This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on August 28, 2008 10:17 AM.
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Interesting night last night. We had a bat in the house. The kids stayed pretty calm, but the Mrs. and I went into, shall we say, a stated of heightened awareness.
She: "Aaarrgh! There's a bird in the house!"
I: "What?"
She: "There's a bird or something flying around in the -- aaarrgh! How did it get in here?"
I, from behind a door that was open just a crack: "I think it's a bat! Open some windows and the doors! Try to get him to fly out!"
She: "I just took my contacts out!"
I: "Well, you better put 'em back in."
After a few minutes of spastic movements on my part (mostly ducking and hiding), the Mrs. finally shooed the poor thing out the back door with a broom.
Geez! A dang bat!
I remember a time years ago when we were visiting the headwaters of the Metolius, and I stopped in the park men's room there for a potty break. I was seated in the stall in a compromising position when under the door came limping an extremely sick bat, which apparently had been roaming around the nearby campground in broad daylight. I screamed bloody murder and, forgoing some of the fundamentals of personal hygiene for the moment, scrambled out of the building. A crowd of onlookers outside thought it was pretty funny.
Bats are pretty decent, except for the rabid ones, and leaving aside their own personal hygiene habits. We used to have them in the house fairly often in central Oregon, and it was occasionally difficult to coax them back out. I don't think they view us much more beneficently than we them.
We had one fly into the screen at an open bedroom window in the middle of the night. It got stuck, but shook itself free before I could get out of bed. But not before freaking out our cats.
The animal kingdom knows which species is responsible for air and water pollution, habitat destruction, endangerment / extinction of species, resource depletion, global warming, and superfund cleanup sites. And they are very, very, angry.
I do sympathize with you, Jack, during the unstoppable invasion of your home and the distress you and your family suffered. Having a wingbat somewhere in the house is like having LIARS on the radio dial: you know its a bloodsucker and rabid infections are deadly to everyone nearby.
"When you are truly serious that you are willing to 'sacrifice' to DO SOMETHING, then BOYCOTT Cable TV. Click that sucker OFF !! It takes so few of us, like 1,000 in the Portland 'market,' or 100,000 in this country, to bankrupt television and its LIARS."
Practice What You Preach.
You are his biggest fan.
Kendall-Jackson, Pinot Noir, California 2013
Beaulieu, Cabernet, Napa Valley 2013
Erath, Pinot Noir, Estate Selection 2012
Abbot's Table, Columbia Valley 2014
Intrinsic, Cabernet 2014
Oyster Bay, Pinot Noir 2010
Occhipinti, SP68 Bianco 2014
Layer Cake, Shiraz 2013
Desert Wind, Ruah 2011
WillaKenzie, Pinot Gris 2014
Abacela, Fiesta Tempranillo 2013
Des Amis, Rose 2014
Dunham, Trautina 2012
RoxyAnn, Claret 2012
Del Ri, Claret 2012
Stoppa, Emilia, Red 2004
Primarius, Pinot Noir 2013
Domaines Bunan, Bandol Rose 2015
Albero, Bobal Rose 2015
Deer Creek, Pinot Gris 2015
Beaulieu, Rutherford Cabernet 2013
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King Estate, Pinot Gris, Backbone 2014
Oberon, Napa Cabernet 2013
Apaltagua, Envero Carmenere Gran Reserva 2013
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Decoy, Cabernet, Sonoma 2013
Marqués de Murrieta, Reserva Rioja 2010
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Abbot's Table, Columbia Valley 2014
Forlorn Hope, St. Laurent, Ost-Intrigen 2013
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Domaine de Durban Muscat 2011
Patricia Green, Estate Pinot Noir 2012
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WillaKenzie, Pinot Gris 2014
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Joseph Carr, Cabernet 2012
Prendo, Pinot Grigio, Vigneti Delle Dolomiti 2014
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Monmousseau, Vouvray 2014
Duriguttti, Malbec 2013
Ruby, Pinot Noir 2012
Castellare, Chianti 2013
Lugana, San Benedetto 2013
Canoe Ridge, Cabernet, Horse Heaven Hills 2011
Arcangelo, Negroamaro Rosato
Vale do Bomfim, Douro 2012
Portuga, Branco 2013
Taylor Fladgate, Late Bottled Vintage Porto 2009
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Pete's Mountain, Elijah's Reserve Cabernet, 2007
Beaulieu, George Latour Cabernet 1998
Januik, Merlot 2011
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Edmunds St. John, Bone-Jolly Gamay Noir 2013
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Rodney Strong, Canernet, Alexander Valley 2011
Erath, Pinot Blanc 2013
Taylor Fladgate, Porto 2007
Portuga, Rose 2013
Domaine Digioia-Royer, Chambolle-Musigny, Vielles Vignes Les Premieres 2008
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Chloe, Pinot Grigio, Valdadige 2013
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St. Francis, Red Splash 2011
Rodney Strong, Canernet, Alexander Valley 2011
Erath, Pinot Blanc 2013
Taylor Fladgate, Porto 2007
Portuga, Rose 2013
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William Golding - Lord of the Flies
Saul Bellow - Mister Sammler's Planet
Phil Stanford - White House Call Girl
John Kaplan & Jon R. Waltz - The Trial of Jack Ruby
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William Faulkner - As I Lay Dying
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Bill Bryson - A Short History of Nearly Everything
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Stephen King - 11/22/63
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Beverly Cleary - A Girl from Yamhill, a Memoir
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Hope Larson - A Wrinkle in Time, the Graphic Novel
Rudyard Kipling - Kim
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Neil Young - Waging Heavy Peace
Mark Bego - Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul (2012 ed.)
Jenny Lawson - Let's Pretend This Never Happened
J.D. Salinger - Franny and Zooey
Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol
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Deborah Eisenberg - Transactions in a Foreign Currency
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Kathryn Lance - Pandora's Genes
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky - The Brothers Karamazov
Jack London - The House of Pride, and Other Tales of Hawaii
Jack Walker - The Extraordinary Rendition of Vincent Dellamaria
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Niccolò Machiavelli - The Prince
Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird
Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus - The Nanny Diaries
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Sharon Creech - Walk Two Moons
Keith Richards - Life
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Mark Herrmann - The Curmudgeon's Guide to Practicing Law
Barry Glassner - The Gospel of Food
Phil Stanford - The Peyton-Allan Files
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Donald Miller - A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
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Charles Larson - The Portland Murders
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Comments (12)
Jack, are you afraid of vampires?
Posted by John Benton | August 28, 2008 10:36 AM
Bats are pretty decent, except for the rabid ones, and leaving aside their own personal hygiene habits. We used to have them in the house fairly often in central Oregon, and it was occasionally difficult to coax them back out. I don't think they view us much more beneficently than we them.
Posted by Allan L. | August 28, 2008 10:41 AM
(Most) Bats eat tons of mosquitos, and the like. The way whales eat krill and plankton.
Bats are about innocuous. Inside the house, though, is not innocuous. Be glad I guess there's no belfry ;-)
Posted by Tenskwatawa | August 28, 2008 10:47 AM
I think the reaction you described is the most common reaction to a bat in the house in the history of man.
Regarding the bat in the toilet stall, what better place to have the **** scared out of you?
Posted by none | August 28, 2008 11:02 AM
Jack, it probably mistook you for Heath Ledger.
Posted by Bark Munster | August 28, 2008 11:27 AM
We had one fly into the screen at an open bedroom window in the middle of the night. It got stuck, but shook itself free before I could get out of bed. But not before freaking out our cats.
Posted by Jon | August 28, 2008 12:03 PM
I'm convinced that this is not an isolated incident.
The animal kingdom knows which species is responsible for air and water pollution, habitat destruction, endangerment / extinction of species, resource depletion, global warming, and superfund cleanup sites. And they are very, very, angry.
Posted by John Rettig | August 28, 2008 12:37 PM
Re: the Metolius incident: a true definition of the term 'batshit crazy'?
Posted by Cosmic Charlie | August 28, 2008 1:34 PM
I do sympathize with you, Jack, during the unstoppable invasion of your home and the distress you and your family suffered. Having a wingbat somewhere in the house is like having LIARS on the radio dial: you know its a bloodsucker and rabid infections are deadly to everyone nearby.
Posted by Tenskwatawa | August 28, 2008 2:40 PM
"When you are truly serious that you are willing to 'sacrifice' to DO SOMETHING, then BOYCOTT Cable TV. Click that sucker OFF !! It takes so few of us, like 1,000 in the Portland 'market,' or 100,000 in this country, to bankrupt television and its LIARS."
Practice What You Preach.
You are his biggest fan.
Posted by meg | August 28, 2008 3:54 PM
I count the advertisers. And then call them to say their number's up.
Posted by Tenskwatawa | August 28, 2008 11:05 PM
Portal to mythical Mayan underworld found in Mexico, By Miguel Angel Gutierrez, MEXICO CITY (Reuters), Aug 15, 2008
According to an ancient Mayan scripture, the Popol Vuh, the route was filled with ... houses shrouded in darkness or swarming with shrieking bats ....
Posted by Tenskwatawa | August 29, 2008 12:05 AM