{"id":1017,"date":"2010-02-22T10:50:13","date_gmt":"2010-02-22T17:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/?p=1017"},"modified":"2010-02-22T10:50:13","modified_gmt":"2010-02-22T17:50:13","slug":"it-was-on-the-towel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/?p=1017","title":{"rendered":"It was on the towel!"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Carolina was a lovely little state to live in.\u00a0\u00a0 We were there about a year and it was there I fell in love with the color Green and realized that I’d never experienced it living in Los Angeles.\u00a0 For all our lawns & trees, it is a desert and the greenery is manufactured and always has a gray\/brown desert tint to it.\u00a0\u00a0 If it wasn’t for the fact I love this town and the shear numbers of men<\/span> people, I’d move to the other side of the country.
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

But there is another thing that North Carolina had which was a new experience for me.\u00a0 Bugs.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

It has Fire Ants first off.\u00a0 Which I’d experienced a bit in Texas but when we were in North Carolina we were new parents of a toddling 1 year old.. who got to meet them rather intimately.\u00a0 The back porch of our apartment was open to this large field between several properties and the spouse was letting our son wander about.\u00a0 He was watching him from a chair and leafing through a magazine.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

We’d seen some sign of Fire Ants here and there but not that close to our place.\u00a0 From my vantage in the kitchen I watched as my little one walked around on unsteady legs.\u00a0 Then watched him bend down.\u00a0 Then watched him abruptly sit down and howl.\u00a0 I watched my spouse bolt out of his chair and scoop up our son to run back to the house.\u00a0 I grabbed the big bottle of white vinegar and met him on the porch.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

He stripped our screaming son while I poured vinegar over the poor kid who had about 20 or so Fire Ant bites on his little legs and arms.\u00a0 (The vinegar neutralizes the bite.)\u00a0 My spouse had about 10 on his arms from carrying and stripping him.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Our son survived and the experience never seemed to stop him from running all over that back area.\u00a0\u00a0 I liked the color “green” a little less, although it did get my spouse more vigilant about doing something about any Fire Ant mounds he saw.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

And I’ll never forget the day I met a Water Bug.\u00a0 I’d just finished a shower and pulled the towel from the rack to dry myself.\u00a0 I heard the thunk of something landing in the tub and looked down to see a big, dark blob.\u00a0 I’m very nearsighted without my glasses but my instincts didn’t need clarity to act!\u00a0 I managed to do a full body shudder AND leap out of the tub simultaneously, without screaming.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Once I\u00a0 had my glasses on I peered into the tub to see what looked like the hugest cockroach I’d ever seen.\u00a0 It was at least 3 inches long and fat!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I was casually informed by my spouse that it was “just a water bug”.\u00a0 But my response was, “It was on the Towel!”<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Had I been a drinkin woman back then I’m sure I’d have gone for a slug of something to stop the “ick” shudders.\u00a0 Instead I settled for\u00a0 making a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough <\/span>cookies! <\/span>To each his own comfort! <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

But now when I see a bug there’s a little part of me saying, “Hell, that’s just a little thing.” and another part of me say, “At least you’re wearing clothing!” <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I’m a downright Super Hero when confronting bugs with Shoes on!
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

North Carolina was a lovely little state to live in.\u00a0\u00a0 We were there about a year and it was there I fell in love with the color Green and realized that I’d never experienced it living in Los Angeles.\u00a0 For … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-just-ramblings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1017"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1020,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017\/revisions\/1020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}