Up before dawn - again. It is dark and quiet outside. Nice and peaceful.
Then the sound of a motor idling, slowly drawing near. It is funny, but it reminded me of my little propeller driven Ercoupe I used to fly, and made me nostalgic for flying -- the joy of a dawn flight. The sound of a running motor slowly moving was curious. I thought it might be a sweeper in the Starbucks parking lot next door. But it was closer than that.
Then outside my window, in the driveway that runs past the old folks home, appearing through the dark,was a truck with a tank attached and a motor running. It was apparently spraying insecticide to kill mosquitoes. I had heard about the spraying program on television.
Apparently it is working, I have not heard of felt a mosquito is some time. My how annoying they are when you are trying to sleep. A little buzz in your ear, which you try to brush away, but somehow escapes your waving and comes back again. You pull the covers over your head and try to sleep that way, and that's a nuisance.
A mosquito abatement team is spraying the whole area, and it is reassuring to have them right in our own drive way -- except my eyes sting and I am coughing some, but I suspect that is imaginary suggested by the thought that the whole district is being sprayed.
Seems like our response to the mosquitoes is like our response to terrorists -- over reaction. A dozen terrorists have restructured the whole aviation industry and affected every passenger -- which is the terrorist goal. Six cases of West Nile Virus in California Central valley, and the whole population gets sprayed. There was ONE new case of West Nile Virus reported this week, the victim was treated at home, not requiring hospitalization. The News reports that most victims of West Nile Virus don't even know they have it. And for this we spray everybody?
Last year an aerial applicator -- read that "crop duster" -- flew over the neighborhood spraying us all with bug juice. He flew LOW over the neighborhood, and I thought he was going to take the roof off with his low pass.
Yes, the West Nile Virus has killed people, some, but it is rarer than the bite of the tse-tse fly, and I am glad I can sleep on top of the bed and not have to pull covers over my head nor rig a mosquito netting in the bedroom
Spray on, cough on, and call the environmentalists in the morning.
5 comments:
A friend of mine was working in Africa, and was actually bitten by a tse-tse fly. The doctor reassured him, "Don't worry. Only one person in ten who is bitten dies."
Needless to say, he was among the lucky nine who lived.
chase , tell them to go save the seals!
That cannot be good for you all out there. I hope you have air conditioning. B. Lynne
YOU MAKE ME LAUGH CHUCK....YOUR ENTRIES ALTHOUGH SERIOUS CAN BE VERY FUNNY! THANK YOU FOR THAT!
WE HAVE THAT SPRAYING HERE IN GA. TOO...MY LATE HUSBAND HAD A PEN FULL OF RABBIT DOGS ( BEAGLES) AND THE SPRAYERS NEARLY KILLED THEM ALL BY RUNNING THE TANKER TRUCK RIGHT BY THEIR PEN AND SPRAYING THEM! HE WAS SO MAD, HE WENT UP TO CITY HALL AND TOLD THEM IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS THAT THEY BEST KEEP THAT SPRAYER AWY FROM HIS BEAGLES! LOL BLESS HIS HEART.
TAKE CARE CHUCK AND DO NOT BREATHE THAT STUFF!
CARLENE
I guess the West Nile Virus was a real treat several years ago in Illinois. I am not sure how many died but the number seemed significant. I can appreciate your concern about the spraying versus overall health to those effected though. On the airlines I do not think it to be out of line to have the security that is now being imposed. Before 9/11 I believe it was just a matter of time before what happened actually came to fruition. Israel long ago took measures and was consided the best security in the world after repeated terrorist actions. The threat now to airlines I believe is great. One of my peeves on a different subject is how the auto industry never saw the day coming when oil would dramatically increase in price and continued to make gas guzzling SUV's. mark
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