Purging and Squirming

The older kids were at school, Indira was asleep, and it was a good time to purge the linen cupboard.

It only has two shelves, but they are incredibly deep. Plenty of room for things to get shoved back there and forgotten. I knew there were things back there I hadn't accessed since we moved in over six years ago. Time to minimize!

I pulled the front row of things from the first shelf, and then reached for the next layer, which was about a third of the way into the cupboard. And something LARGE moved. Scurried. With many long and spiky legs. Under a fold of towel.

I froze in place and considered my options. The winner: gently close the cupboard door and call Phil at work. Twenty minute later, Phil was slowly pulling out towels and sheets while I held a bare-bulb lamp toward the cupboard like a sword. I knew a tarantula or a giant millipede would be emerging soon. Hopefully dead. With every item Phil pulled out and shook, my anticipation -- and heart rate -- increased.

Turns out it was only a cockroach. Disgusting and incredibly large, but just a cockroach. Phil trapped it in a tupperware and took it outside where he splattered it on the driveway.

And I disinfected the cupboard. Phil duct-taped the trap door in the back of the cupboard where the little bastard probably got in. And I re-stocked it with freshly-laundered linens, about 1/3 of what had been in there.

Purging complete. But squirminess not quite gone yet.