Roach laps

[WARNING: This post is gross]

I feel like the rhythms of my life here are marked by waves of gross creepy-crawly assaults: most recently, after finally figuring out how to end the swarms of ants that would invade if food was on the counter for more than 10 seconds (ant traps at their highway intersections), huge slugs have been entering the house, sometimes as many as 10 a day. A line of table salt at the doors and windows has helped stem the tide, though it isn't completely gone. Well, the year cycles around, and now I am back to the insects I first fought when I moved in here. I saw my first moth in 10 months the other day, and the big roaches are back. There was one running laps around the walls of my bedroom today, high up out of reach. Gross and funny in equal measure (does he know that he is retracing steps?) He finally started to climb down the wall and met a disgusting death doing battle with my shoe. Bright blue guts smeared on my wall. Arms still moving after disembowelment, but hopefully now truly dead after being crunched along several axes with a paper towel. Fortunately, I am a smarter defender of the castle than I was last year, and will crack out a fresh set of roach traps today. Woolens will go back in their plastic casings too.