Centipede — centi (100) pede (feet). One hundred feet. One hundred little feet. One hundred little fast feet. I’m sure that another potential word of the day is centipediphobia – with which I am afflicted. Although, admittedly, if one hundred feet involve, say, fifty marathon runners, I could live with that. Or fifty ladies getting pedicures at the spa. However, the word’s actual definition is “a predatory myriapod invertebrate with a flattened elongated body composed of many segments. Most segments bear a single pair of legs”, and that is not okay.
Living on the third floor of a brick apartment building as a child, I found that insects and arachnids seldom made it up to our apartment. But on several occasions during my growing up there, a stray centipede would make an appearance zooming around the bathtub wall just as I would be getting into the tub. Yieeeeeeee!!! The stuff of childhood trauma!!!
As an adult, my fear still lurks!! I am told that centipedes are friendly critters because they eat other insects and spiders. I have struck a bargain with spiders in my home. They must abide by certain rules: don’t overpopulate; don’t grow beyond a certain size; eat your quota in bugs; and don’t invade my personal space (which means my field of vision). So, if centipedes want to be helpful household critters, those same rules would apply. And I would add the stipulation that they would not be allowed to outrun me (with the note that I am technically much more concerned with my ability to outrun them since it is highly unlikely that I’d every actually intentionally run toward one). I had a friend who recently asked me if centipedes are good swimmers. My response was that I am not sure, but I do know they are not good drowners as they do not go peacefully or gracefully.
Now that I have spent waaaaayyy too much time thinking about “centipedes”, I will probably have difficulty going to “sleep” (yesterday’s Word of the Day, which involves a lot of responsibility, anyway). But I’ll try…..