Anne Notations

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Jump!

In general I enjoy "jump scenes" - sudden hair-raising surprises - even less in real life than I do in suspenseful movies. Which is to say: not at all. Or, as the kids on the celebrity blogs write when confronted with a closeup of Angelina Jolie's scrawny, veiny arms, Do not want. It took me years to recover from certain scream-worthy moments in movies like Wait Until Dark, Carrie, and Deliverance.

Yesterday morning I turned on the shower in the downstairs bath and thought, "Hmmm, Melinda didn't clean her hair out of the drain." I reached down to grab the dark clump of swirling stuff and nearly fractured my skull on the shower-curtain rod when my nearsighted eyes registered that the object writhing just inches from my fingertips was a centipede as big as a goddamned mouse.(And let me just say I would have far preferred a cute little rodent.) He was so big, when I managed to capture him with a wad of toilet paper, he crunched. Multiple times. His long, hairlike legs were still waving as I flushed him down the toilet.

Early today I was walking Daisy a few blocks from home when an object plummeted from the sky so close to my head, I felt a draft. It landed on the asphalt at my feet with an audible thump. Eeek!

This latest jump scene, however, ended comically. A young freckled starling swooped down to reclaim the large french fry that had slipped from his beak in mid-flight. He wobbled off with it, pausing every few steps to secure a better grip, then set to feasting on his prize before it could escape again.

What memorable jump scenes have you experienced? Cinematic or real.

3 Comments:

  • Oh how interesting. Best insect for crunchability has to be a Palmetto bug. I remember those from my time in FL.

    I don't get grossed out very easily. It's why I'm always called in to do the dirty jobs. Best one ever was a sticky mouse trap with a live mouse surrounded by cockroaches. That was a treat.k

    By Blogger Truthspew, at Sat Jun 09, 09:05:00 PM EDT  

  • I linked over from Xtcian...

    A couple of years ago I went home (Texas) and was visiting the old ranch house and decided to just spend the night there. The place still has electricity but most of the windows are out and there is no water... so anyway, I went to bed, which I'm sure I took over from a variety of animals and woke up very early in the morning. Now, growing up in the country you develop certain habits that become sort of second nature and one of these is shaking out your boots before putting them on.. I've done this hundred, naa, thousands of time and nothing ever comes out...it is just something we do. Anyway, so I knock one boot and nothing comes out and I'm half asleep anyway, so I reach down, grab the othe boot and give it a shake and out comes a huge scorpion and lands about one half inch from my toes... I about jumped out of my skin that morning and sure as hell didn't need a cup of coffee after the shot of adrenilene.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at Sat Jun 30, 02:03:00 PM EDT  

  • Oooooh. Awful. I feel so AT FAULT when water bugs, silver fish or cockroaches show up, usually through my bathtub drain (now with a tight mesh). Ick ick ick. Poor you!

    By Blogger Frances Kuffel, at Sat Jan 30, 04:13:00 PM EST  

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