Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Fires and Bats (My Weekend)

We had a couple exciting (I guess) things happen this weekend. Sunday evening my husband and I were standing in our kids' room when I looked out the window and saw dark brown smoke pouring out of our garage.

My husband, who's on the fire department, ran outside. The rat rod he had been welding earlier was on fire. Fortunately he was able to put it out himself with the garden hose. If one of our neighbor's had called the fire department he'd have never lived it down! All I could picture was his pager going off, announcing that a fire had been spotted-at our address!

The following morning, at about a quarter to five, I was woken up by a bat in our room! It was circling above our bed, swooping down at us. I woke up my husband, we jumped out of bed, turned on the light and shut the door (so it couldn't get into the baby's room.) Then we waited for it to land.

We waited for it to land while we crouched on the floor next to the bed, my husband holding a towel, me holding a pillow. Our two-year-old was asleep in our room and every time it swooped down by her and me I would hold up said pillow to fend it off, (and maybe make some slightly loud, scared noises. You know, just to frighten it off.)

Eventually it landed in my closet. My husband grabbed at it with the towel, it started squealing, he chucked the towel, three hangers and one of my shirts out the window.

Except it turned out he didn't have the bat.

It started swooping around the room again. I was swinging a towel this time, trying to get it to fly out the window. Eventually I hit it with the towel and it fell. I threw the towel over it, again it started squealing. I scooped it up and threw towel and bat out the window. (I then went outside and shook out the towel to make sure it had gotten loose, and brought everything back in the house.)

During all of this, my two-year-old never even moved. (Or, as my sister said, "she never batted an eye." Ha ha.)

16 comments:

  1. what an experience. you can probably use it in a story. :)

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  2. Those are both funny stories! Throwing out the towel without the bat...

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  3. Oh my goodness! What a weekend! I giggled hard at the bat story!

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  4. Oh geez. THAT is inspiration for a future MS :)

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  5. I agree with the others, definitely great inspiration for a future MS. Wild animals, especially those that can fly, make me nervous.

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  6. I can empathise with your 2 year old not moving - I'm pretty similar!

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  7. Ha ha! When I was a kid we had so many bats in our house that we called the nightly ritual of getting them out the "Frequent Flier Program"

    We use sheets to trap them right out of the air, something to keep in mind if you have some again.

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  8. Well since the fire episode turned out okay, I don't feel bad saying that's funny. I bet he wouldn't live it down, especially cause it appears it's his fault!

    Don't have bat problems here. Luckily!

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  9. That's batty! (Sorry...couldn't resist!)

    :)

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  10. Thanks everybody! Hopefully I won't need any advice on more ways to catch them, though! As far as WIPs, the bat actually gave me an idea for a picture book. ;)

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  11. If firemen are anything like the cops my husband works with, those guys would never have let him live that down! I'm glad he was able to put out the fire without anyone catching on.

    Eek! Bats flying around my room would freak me out. I would have grabbed the baby and ran. Can't believe the baby slept through the whole ordeal-

    Sounds like this weekend should be a breeze, compared to last. LOL

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  12. My husband is in search and rescue and it's the exact same way if any of them get lost in the mountains. They'd never hear the end of it. That bat story freaks me out way too much.

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  13. OMG...

    That's exciting...have you determined how the bat got in the house?

    I once tried to put on my robe and a flying squirrel was in the sleeve.

    They are protected so we had to have wildlife people in to catch him!

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  14. Wow, what a weekend! I say you deserve a vacation. :)

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  15. Your story cracked me up! You had quite a weekend! And I'm so impressed with both you and your husband for taking care of both situations! I don't think I could have handled the bat! Hope this weekend is less eventful for you!

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