Losing the battle

     There are many things that I love about Spring. I love the beautiful things like blooming trees and colorful flowers. I love the warmth as long as it isn't stupid hot, heat belongs to summer. I love Cadbury mini eggs and I can only find them around Easter which coincidentally occurs in Spring. I love Spring break , sleeping late and having all day everyday with my children to play. I am not a Spring hater BUT, there are things about this time of the year that I could do without.
     Cara and I both have seasonal allergies and from now til summer we are both miserable. Mine are so far controlled by over the counter meds and up til now Cara's has been too. This allergy season seems to be particularly brutal and Cara has just been put on Singulair. Those beautiful trees and flowers come at a price , literally and figuratively.
     Every Spring we battle ants. It doesn't matter how dilligent I am about wiping counters, sweeping and mopping, and not leaving food out, those stinking little pests invade my home and drive me loony. Last year I broke down and paid for an exterminator only to find that it made the matter worse instead of better. I have tried everything from store bought baits to natural stuff to no avail.I always breakdown and end up just spraying the heck out of them and killing as many as I can a couple of times a day. No matter what I do, I am losing the battle.
     Earlier this week we had a more disturbing battle . One night after everything was quiet Eric and I heard something in the closet.Upon investigation Eric found that something had been into the dog food. Suspecting a mouse I set out a glue trap baited with dog food the next night.Around midnight I awoke to some serious noise coming from the closet. I woke Eric up so he could put the little critter out of his misery. This is where it gets exciting... Eric opens the closet and instructs me to find a BB gun . Its not a simple little mouse. Its a rat ! Its a rat and his back end is glued to the trap but his front end isn't so he is just flopping around trying to get off the trap. I bring him a gun and flashlight and must run back downstairs to relieve my bladder. On my way back up the steps I pause when I hear the horrendous squealing that this creature is emitting everytime Eric pumps a BB into his body. Eric leaves his post at the closet door to tell me to bring him a set of grabbers only to walk back and find that the rat has escaped ! Eric decides that he thinks that he might know where this nasty creature is coming in at. So for the next 30 to 45 minutes I stand outside in my pjs holding a flashlight while Eric shovels dirt to fill in holes outside the back door.
     This rat didn't run away unscathed. He left plenty of DNA on the glue trap as well as having a belly full of BBs. I bought some more effecient traps and we now have two traps laying in my closet floor , both of which have been left untouched for the last two nights. Either the injured rat ran off only to die or he had such a harrowing experience that he decided that dog food just isn't worth it. There is an interesting side story...we have become very observant of the space outside that Eric was working on. Yesterday Eric spotted a black snake hanging out up against the house. I am willing to leave him be as long as he stays out of my house. He wiggles his way in and he will be a very dead snake.
     Between the allergies and the unwelcome critters , Spring is not my favorite time of the year .