I love to sit in my husband's lazy-boy with my laptop and write. It is especially nice when all the kids I babysit are down for their naps and the house is quiet. But this week hasn't been so peaceful. As I sat in the chair on Monday, I noticed a noise coming from above me.
Mice came to mind first. We have had the pesky creatures before, and as much as I dislike them, I know how to handle them. But the sound didn't match the usual mouse noise. I sat in my chair and listened closer. My typing stopped and I held my breath. The steady sound made me think of hundreds of fingernails tapping the ceiling above me. I tried to imagine what it might be, but the answers I came up with didn't make me feel any better. I started to feel like I might be in a Stephen King novel and something was sure to burst through the ceiling at any moment. I don't enjoy horror novels especially when they involve me.
So I did what any logical person would do. I sent my husband into the attic to find the answer. I sent him up because I am a chicken and don't like strange noises or the ladder that would take me up into the attic to explore. He came down several minutes later, sneezing from the insulation and saying there wasn't anything there. We both stood in the corner by the chair and listened to the odd sound again. He couldn't deny I was hearing anything, but we couldn't figure out where the sound was really coming from.
I told him my suspicion that wasps were somehow up there and he agreed that it made the most sense. We just couldn't figure out exactly where they were. He went up in the attic again and searched farther and deeper but still couldn't find them. I got the stethoscope out and he used it to listen against the ceiling and the wall. He didn't hear anything. Finally he went outside and found the opening where they are getting in. He hung a wasp trap and now we wait to see what happens.
Meanwhile, I am sitting on the chair, typing and listening to crawly things above me and wondering will the trap get them first or will they finally work their way into the house for our own horror movie. You can guess what my imagination is telling me.
8 comments:
This reminds me of a time in Florida when a crab got inside one of our walls. It made the weirdest creepy scratchy noise that conjured up every urban legend story of "the hook" or other dread inducing worry you could imagine late at night.
I hope you trap those things. Wasps are nasty.
Great exercise for your imagination!
Oh, I hope you're able to get it all taken care of soon!
Not nice. We stayed in a little beach hut-cum-shed-cum-house thing in Hawaii, and Geckos came out in the middle of the night, scampering and eeeking at each other. Hard not to imagine them dropping off the ceiling onto me for a laugh. That would be their laughter, not mine.
If nothing else, winter will be here soon and slow the little critters down.
Ugh! Oh my goodness, I'm just shuddering at the thought! Hope you find the problem soon and it has absolutely NOTHING to do with a Stephen King novel.
Memories of the Birds comes to mind....
Your entry paints a pretty good picture in my mind and gives me a good shutter. Our sweet imaginations!...and sometimes not so sweet!
And after being told that wasps eat wood products, I am even more filled with dread. I can't imagine the day they eat through the walls :)
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