to my kids just so I can get "cool mom" points - but I feel like the spiders are just being too aggressive here. There are boundaries that should be respected! Live and let live... just live on the OUTSIDE of my space. Okay? Not so hard.

So, I'd like a offer an official apology to the baby spider I condemned to a fiery death earlier. I should have just squished it with my big toe like I usually do.