Thwarted by a Cockroach

While the whole country has been in a deep freeze, Florida is sort of playing along. I give it a B- for effort, as the heat runs at times, and I sleep in flannel pants. Also, it's the 7th coldest winter on record, which means the lows are in the 30s at night. This should, theoretically, KILL all creepy crawlies outside. I have not seen lizards in awhile, nor have I seen many bugs. There was a mosquito in the car last Saturday, but that had to be a coincidence. Due to the current weather conditions, I have backed off the cockroach offensive a little bit. It's been a couple months since one got inside, the pest control man comes to spray, etc.

So imagine my surprise (horror!) when, at 6:30 this morning, up above the kitchen archway into the dining room I saw.... a cucaracha. A big juicy one. We have ten foot ceilings, and this guy was at least 8 feet off the ground. In other words, out of my reach. If I had been super brave (negative) I would have grabbed the step stool and climbed up and smashed it with a shoe. But a few months ago Michael tried to kill a high on the wall cockroach and it flew at my face, so I was understandably gun-shy.

Since I was not super brave, I decided to be super resourceful. I grabbed the broom and tried to whack the bug off the wall. Theoretically it would either die smashed on the wall or fall to the floor and I would step on it with a shoe. This was not a good idea for two reasons:

1) I missed the bug

2) The broom hit the doorway into the dining room and a big chunk of drywall fell out of the wall

At that point I went upstairs to tell Michael of my insect issue, and to tell him to be ready to tag-team the pest when he got downstairs. Well, of course, when I got back to the kitchen, the bug was gone. I have no clue where he went, but I am on high alert. I open the dishwasher slowly, am not walking around without shoes, have a heavy shoe at the ready to squash it, etc.

Meanwhile, this afternoon I spackled my wall and have applied the dining room paint color (red clay) to the bottom part of the doorway. Once that dries I will apply the kitchen paint color (sand) to the top part. All this work for a damn bug.