That's the question I find myself asking.....or am I a crazy bloodthirsty psychopath with no regard for the sanctity of life. For about two years now we have had pantry moths come and go from our lives. After an initial surge a couple of years ago, I threw out most of our grainy foods like cereal, rice, pancake mix, flour etc that were likely infested. I also cleaned and vacuumed every cupboard in the kitchen and pantry hoping to rid our homes of the problem. As bad as the moths were, it was really the job of having to squish the larvae crawling along the ceiling that bugged me the most. And I got rid of them.....for a bit.
Apparently I missed a couple of the microscopic eggs because a few months later they reappeared. I felt better about the problem when I discovered how successful the sticky traps are. However, it wasn't long before I realized that the breeding cycles were continuing despite my traps. Naturally I continued to pursue an aggressive extermination policy by chasing down every moth I see with the electric tennis racket zapper in the hopes of minimizing any chance the moths have of further breeding. However, because I am temporarily hobbled to the extent that I can't even keep pace with a pantry moth, I thought I would enlist Les as a temporary replacement in the moth war.
It never occurred to me that in all the time we have been dealing with this, I don't think I have ever seen her kill a moth. Yet somehow I was surprised and a little put out when she told me she couldn't do it because she didn't believe in killing moths. I got defensive and started saying things like "are you just going to let them get into all your food and take over the house". Les responded with "they haven't taken over the house yet, I think we'll be fine".
Of course I wanted to fire back with " the only reason we're not over-run yet is that I have killed every moth I have seen over the last two years" but thought better of it. After all, this is a woman that will take every spider or even wasp that finds its way into the house and either leave it be or carefully find a way to get it outside without killing it, so I know she has some thought behind her stance. Although I can respect this gentle side to her, I have to say that I feel an extra loneliness tonight as I realize that I am truly alone in the battle of the pantry moth. For now I just have to keep my fingers crossed that my health soon returns to the point that I can effectively continue the fight.
In the mean time, I have had my little grumpy fit to express my frustration and Les has gone to sleep. I realize it's not a very mature response, but I guess it allows me to express my displeasure at Les not seeing the world in the same way I do. It's probably just human nature, but I can't help but be annoyed by her NOT seeing things my way. After all it's so clear...... to me.
But I I guess that's what a working marriage is about.....being able to accept a partner's view point even when we don't agree with it. Luckily Les and I agree with most of the major decisions that life throws at us, but even after almost 19 years together, we continue to find little things to disagree on. However, from this example I chose to look at the positive......I can sleep better than a lot of husbands with good life insurance policies.
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