Blogging About German Roaches Paid Off

(Reclaimed from Bubbles, where it appeared on February 27, 2014. Image credit: http://cdn.morguefile.com/imageData/public/files/r/rmontiel85/preview/fldr_2007_09_24/file000628892721.jpg.)

Here's a small success story for other bloggers. Almost a year ago, an e-friend posted something on a news blog. A comment on her post was inane enough that I replied to it with a full-length blog post: http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2013/03/how-to-get-rid-of-german-roaches.html.)

A few days later, a local lurker who owns a trailer, in a trailer park, dared me to get rid of a serious roach infestation. 

Some people think that, because I don't go to agencies asking for cleaning jobs, I'd be insulted by being offered one. Like I wouldn't be one up on my depressive sister, who's become a full-time professional charwoman because it's paying better than being a substitute teacher, if I were doing her job. They are wrong. Respect for honest work, including unskilled labor, is another thing taught at Berea College, along with freedom from race prejudice. I am aware that when adults with resumes that include skilled labor go to agencies that place unskilled labor, we're 90% guaranteed to be insulted by the agents and also 99% guaranteed never to get a job, but actually I like odd jobs, the odder--and the more physical exercise involved--the better. And I like tearing into a really dirty house, though; like one of Elizabeth Enright's fictional characters, I like cleaning when I can see it making a difference. And I'm not depressive.

What's bothering me these days is that although the techniques discussed in that blog post have made it a rare week when I've seen a roach, while scrubbing and vacuuming the trailer, apparently this person's testimony was not enough to motivate someone else to dare me to rid a big country house of rats. 

Anyway, no worries, these nice and polite people took the time to word their offer as a dare bet rather than an offer of an ongoing job. Like that makes such a difference. The point is: the trailer is roach-free, and the payoff has just about covered my grocery bills for the past year.