In Which My Mind Works In Weird Ways

This morning I stopped to grab some coffee for Jeremy and myself before joining him over at the new house to meet the pest control man. I glanced down at a newspaper stand while waiting in line and a headline caught my eye. I'm a voracious reader, and one of the unconscious strategies my mind has developed over the years to read quickly is to jump ahead by seeing the first and last letter in a word and filling in the blanks using context. Ninty-nine percent of the time it works perfectly and I don't even realize I'm doing it, but every once in a while my brain pulls out a real doozy.

The headline read:

RAMPAGING MILITANTS TERRORIZE CITIZENS IN AFGHANISTAN

My brain read:

RAMPAGING MUTANTS TERRORIZE CITIZENS IN AFGHANISTAN

I sort of like my version better. I mean, I know I would have bought the paper just for that article. Who wouldn't? Oh well.

My crazy brain aside, the good news of the day is that the pest control guy came out and said that the termites we had were Pacific Dampwood termites and not their much more destructive drywood or subterranean cousins. They only infest wet wood, like the small area of siding they were discovered in that was moist from a slow roof leak (now repaired), and they won't nest in dry wood. So now that the damaged wood has been replaced and won't become waterlogged again, they shouldn't be a problem and require no treatment. Other than a couple of holes in a crawlspace vent or two he didn't find any other issues! We are very, very happy to know that our house is not going to be turned into sawdust any time in the near future, and also that we don't have any other unwelcome guests hanging out.

Except, possibly, for a nasty bug of another kind. I think Connor may be coming down with something. The kid was acting really lethargic and unhappy all day-- he actually had a meltdown at school, which is really weird because he usually loves school-- and despite getting eleven hours of sleep the night before he took a three hour nap today. If you asked him, though, he said he felt fine, and other than a little nausea he seemed to be okay: no fevers or anything. We'll keep a close eye on him and hopefully he'll be feeling better in the morning after a good night's rest.

~Jess