I'm really, really, really trying to calm myself down and thought trying to make light of the situation might help...
I was dutifully downstairs working out (happened to be on the treadmill). Keep in mind, I really really really hate hate HATE working out, but I was doing it anyway. Something caught my eye. I looked up and there, on one of the crossbeams was a MOUSE!!!!!! Scurrying along the entire length of the beam!
I went into absolute HYSTERICS. I hate animals almost as much as I hate exercise! I jumped off the treadmill in mid-stride and ran upstairs. Unfortunately for me, the treadmill is still running. As is the fan. As is the TV. And my cellphone is still down there. And I'm terrified to go back to turn everything off.
I stood in the kitchen and screamed and shook for at least 10 minutes, mostly because I'm terrified to go back downstairs.
I finally calmed down enough to place a call to a pest control person (first one I found in the Yellow Pages) and they're sending someone over within the half hour to at least go check it out so I can turn everything off.
I'm waiting for him now. I'm STILL shaking.
So, do you think I can at least get a "calories burnt" entry in my Fitday for this?
Oh, and by the way, this is going to do absolutely NOTHING for getting me to go back to exercising. ((sigh))
It's been 40 minutes or so. I just called the pest company again. Turns out my caller ID showed someone else's ID (I guess it was an existing customer), so she sent the guy there...
She's checking now to see if she can get someone here, to my house...
Oh Lena, I feel your pain. A couple of weeks ago, there were two live mice trapped on one of those horrible sticky traps running in different directions across the kitchen counter. I was in hysterics for half an hour. I had to call my mother, who was in California, to ask her to call her boyfriend who was asleep and send him over to retrieve the mice. I was crying, screaming . . . the works.
Well, I'm trying to approximate the calories used in hyseterics . . . so, standing and singing (screaming is like singing) is 20 calories for ten minutes. Unfortunately, I can't find anything for shaking . . . I'm sure it's a good deal more than just standing and screaming . . .
I am sorry you have a mouse in you house....lol I know how you feel about them I would feel the same way....but....I have to say this is the best thing I have heard all day I sat here with tears in my eyes reading your post. I dont mean to make fun of your story....I would say YES to the fitday put something up there for it......You have made my day!!!!! lol
Thanks, all! Just being here and sharing this is helping me not freak out... as much Thanks for your support to help me get through this!
DH just called in (he's out of town and often calls in at lunch to say Hi), so he stayed on the phone while I went downstairs to turn everything off and retrieve my cell. Actually, I took the phone down with me, yammering "I hate this, I hate this, I hate this!!!"
RAN back upstairs and slammed the door shut. Then put coats over the little gap under the door. Just in case. And got another short case of the shakes.
The pest lady called to say she has a guy on the way to check things out. They've definitely won any future business from me!
Ok, calming down again... ((deep breath...)). I can get through this...
(but will she EVAH go down there to exercise again???)
OMG I can so identify with you. I would rather see a 20 ft. long anaconda .....or a rabid pack of wolves......in the house than see a mouse.
Someone here in the office reported they thought they saw a mouse in the kitchen about three weeks ago. Needless to say, I have not had a cup of coffee at work for three solid weeks.
I know in my heart EXACTLY how you feel right now.
Hehe the thing about the snake or wolves is, they can't sneak through little openings, so if I got upstairs and slammed the door, they'd be trapped! But a mouse? A mouse can slip under that little gap under the door and ... well, I don't want to think about it. I'm trying not to think about how many holes there are that allow cables and wires to come upstris from the basement...
I may have to move!
Spiders? No problem. I occasionally see them down there and pretty much ignore them. But this mouse, YIKES!
Mice don't bother me, but let me tell you a story.
We are cleaning house, and my partner lifts up our floor lamp. Underneath? A salamander. The kind whose tail wiggles back and forth when it walks. She screams, starts crying, and jumps on the counter, telling me that i have to take care of it. I call my mom, who mocks me ENDLESSLY for being such a wimp about this, and she passes me off to my dad, who suggests that I grab it with tongs. NOT A CHANCE IN HECK. I am freaking out every time i go near it. I just can't do it.
Finally, I realize that I'm going to have to come up with a way to get the thing outside without touching it, or coming close to touching it. The solution? I took an empty paper towel roll and stuffed one end of it with paper towels to close it off. This I manuevered with tongs to the area with the salamander, and tried to coax it into the tube by snapping the tongs at it (because no WAY was I going to actually touch it, even with the tongs...ick). It FINALLY goes in (maybe 15 minutes later) and I cap the tube with an empty snow cone cup, hold it with the tongs, run out to the street screaming my little lungs out, and fling it into the street.
I still get chills thinking about it. And my mom still mocks me. She suggested that I "just pick it up by the tail and put it outside". The entire ordeal probably took 45 minutes, with my mom telling me to just deal with it, my dad laughing like a fiend in the background (I could hear him over the phone), and my partner on the counter.
I know EXACTLY how you feel. We refer to these as "Woodland Creature Problems", and they are VERY serious.
ejm: I was thinking a the same thing, but for me a mouse wouldn't bother me, a spider wouldn't bother me, but a spider WEB... I'm not kidding, I owned a house in the last city I lived in, and we had a great separate garage/shed where I stored all of the yard stuff. Every spring, I had to send my SO in to completely clean it out and declare it spider web free before I could enter. However, I can pick up a spider and take it outside, no problem. What a crazy thing the mind is.
So sorry to hear of your freight, Lena. Believe me, I know that there is nothing that anyone can say to make you go back until you are ready, but give it some time and you should be fine. (As with my example, it usually took me a week to feel comfortable in the garage.) Us fellow phobics will be pulling for you!
Oh, and I say at least 100 cals per hysterical outburst!
Lena, maybe I'm just the type of female that wouldn't be scared of something wayyyyyy smaller than I am (Unless it's a roach. I like to kill other bugs though)
When I was younger, whenever I found a mouse and went hysterical, my mother would slap me on the head hard and knock some sense into me. Unfortunately, I'm too old for that now. So I would probably try and catch it myself. It's a rodent, it really shouldnt be scary because the worst it can do is bite you.
In terms of calories burned, the adrenaline rush burns a lot more than your resting rate, but overall it's very very small so not enough to be significant (Unless you were running and sweating with your heart beating fast for 20 minutes! But you see, a boogeyman would have to chase you for that to happen!) so I think you might wanna get back on the treadmill!!!
ejm: I was thinking a the same thing, but for me a mouse wouldn't bother me, a spider wouldn't bother me, but a spider WEB...
Once I was showering and I looked up and there was a web in the corner housing a large spider with tiny tiny spiders (her kids, probably). I kill the whole thing in one shot!
I love killing spidies and clearing our their webs. You should get me to inspect
nterestingly, I'm not bothered by mice in other places. A mouse in a pet shop, no problem. A mouse in the woods? Awww how cute! A pet mouse in someone else's house? Fine. Even a wild mouse in someone else's house... I'd be a little shaky but not verly so.
But a mouse in MY house? Where it absolutely does NOT belong? And I know it's way too fast for me to catch, even if I wanted to try? YAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
How many calories burned in hysterics?
I know how you detest exercising, and you were doing so well. Naughty mouse!
