Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Bite.

As a child, I slept in the same room as my older brother Rick.  Rick is about eight years older than me.  Right after we went to bed and turned out the lights, he would say to me, “Don’t let bed bugs bite.”  Then after I started falling asleep, he would come over and start pinching me all over and say, “The bed bugs are biting, the bed bugs are biting!” I’d start yelling, and he’d keep it up until my parents would yell down “Shut-up and go to bed!” Life’s not fair sometimes.  I had no idea that bed bugs were real, until 2010 when there was an out beak of them everywhere.  My nephew Conan had a bad problem with them.  He had to burn his rugs and some his furniture to get rid of his bed bugs.   

            This past summer, my wife Brenda wanted to remodel the kitchen. My good buddy Joe is a good carpenter.  We hired him to work on the kitchen while we were on vacation and he also took care of the house. Due to my fear of flying, Brenda and I decided to drive to down to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  Besides, Brenda just bought a cool new Ford SUV.  She was not happy about taking it, but I assured her that I’d be careful. It was hard to be careful, driving over the mountains, in weather and traffic.  I parked a mile away from things and walked in 100 degree heat so as to not get a ding in her new car.  We made it, and had a good time.

We could not wait to see our new kitchen! Then came the long trip home, stuck in traffic jams for hours, and bad weather all the way back. It took us 18 hours just to make the Ohio southern border. I was so tired and could hardly keep my eyes open to see.  Around 11:30 p.m., we started looking for a hotel room. With some kind of church convention in town, we ended up driving for another few hours; all the hotels had no

vacancies. Anything would do at this point; even considered a smoking room, but even the desk clerk said if you’re a nonsmoker you would not want to stay in that ash tray.  Then we saw it “America’s Best,” and they had a room!  On the way to the room, we looked at the sign again, in little letters under America’s Best it said “value.  It was “America’s Best Value Hotel.” 

Ok, how bad could it be?  It was bad!  When I pulled back the bedding, there was a big hole in the old ugly blanket on the bed.  “I don’t care, we are staying here.  I can’t make it any more!” I said.  I proceeded to pull off all the blankets and laid down on just the sheets and closed my eyes. I just started to drift off when Brenda said, “You know, when we get home, leave the car outside and take out the luggage and take off your clothes so I can wash them first.”  “Ok, but why are you saying that now?” I said.  “Bed bugs; remember Conan!” she said.  I remember and I remember my brother, and could swear I was being bitten all night.  I did not get to sleep. Again I think life is still not fair sometimes.

    To spite the weather, we made it home around noon the next day.  I did as Brenda said and left the car outside the garage and took everything in to be washed.  I even remarked to Brenda how the car looked great not even a nick on it, back, parked in the driveway safe and sound.  The kitchen looked great; my buddy Joe does such good work. I called him to thank him and then told Brenda, “Before we do anything, let’s take a nap.  I didn’t sleep so well last night.”  So we laid down for a few minutes. 

Just then it started raining and thundering outside. We tried again to fall asleep, but could not.  As if called out of bed by God, we both got up and said “I can’t sleep.”  We walked into the living room and Brenda heard glass breaking and said, “What’s going on out there?”  She looked

out the window and said “I think we should go downstairs.” I looked out the window and saw the wind going in around circles and then saw the wood side of our hot tube shoot strait up in the air like a rocket. I turned to Brenda and said, “We need to run down stairs!”  As we ran down the stairs, all I could think is that maybe I should push her down the steps and jump down after her.  No, that’s not a good plan; just run and hit the floor.  I did just that!  I turned the corner of the basement in time to see and hear the windows in the house break and glass fly down stairs after us.  When they say a tornado sounds like a train coming at you, they are telling the truth. Brenda is screaming for her cats and then says “We need to be somewhere where there are no windows.  Run to my office!” Not being able to move off the ground, I crawl to her office. We’re not in her office more than two minutes when everything went quiet. 

    It was over.  We stood there in disbelief and started up the stairs. Oh the devastation! Oh the mess! We could not believe that in just a few minutes this could happen. We just cried.  The new car, safely parked in the driveway was trashed along with our Mustang Convertible and the house.

To this day we still can’t believe a tornado hit our home.  Seven months and thousands of dollars later, things are fixed and back together. Everything is good again, and thank God we were all ok. The lessons I learned is that the house and care are only just things, lifes not always fair sometimes, and don’t let the bed bugs bite.