It’s a lone and dreary world . . .

 

Have you ever seen anything like this????  I have personally killed several of them here in our apartment!!!  And yes, the picture is actual size!  Thinking it was just a big spider the first time I saw one, I got a big wad of toilet paper and went down to grab it.  Ha Ha!  It jumped up and away.  So I tried again, and he jumped again!  Good grief, crazy spider!  So I got a shoe and whacked it!  SUCCESS!  Next time I saw one I went straight for the shoe, and GOT IT first try!  Ed still hadn’t seen one, but told me I needed to leave them alone, since spiders eat other bugs.  Well, he should know that in my world, spiders, or any other bug, are welcome to be outside, but NOT IN MY HOUSE.  So I will keep a shoe handy! It wasn’t long before he finally saw one, and went after it as it hopped under our bed.  He looked and saw it stuck to the underside of the bed! 

Well one night when we were at the neighbors, someone mentioned something about hoppy bugs, and asked if we had seen them.  I was pretty sure I had!  So Ed googled “hoppy bug” and found out that they are not spiders, but camel crickets from the Rhaphidophoridae family.  They like dark places and their legs are sticky so they can hop up and stick on walls, furniture, (and under beds)!  He read that sometimes they have been known to nibble on fabrics, so Ed agreed that they weren’t welcome here.  Well, we saw a couple more, and Ed was successful in the attack using a fly swatter. 

We forgot about them until the other day, when Ed saw one in the hallway to our bedroom.  Out with the fly swatter, but the hoppy bug GOT AWAY!  And we couldn’t find him.  That night we had been in bed about 20 minutes, not quite asleep, when I felt the sheet tickling my arm.  I straightened the sheet, then felt it again.  Fixed the blankets again.  Then remembering the lost hoppy bug, I told Ed I wondered if he was in our bed.  No, couldn’t be.  Trying to go to sleep, but imagining sharing the bed with a hoppy bug, I thought I felt something again, and moved my hand across—and touched something!  I shreaked and threw back the covers and jumped out of bed and turned on the light!  (Yes, Ed woke up)  I searched the bed and the floor, but no sign of a hoppy bug.  Finally getting the courage to get back in bed, I tried once again to go to sleep.  No problem for Ed, but sleep wouldn’t come for me, so I got out of bed, turned a little light on to check for hoppy bugs on the floor, shook out my slippers just in case before putting them on, and went into the kitchen.  I decided if I found a little something to eat, maybe it would break the spell and I could finally go to sleep.  At this point there were only 5 hours of night left!  About 30 minutes later I headed back to the bedroom, and immediately saw this blurry (no contacts in my eyes!) image on the floor in front of our closet.  Without a second thought I pulled off a slipper and whacked the image.  YES!  It had been a hoppy bug, and I GOT him!  Into the toilet he went!  And back into bed for me! 

Sleep did come before too long, but not until I had laid there pondering what had just happened.  Couldn’t help but think about the “lone and dreary world” which Adam and Eve entered when they were cast out of the Garden of Eden.  I was pretty sure that along with the briars and thistles to torment man, there were also things like hoppy bugs!  The lone and dreary world is the world we live in today and it is all part of a loving Heavenly Father’s plan to help us grow, that we might know good from evil, and experience joy in this life.  That by using our agency and choosing to align our will with God’s will, we will be able to abide His presence when we have finished our work on this earth.  Sleep tight!  And don’t dream of hoppy bugs!