Bats in the Belfry

Ok I don’t know how you all feel about bats, but I am not sure I have made up my mind just yet about them. I am going to state up front that I am not afraid of bats, but I am not sure at this point how close of proximity I want to be with bats on a regular basis. Bats, like snakes, are good because they eat bugs and other vermin that we as humans seem to be unfriendly towards. In Nebraska we love anything that eats mosquitoes so I can appreciate anything that helps with that issue, but that doesn’t mean I want to share my bedroom with them. Down here I have seen more bats and frogs in the two weeks that I have been here than I think I do in an entire year back in Omaha. Mostly because at night around here frogs literally climb out of the ground all over the place so that you need to be careful where you are walking in the dark or you might step on one or as I have done a few time kick one without realizing it is there at first. Again they are good because they eat lots of bugs, but that whole idea of sharing my private living space with them is a whole different story. Or as was the case near the end of last week when Lori went into her store room and let out a yell because as she turned the light on there was a pretty good sized frog staring her right in the eyes. Somehow it had found its way into the store room and up on top of her salad spinner 5 ft off the ground. If you figure that one out you are a better investigator than me because I didn’t see any ladder of items that could have facilitated its climb to that height. Or a day or so before when Lori was entering the same store room and ducked as a bat flew out when the light came on. Not to mention that there are ants everywhere. No not the giant red flying ones (or at least not yet) but your normal everyday pest that crawls around in long lines of marching soldiers. Everyone just tells me it is just a part of life that there will be ants around. You keep them at bay as best you can by wiping off every counter and table top several times a day, you have a small bucket with a lid for food items to be tossed into instead of the regular garbage can, and you rinse your dishes off before you set them near the sink to be washed. This as I said only keeps them manageable. Those Tupperware items you think seal well will not always keep the horde of ants out of them. So what do you do when they get into something? You tap on the container a few times and they begin to turn and march back out the same way they entered and within a few moments they will be out and you carry on as if you didn’t know they had ever been in there. And if you happen to see a straggler you pick it out as need be. Yes you may not get them all out, so just consider it added protein in your diet if that happens. Ok so back to the reason for this post the bats. As most of you are aware there is a pool here that I have been extremely grateful for to kill the heat of the day when evening rolls around. Well, as I have mentioned to some of you it gets dark here between 5:30-6 pm every night. So normally when anyone is getting into the pool it is on the darker side of things which also helps to dissipate the heat. But back to the story; well they do not use lights around the pool because as many of you know lights attract bugs, and no one wants bugs so no lights (they also use electricity which here is really expensive) so there is nothing to frighten the bats away from one of the few plentiful water sources in the area. As I have mentioned also it is supposed to be the rainy season here and there has not even been an inch total of rain this entire month for them, so things are getting a bit parched all over. So every night as the bats are out doing their duty eating all the bugs in the area they make runs to get a drink from the pool (unless there is just so much noise that they are scared off but it has to be a lot). They look like little navy fighters shooting the runway on an aircraft carrier as they swoop down in a path that just skims the surface of the water and veer off just before hitting the garage at the end of the pool deck. Or sometimes they do it in reverse, but it is a constant show for several minutes every so often as they get thirsty in the evening heat, which is 86 right now at 9pm. So, as people are swimming or just trying to relax in the pool there is a constant presence of little fighter bats refueling from the pool. And every so often they do not give proper clearance to the people there so sometimes you might look up and see a bat flying right at your face to have them shift away moments before impact. So as I said I have not completely made up my mind about the proximity of the bats to my daily living space. How do I tell the bat the he is violating my personal space bubble ;) . Well enough rambling for the night. Hope you are all doing well, and I ask for your prayers as I have been asked to give another lesson to the youth group this Saturday. I guess my last one was good enough that they want me to do it again. Hopefully I will make use of the previous experience and do better this time. God Bless you all.