there are mices!!
eeeeek!!! a mouse!!!
*calms down after jumping in surprise*
hee. mices are cute. this mouse must've not realized i was in the room, or awake. just now i saw sumthing relatively big (in the context of insects, the usual suspects) move in my peripheral vision so i started looking around wildly in case it was a roach (which btw i'm still totally phobic about), and this little grey mousy blur comes running out of the corner and does a flying LEAP over some computer crap on the floor in order to dive behind my storage trunk in what was clearly utter terror. or, ok, at least, utter caution.
once about five years ago i was working at my desk in the den (which is next to my room) in the middle of the night and looked up to find a family of small brown mices, a mother followed by three or four babies, trying to pass unnoticed relatively near me. when i turned my head they all freaked and bolted into a nearby closet, only one of the babies got confused and didn't go in where there was room for it but instead banged into the door, scuttled around freaked-outedly, and hit under a dead leaf which happened to be nearby in the middle of the carpet. i turned my head so its mother would feel safe(r) to come get it and later it was gone.
i have to say that this area's insects make mice far, far less disturbing than they might otherwise be. i can't say i /like/ hearing them in my ceiling, and i feel ambiguous about seeing them (and one of them died in one of the walls a few years ago, which really, really sucked), but hey, they're mammals, and they're harmless. i mean, seriously, in all the years we've had mice (it depends on the year but they're often around), we've never once seen any damage - no droppings, nothing gnawed, no food nibbled on, nothing. i have no idea how this works out, but apparently they're self-subsistent. maybe they figure the house is comfy but they go outside to eat? whatever.
anyway my point is that given that a house in north carolina, at least one which (like this one) is surrounded so closely by bushes and trees, is /going/ to attract animal life (and a /lot/ of it), i would so much fucking rather have mice than cockroaches that i can't even describe it. if only mice could scare off roaches. oh well.
(a couple years ago in utah there were these mice living in the house that used to have scuffles in the ceiling over my head and squeak angrily, keeping me awake. one night in the dark i looked grogilly over at the shelves right next to my head and very dimly saw this mouse looking at me curiously. they do that. also: they're attracted to jill. why?)
*calms down after jumping in surprise*
hee. mices are cute. this mouse must've not realized i was in the room, or awake. just now i saw sumthing relatively big (in the context of insects, the usual suspects) move in my peripheral vision so i started looking around wildly in case it was a roach (which btw i'm still totally phobic about), and this little grey mousy blur comes running out of the corner and does a flying LEAP over some computer crap on the floor in order to dive behind my storage trunk in what was clearly utter terror. or, ok, at least, utter caution.
once about five years ago i was working at my desk in the den (which is next to my room) in the middle of the night and looked up to find a family of small brown mices, a mother followed by three or four babies, trying to pass unnoticed relatively near me. when i turned my head they all freaked and bolted into a nearby closet, only one of the babies got confused and didn't go in where there was room for it but instead banged into the door, scuttled around freaked-outedly, and hit under a dead leaf which happened to be nearby in the middle of the carpet. i turned my head so its mother would feel safe(r) to come get it and later it was gone.
i have to say that this area's insects make mice far, far less disturbing than they might otherwise be. i can't say i /like/ hearing them in my ceiling, and i feel ambiguous about seeing them (and one of them died in one of the walls a few years ago, which really, really sucked), but hey, they're mammals, and they're harmless. i mean, seriously, in all the years we've had mice (it depends on the year but they're often around), we've never once seen any damage - no droppings, nothing gnawed, no food nibbled on, nothing. i have no idea how this works out, but apparently they're self-subsistent. maybe they figure the house is comfy but they go outside to eat? whatever.
anyway my point is that given that a house in north carolina, at least one which (like this one) is surrounded so closely by bushes and trees, is /going/ to attract animal life (and a /lot/ of it), i would so much fucking rather have mice than cockroaches that i can't even describe it. if only mice could scare off roaches. oh well.
(a couple years ago in utah there were these mice living in the house that used to have scuffles in the ceiling over my head and squeak angrily, keeping me awake. one night in the dark i looked grogilly over at the shelves right next to my head and very dimly saw this mouse looking at me curiously. they do that. also: they're attracted to jill. why?)