Moving Spot on the Ceiling Woes

I was sitting on the couch studying Social Studies with my boys, tonight, when I saw this very large spot moving on the ceiling. Moving spots are bad. Big moving spots are worse. But when a big moving spot is traveling further and further out of reach in a direction that will position it over my head, I consider it an emergency and immediate action is called for!

But what do I do?? I couldn't ask my husband. Anyone who knows my him, knows that height is not something he has going on :). But besides that, he has a history of turning moving spots into permanent marks. I prefer to not go there unless all other options have been ruled out.

Our ceilings are around 12 feet at the highest point, and this spot was at 9 feet and climbing. The only thing I could think of was to toss something up and try to knock whatever it was down. But what? And then it hit me, SOCKS! So I had each boy race down the hallway and retrieve a clean sock, which was then balled up and fired repeatedly at the spot. That was a sight for an award of some sort, I'm sure. About this time, my husband walked through, looked up briefly, declared it a worm, and went back to his computer. A worm, in the house? On the ceiling??

And so it was. Did you know that worms are extremely good at hanging on--especially, it seems, to textured walls? This poor thing was pelted from every angle with at least three direct hits. I guess when you're a worm, and you're busy holding on for dear life, you don't just curl up and hide. Bummer. But he did stop climbing, a fact that thrilled me. Then he did an amazing thing, he started to turn around and climb back down. No doubt getting socked gave him second thoughts! I know, I know. . .

Much to the boys' dismay, he arrived at a height I could reach with a broom and the race to see who could knock him down first, or smash him in the process, was called off. When we brought him down, we discovered he was a type of woolly worm.

Now, I know people say things about the stripes of woolly worms and what they mean. If he's this, there's a bad winter coming, and if he's that, it will be mild. But what if he has no stripes or color at all? Is he even a woolly worm? Can he tell us anything about the coming winter? Alas, I have no clue.

Do you?