Bats and Trauma

[daidoji_gisei]

So last night I went into my living room, turned on a light, and sat down to work on my rpg campaign. And then AAAHHHHHHGG!!!!WHATISTHISBATDOINGFLYINGAROUNDMYLIVINGROOM!!! Because there was indeed a bat flying around my living room.

I screamed, fled the room, slammed the door, and called Animal Control. AC soon showed up, captured the bat, and took it away. End of problem, right?

Except that bats sometime carry rabies, and ever since the Bat That Got Away and my undergoing the rabies vaccine I've been freaked out over bats and rabies, and now all that is back. It doesn't help that I started coming down with variety of sinus sickness as part of my post-Gencon festivities, which just gives the irrational parts of my brain fodder for DEAR GOD, I HAVE RABIES NOW. The timing doesn't work: I cannot be sick already from that bat, but my brain is perfectly capable of inventing phantom pre-Gencon bats to terrorize me. I wonder if this is some 'normal' abnormal thing, or if I have some odd form of PSTD.

In a few days AC will call me up and tell me the results of the rabies test on the bat, and the by far most probable result is that the bat will be rabies-free. (During the Bat That Got Away incident one of the AC people told me that the record year for rabid bats in Lincoln had a grand total of only five bats, which gives you an idea of how rare it really is.) In the meantime I have to find a way to live with both coming down with an illness and a mind that wants to make that illness a sign of something even worse. This is going to be a terrible week.

Comments

[yhlee]

Yikes, another bat! Sorry to hear. I hope AC calls soon with good news, and that you get better from the sinus stuff soon.

[daidoji_gisei]

Thanks. Part of me is grateful that it is 'sinus stuff'; if it were a more generalized illness I wouldn't be able to reassure myself with "you know, rabies will not make you feel sore in just the sinus cavity below your right eye."

[helen_keeble]

Where are the bats coming from? Could you have a hole somewhere in your roofspace?

(we also get bats in our house, but in our case they come from the cat)

Sounds like a good week to indulge in BPAL purchases, writing with nice fountain pens, and gourmet foodstuffs...

[daidoji_gisei]

Your cat! Hahahahaha! He must be some amazing hunter to snatch them out of the air.

I'm not sure where they are coming from. I called my landlord last night and left a message and plan to follow up today--The house clearly Has Bats and he needs to do something about it.

As fate would have it, I ordered too many BPAL scents last night--the new Garden of Proserpine update has way too many offerings in the floral+incense range.

[yhlee]

Ha, I was so relieved to see that Garden of Proserpine was all florals/incense because that meant nothing tempted me this go-round. ;-)

[daidoji_gisei]

Well, the Halloween stuff is usually food-heavy, and you know how little that attracts me. We seem to cover the opposite ends of spectrum. :-)

I ordered Crowned with Calm Leaves, Today Will Die Tomorrow, and Tired of Tears and Laughter. Still wavering over the one with purple roses and the vanilla/frankincense one, but rumor has it the update will be available for some time, so I can dither on those.

[yhlee]

Between the two of us we really do seem to take care of the whole catalogue! I am a sucker for their apple-y scents. =) The autumn leaf ones are nice, too, though. I used to like the chocolate and cake ones but grew out of those, woe.