Whack-A-Bat

We were enjoying a lovely evening last night, winding down from a night out on the town. Allison had been to a sweet-16 party, and Jerry and I had spent that time picking up ingredients for his lasagna for Sunday, doing a little Christmas shopping and some window shopping, and having our first Chinese food in Johnstown (not bad by the way). No point in coming back up the mountain just to have to go back down and pick her up. . .

So. We had all had a nice time and were winding up the evening. Papa in his kerchief and I in my cap had just settled down for a long winter's nap when Allison screamed "JERRY!!!!" Of course this could only mean one thing. The bat was back. Now, he had been back once before since his episode of terrorizing Clint and Joanne (and me), but I had neglected to mention it because I didn't want to freak out any potential guests. We were sitting at dinner with Dan and Jenny (Dan the bee guy) in our kitchen, and the bat flew into the living room, swooped around a couple of times and flew back down the hallway. Allison and I were cowering and simpering, but Jerry and Dan just got into a discussion about the remarkability of a bat appearing in November (as it was at that time) since they should really be hibernating, and how do you think he got in? and where do you think he's going now? This was not a sufficient conversation for me. I wanted to be hearing, "Let's get a posse and go and get this varmint!" But it wasn't going that way. So, I put it behind me in true pioneer fashion. I am learning to pick and choose those things I want to deal with. Anyway, LAST NIGHT'S bat was most likely the same one (see how well I rationalize these things?) and at Allison's cry Jerry jumped out of bed to assess the situation, just as Allison was jumping IN. She and I and Daphne were protecting the bedroom, with the door shut. Usually Jake will follow Jerry wherever he goes. Not so this time. He stayed with us. Jerry went out into the living room and I heard the bat swooshing back and forth outside the bedroom, then back again down the hall. I was not hopefull for any real resolution and was just resigning myself to the fact of bats in the mountains when all of a sudden I heard a loud "THWACK!" Jerry had brilliantly used the pizza peel, which is essentially a large wooden pizza board on a stick. It's made to slide an uncooked pizza into a brick oven, and to pull the finished pizza out when it is done. You see them all the time at the pizzeria. We have one because, well, it's Jerry's house. He cooks. Anyway. It was a perfect weapon to take out the swooping bat. We had used other items before; fly fishing nets, brooms, etc. Nothing had really worked well. The peel worked in one fell swoop. The poor little bat is now deer food thrown over the bank into the picturesque backyard. Bye bye little fella. Rest in peace Pizza Boy. Hopefully, that is it. I don't expect to see any more bats this winter, ever. But in the event there is a rogue non-hibernating bat just waiting to terrorize us, we have a plan. I can live with that.