(By Ben Godwin) It’s not unusual for bats to find refuge in a belfry (a bell tower either attached to a church steeple or another structure). In a figurative sense, to have “bats in one’s belfry” is an idiom that means to have crazy ideas, to be very peculiar, erratic or foolish. For example, if you think you can paddle across the ocean in a rowboat, you have bats in your belfry—you’re nuts! Recently, something strange happened at our house. Our double garage/basement doors were accidentally left open one evening. As dusk settled, my oldest son closed the automatic, roll-up doors unaware that a bat flew in and was trapped in the basement desperate to escape. An hour or so later, my wife and youngest son went downstairs to drive somewhere. Suddenly, I heard a commotion.
I jumped up from my office chair and ran toward the loud noise. My wife and son came running back up the stairs yelling, “There’s a bat in the basement!” Startled, because bats give me the heebie-jeebies, I grabbed a broom and warily descended the stairs. In the basement, I saw the foul animal fluttering around erratically. He made a few passes and darted toward me kamikaze style. Quickly, I ran through the basement, opened both big doors, waved the broom wildly and finally managed to shoo the creepy critter out. I climbed the stairs like a superhero who just rescued my family from certain doom and declared, “I am Batman!” READ MORE
