Roaches. They are not the most popular thing in our household. After never really ever have seen a roach in America I had some in my old apartment when I first moved in upon arriving in Japan. Since I killed them off and sealed up some holes, my experiences with cockroaches were really just in the occasional restaurant.
Last night after work I saw a cockroach go running into the small air conditioner in our bedroom. That was a big surprise, because our house is pretty clean and airtight. After thinking about it I realized that they had probably done a bug cleanout in the vacant apartment two doors down – maybe this guy was looking for new digs.
I tried a little bit last night to get him out of there, but it’s a pretty big piece of machinery and there were a lot of places to hide. Cut to this morning, and I pulled the air conditioner off the wall and took the thing apart looking for the little bug.
After an hour of taking the thing apart, cleaning it up, and putting it back together there was no roach to be found. I figured it had either left the room or went out whatever hole he came in.
So I put the AC unit back on the wall, plugged it back in, and turned it on to test it out. And a little cockroach came flying out on a cushion of cold air. Ah, ha!
Unfortunately for him he didn’t have a parachute, and he landed squarely on his back. I did a quickdraw with a newspaper and flattened the little guy. Roach problem solved.
After all that adventure I’m going to have to get ready for work now. Today I have a couple bad students, so I may need to have a chat with one or two of them. My little talks with them seem to be pretty effective.
