Monday morning I woke up at 6:20am and kept asking myself, “Can this be right?” My mind was having trouble wrapping around the idea that I was supposed to be getting out of bed and it was dark outside. Those two things happening. At the same time. Ever so slowly we arrived there, my mind and I. And we went to work.
After finding a horrible, ugly spider in the basement shower drain of the second house I cleaned that morning, I decided something has to change. It may involve conquering my fear of spiders or it may involve giving up cleaning altogether. I’m not sure which is the more realistic plan. As I ponder this, I ask myself, “Am I on Dirty Jobs?” because it feels like it.
That nasty episode was forgotten, however, as I rode with my parents and sisters to Nebraska City. I really love this tradition which involves whispering at the Whispering Wall, playing on a kids merry-go-round, walking around the outside of a huge old house I wish I owned, and lamenting over the fact that they don’t use that sweet old machine to sort apples anymore.
We were piling into the car to go home when we heard the crunch of aluminum. Across the parking lot an elderly lady in a purple velvet jumpsuit was getting out of her car, the left front of which was crumpled against a jeep which had been pushed up onto the curb. Dad crossed the lot to comfort the distraught woman. The rest of us watched and guessed what could have possibly happened to make this woman hit a unmoving car that was parked in the lot. After the owner of the jeep arrived, Dad got back in the car and said, “Well, people, that’s why you don’t drive with your windows down.” Which I thought was an odd conclusion to draw. I thought it would be more along the lines of “Well, people, that’s why you don’t drive in parking lots.” or something along those lines. It made more sense when I found out what happened. A wasp had flown into the open window of the lady’s car and being deathly afraid of wasps, she panicked. I feel for her. I am, you may recall, deathly afraid of spiders. I just hope one never flies into my open window.
