Bugs

The bugs are back. We get midges this time of the year. The locals tend to call them Canadian Soldiers. However, the experts on local TV have so thoroughly made the point that they are not strictly speaking Canadian Soldiers that we always say, "The Canadian Soldiers are back, but-of-course-we-know they're not really Canadian Soldiers but some kind of something like a midge or a Mayfly." In our hearts, though, we believe they're Canadian Soldiers. They don't bite (not sure they have mouths and therefore do not eat our food either.) They're harmless, floating around, making a little singing sound, looking for love. Tiny, fragile little wispy things. Ephemeroptera of some kind. They live 24 hours.

But here's the deal, there are zillions of them. Their little singing song sometimes sounds like cars out on the interstate or a giant air conditioner pumping away. I'm not exaggerating. I really mean zillions and I'm serious about loud. Plus, they fly in your face and zoom off doors as you open them and follow the light so if you leave a lamp on in a room at night they will come in and sit upon your ceiling (and fall off dead in the morning.) They come and go, often several times, in the month of June. They (or something suspiciously like them) returned in September or October a few years back and attacked the Yankees at Jacobs Field during a playoff game. And we won, heh, heh. Last year they were horrendous, like in a horror movie entitled Attack of The Fill In the Blank, for three days and then pretty much left for the summer. But anyway. They were here in late May and early June and this morning they're back. Another, hopefully smaller, cycle, plastered onto the deck rail and floating stupidly about.

Some people are horrified by a lot of things about lakeside living. Bugs would be one of those things. Some people just don't know what they're missing.

June 12, 2009