Eeeeek.

Maybe the bug thing is getting to be an old saw. Sorry. But I can't not write about the 3-inch long cockroach that just crawled out from under a piece of paper on my desk a minute ago and scared the holy shit out of me.

In New York we called these things waterbugs. Roaches were the much smaller version, not so immediately, personally scary as their giant cousins, but much more disheartening because if you saw one you knew your kitchen cabinets would soon be crawling with them. Waterbugs, on the other hand, though filthy as rats, were usually just passing through.

But Texans will laugh at you if you call these creatures waterbugs. They're cockroaches. Or I've heard them called tree roaches, I guess because they live in trees, a thought I don't want to contemplate for too long just now, because I will have nightmares.

They have no unique name here for the little ones, except "little cockroaches." I haven't seen any of those around.