After discovering a black widow in some of the stuff I
stored in the spooky garage a few days ago, I had to haul everything out onto
the driveway and sort through it to see just how many friends it had in there. Armed with spider specific Raid, plastic goggles (blowback is a problem, ok), a broom that isn't mine and a pair of heavy duty gloves from the Uhaul store, I steeled myself and hauled my webby shit out into the drive way. It took me two boxes to find my target.
Now, I've been told by several people that we don't have
black widows here. Well, I don't know what to tell you, but them there spiders
are black widows. There were a lot of regular brown/black/gross house spiders
that everyone has everywhere on the face of the earth (and probably Mars, I
don't know. I'm not a science guy) that happen to blend in perfectly with the
dried up pine needles that have somehow made it into the garage so I don’t know
what is spider and what is weirdly moving pine needle in there too, but these
were stand-outs. Maybe it’s a thing
like opossums where they didn’t used to live here but settlers from elsewhere
brought them over as a food source or
something. Whatever it is, they’re here,
they’re in my shit and Portlanders better get used to it.
Normally, I don’t
kill spiders, I escort them off the premises. They’re oogly and terrible, but I
feel like if I kill them, their bereaved friends and family will seek
revenge. But when they’re oogly and notoriously poisonous… nope.
Worst part-WORST PART:
They chose my tub of costumes to be on/in/around/near.
I didn’t have very much stuff in the garage,
but I did have my tubs of fabric and the costumes I’ve made. I went through the
fabric one before I even found the first spider several days ago, but it was
closer to the front of the garage and I went through it semi-frequently. The
costume tub is a different story. The damn thing was on the outside of the tub
with it’s actual 10,000 babies, and I am not risking it. I’d have to douse it
in Raid spray, so either way, the contents was going to get ruined. While the costumes are not entirely irreplaceable
like the family heirlooms the ants built a nest in earlier this year, a lot of
hours went into them all, and I’m very sad to have to get rid of them.
The junk guys come tomorrow morning early to truck stuff
away, which is the last big thing in the move aside from finishing up packing.
I only have a few things left, and it’s mostly the left-over stuff that you
leave until the last minute anyway. I’m very excited to finally be out of this
shithole! I hope it goes smoothly now that the landlord situation has been resolved (I HOPE). I think the next hurdle is going to be dealing with how the house is going to be cleaned. My roommate is refusing to clean it herself, and instead has insisted on hiring someone. I'm not interested in paying for that at all, but it has been made clear that there will be no negotiation.
I've decided to let it slide, since I no longer wish to have to deal with her after I leave, so if that means cutting her a check to get her to go away, now that I am (sort of ) able to financially do that, so be it. I've been cleaning as I pack, and because she insisted on using clay cat litter, there is a fine layer of gray dust everywhere. I scrubbed the cabinets, fridge and back door where the litter box was located, and it's almost impossible to get it all off. And this is with me trying to clean the house regularly! This is why you don't have animals in a house that doesn't allow pets.
No comments:
Post a Comment