What is It About the Knutzs?

For the fourth time since our arrival in Mexico, an unwelcomed quest from the arachnid family paid us a visit. Timing was perfect as usual, about an hour before bed. The scorpions are making their rounds, each time showing themselves in a different location. This time, the location was the wall of my bedroom. Two weeks ago a scorpion visited Madeline's bedroom. Consequently, that room has been abandoned.

Would someone please explain this to me? Lupe shared with me that she has never seen a scorpion in her house. In her humored sort of way, she joked that scorpions like us and aren't we so lucky! Well, aren't they just friendly, welcoming this US family to their country? No, thank you. Why can't the little stingers stay outside in their cozy wood pile?

Last night's visitor was a smaller scorpion. The smaller scorpions really bug me. If it is baby, that might mean there is a whole litter of siblings waiting till big brother declares the coast is clear. Or worse yet, where is mother and father?

I am thankful that scorpions are relatively easy to kill. They just sit on the wall unknowingly as the hammer is coming down. They take their destiny rather well. There was one exception. The scorpion that was found on the ceiling of Madeline's bedroom took off on a dead-run after Mike climbed to the ceiling with his hammer in tow. The ugly varmint torpedoed to the floor and Mike had to chase it down, slamming the hammer multiple times before killing the little buger. Bam, bam, bam! You think smashing a spider is gross?

Every night when I head for bed I feel a tightening of all my muscles. There is something about finding a scorpion in your bedroom. Getting up at night requires all of the lights to be turned on, a thorough scan in all directions and the shaking out of my slippers. The hardest task yet is to fetch a drink of water at night for my parched throat. My need wins out over my fear. This will require me to stick my hand behind my refrigerator to turn on the kitchen light. I have yet to figure out how to communicate to them I'd like them to quit their night job.

I am constantly on duty, inspecting day and night for these creepy crawlers. This may sound silly to you, but ask my family how I handled seeing a daddy long-legged spider in my bathtub as a little girl. Four more rooms, and the scorpions will have successfully greeted the Americans in every single room of this house. Once Lupe moves back into her home at the end of March, she will never have to worry about these litter critters; they would have used up all their appearances.