I Don't Mean to Alarm Anyone...but
About 10 years ago I was touring (as the sound/light tech) with the band Laredo. We had a weekend gig at the race track at Talladega during the April NASCAR race. Yes, I was a fish out of water...but it was an interesting weekend.
Our hosts had put us up in this Baptist Church camp (you never knew where hosts were going to place you). Really all we were doing was sleeping there so it wasn't that bad. This was a camp, in Alabama, so I had come to terms with the fact I *probably* didn't want to look under the mattresses (damn cockroaches). However, that wasn't the only creepy visitor we had in our cabin.
After a long day at the track, we returned to the camp. We had to be back early the next day, so we were going to take our showers before we went to bed. The first girls went back to shower and I patiently waited my turn. After a while, my friend Leah came out and asked Laura and I to take a look at something for her. Leah, didn't have her contacts in and thought she saw something in the shower with her. "It sort of looks like a scorpion," she said as we walked back to the shower. Um yeah...it was a scorpion. She had just taken a shower with it. Leah was already starting to freak out. Laura and I were trying to keep calm, and by now our friend Carole was bringing in a shovel to take care of our situation. I stayed with Leah until the little guy was dead and disposed of. On the outside I was calm, on the inside I was freaking out. I'm from Ohio...we don't have poisonous snakes let alone scorpions! Once the threat was neutralized, I returned to the bedroom area and proceeded to freak out. Luckily, so was Laura so we could feel like pansies together.
After all our showers were taken, it was time to catch a few hours sleep before heading back to the track. There would be no sleep for Laura and I. We both sat awake all night in fear of more unwanted guests.In the morning we unpacked and repacked our luggage, beat the crap out of our shoes and hoped our next hosts (that night) had a washing machine.
Had we never seen the scorpion, we could have probably slept like babies through the night. Yes, the little critters may have still been there, but we would have been blissfully ignorant of their existence.
At the time, I wished I never saw the little guy. I was tired, sore (from setting up and tearing down) and I was driving most of the way to our next stop in Louisiana. I was in pretty bad shape. In retrospect, I'm glad I did. Had I not known to take steps to ensure I didn't have a stow away in my luggage, I most certainly would have had an unpleasant surprise when I arrived in Louisiana. That is just how my luck rolls. That and Carole, Laura, Leah and I will always have the story of the time Leah showered with a scorpion.
Sometimes you can live a simply happy life by being blissfully ignorant of the bad things around you. I guess the question is: Is the risk of a bad surprise worth the false sense of security?
Our hosts had put us up in this Baptist Church camp (you never knew where hosts were going to place you). Really all we were doing was sleeping there so it wasn't that bad. This was a camp, in Alabama, so I had come to terms with the fact I *probably* didn't want to look under the mattresses (damn cockroaches). However, that wasn't the only creepy visitor we had in our cabin.
After a long day at the track, we returned to the camp. We had to be back early the next day, so we were going to take our showers before we went to bed. The first girls went back to shower and I patiently waited my turn. After a while, my friend Leah came out and asked Laura and I to take a look at something for her. Leah, didn't have her contacts in and thought she saw something in the shower with her. "It sort of looks like a scorpion," she said as we walked back to the shower. Um yeah...it was a scorpion. She had just taken a shower with it. Leah was already starting to freak out. Laura and I were trying to keep calm, and by now our friend Carole was bringing in a shovel to take care of our situation. I stayed with Leah until the little guy was dead and disposed of. On the outside I was calm, on the inside I was freaking out. I'm from Ohio...we don't have poisonous snakes let alone scorpions! Once the threat was neutralized, I returned to the bedroom area and proceeded to freak out. Luckily, so was Laura so we could feel like pansies together.
After all our showers were taken, it was time to catch a few hours sleep before heading back to the track. There would be no sleep for Laura and I. We both sat awake all night in fear of more unwanted guests.In the morning we unpacked and repacked our luggage, beat the crap out of our shoes and hoped our next hosts (that night) had a washing machine.
Had we never seen the scorpion, we could have probably slept like babies through the night. Yes, the little critters may have still been there, but we would have been blissfully ignorant of their existence.
At the time, I wished I never saw the little guy. I was tired, sore (from setting up and tearing down) and I was driving most of the way to our next stop in Louisiana. I was in pretty bad shape. In retrospect, I'm glad I did. Had I not known to take steps to ensure I didn't have a stow away in my luggage, I most certainly would have had an unpleasant surprise when I arrived in Louisiana. That is just how my luck rolls. That and Carole, Laura, Leah and I will always have the story of the time Leah showered with a scorpion.
Sometimes you can live a simply happy life by being blissfully ignorant of the bad things around you. I guess the question is: Is the risk of a bad surprise worth the false sense of security?
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