Visitor

I was in a work meeting when I took a bathroom break and spotted this symmetrical guy on the hallway wall.

My first instinct was to kill it, but it was too substantial and I didn't want to have to paint the wall.

My next instinct was to photograph it, and then to admire it, and then to head to the bathroom immediately because I had dawdled too long, and when I came out he was gone.

I guessed centipede, but the Google came up with something very different. Eventually a friend suggested "thousand-legger," which is the hyperbolic name for a house centipede. 

Then I learned:

• "House centipede" is the name yard centipedes go by in the winter.
• When attacked, this centipede can "drop" some of its legs. I was tempted to find him again and provoke this, but I also read that they bite.
• They eat other bugs. So, I was glad I didn't kill it. 

Gary's first instinct was to alert the exterminators, but he will have forgotten that by tomorrow. My guess is Mr. Centipede is going to set up shop in the bathroom, eat silverfish, gnats, and flies, and that will be fine.