Of Bats and Families...

Hello my fellow procrastinators! In the hopes of not doing anything particularly useful or productive I thought that I would write a blog. I've noticed that I only ever seem to write blogs when I really don't have time to be writing blogs. But that's ok... I thought that I would share my day with whoever else shares my zeal for time wasting.
This morning I was thinking about family and the little quirks that come with families. This was actually a little bit productive, because I have to write an essay about something along these same 'airy-fairy' lines for my cultural diversity subject. Anyway, family quirks are one of those wonderful things that we often take for granted in life. Just in case you are wondering what I mean by 'quirks', the word quirk means: "a peculiarity of action, behavior, or personality; mannerism: He is full of strange quirks". Families are a great place to start if you are looking for quirks. Within families, there's the Uncle who thinks it's hilarious to call you Truckly instead of Carly (Truck-ly, Car-ly.. yes, I know, it's lame). There's the Aunt who laughs with such gusto that your ears hurt, yet you know that her ears are hurting just as much from your laugh. There's the Grandma who takes unspeakable delight in ensuring that everyone is happy, however is a little hard on hearing so often struggles to follow the conversation ("Hey? What did she say Carls? What's that Trevvy said? What's Lynnie laughing at? Why does Emmy have the giggles?"). Then there's the Grandpa, who is the silent presence at the head of the table, quietly surveying the ridiculous family that he is partly responsible for.

The reason that I was thinking about family quirks today is because as I was leaving for Uni, I realised that there was a dead bat on the driveway. I don't know if you've ever been unfortunate enough to look at a bat up close.. but they are ugly horrible disgusting creatures. That's probably a bit harsh... but it's their fault for being so hideous. Now there is a certain significance to this bat dying right in the middle of our driveway. For a few years now.. a bat has tormented my poor Mother. It lives in the tree right outside of her bedroom and makes horrible screeching noises late at night and into the morning. Many a night my sister and I would come home to find Mum doing one of three things; 1. Standing on the lawn in her pyjamas waving a hockey stick at the tree. 2. Standing on the lawn in her pyjamas spraying the tree with the hose. Or 3. Standing on the lawn in her pyjamas shining a torch into the tree and spraying it with Baygone. Part of me is a little sad to see the bat go, because these antics were certainly a source of great joy for me. Although for the sake of Mum's sanity, I'd say it's for the best that our friend the bat is dead. Looking at the dead bat made me think about how forgiving we are of quirks when they are within our families. For example, if I saw one of my neighbours on the lawn in their pyjamas at 1am spraying water at a seemingly non-existent bat I would think that they were a few sheep short of a paddock. But it's ok to be crazy around your family. The crazier my family is, the more endearing they become. I'm hoping that the reverse is also true.. because I certainly have my fair share of not-so-normal moments.
The dead bat also answered one of the burning questions that had recently been troubling me. On Friday I saw the Batman movie for the second time. If you haven't seen it... you really should, it's a great movie. Anywho.. you know how on Batman's suit he has the little pointy ears? They seemed a little ridiculous to me, so I asked the friend that I was sitting with if bats really have pointy ears. Unfortunately he wasn't sure.. so I left it at that. Well, brace yourselves, because I can now confirm that bats DO have pointy ears. The ears on my dead bat weren't as perky as Batman's... but they were certainly there. So there you go... I think that's probably the most significant thing I have learnt so far this week. I hope you feel encouraged to know that Batman is more realistic then we may have given him credit for.