We haven't got a chance

Hi Carolyn,





I can identify surprisingly well with your angst about seeing off your offspring as they boot on back over to the other side of the dirtball to continue their international teaching careers. My very best friend and his spouse are doing likewise. They are the reason I'm here right  now plonking out this blog. That son you are saying goodbye to and my friend that I just said goodbye to were at the same school in Sarajevo a few years back, and it was their face to face conversation that led him to suggest me as someone to get involved in the " writing project" as you first tentatively titled  Wormhole Electric.

The rest, as they say ..... .






This couple, whom I've known for over half of my life,  are and have always been travel and experience junkies. Even after full careers in the public education system in Canada  plus teaching in Saudi Arabia, China, and Sarajevo followed by two years back here in their very nice domestic situation they couldn't deny the bug and are now in Hungary to teach and direct a school there for the same organization that Zack works with. I've had a heartfelt good bye most recently too.


It will be cool, however, to be in touch a la Skype and such. It really doesn't feel like they are out of touch.


Okay, back to life in North America.



It was, as I've oft heard recently from the people around here who work the land , a particularly hard winter  last year. I think I wore myself out just whining about it - and we were away for five weeks of the worst. There were uncommonly long spells of deep, bum-numbing and pipe-bursting cold ( As we can attest to at this residence ) and old-time monstrous amounts of snow that hung about in dirty mountains until mid April  as well.  All in all it was a banner year for winter.




In my -  grew up in a big city -  ignorance,  I figured that such a winter would simply obliterate the insect world that was sleeping beneath. It would be frozen into oblivion, I thought.




Shows ya how much I know, eh!. Not so in the least.  My LSBH and I have been toiling outside big time ever since we got back from the doctor place and we agreed that there were far more of our insect friends about than we have ever witnessed . We are doing rock garden work and every time a rock is moved or some soil shifted, there are so many creepy crawlies about that its almost as  if the dirt is alive.




The ants are back and are kickin' ass and takin' names this summer. The bigger ones  simply undermine everything and the  smaller red ones, the " fire ants " are out in numbers and in places that I haven't seen in the quarter century we have been here on Georgian Bay.  They are unbelievably ill-tempered, too We have heard from two folks nearby who have been accosted by fire ants and ended up getting hospital treatment. Their bite is quite painful and far worse than their bark.







 
 
 
It got me to thinking that the next life-form to hold sway on this here planet will probably be of the insect variety. Not because of surpassing intelligence but because of sheer surpassing numbers.  Bluntly put .... we haven't got a chance. Yes, I've been on this rant road before, I know. But this seems to be a bumper-crop year for insects of every stripe..

This evil empire of  multi-legged marauders has been aided by some pusillanimous mammals too. Rabbits, it seems, will eat absolutely anything that is green. Chipmunks will dig up anything that humans plant and we won't even talk about raccoons or squirrels. 



Carolyn,

It's cool to see that even while you re in the middle of this whole operation experience, that you can also step outside of it and be analytical about how it is affecting you.



Continue having fun.


And I'm glad I got to use one of my most favorite pretentious multi-syllable words of all time here tonight.


I was going to slip in a riddle but with all you have said about how your thinking has been affected I'm afraid that you will become an absolute riddle grand master. That would be most intimidating, in one sense. 


So, I bid adieu,

 Don



All images soured from Google Images

Fig. 1 - www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk
Fig. 2 - tourists360.com
Fig. 3 - kenlewton.com
Fig. 4 - thebugskiller.com
Fig. 5 - qltyctry.com