The insects that bloom in the spring

I need nested digression tags for this entry… Just assume everything that’s indented by the same amount is related, ok?

One thing I don’t like about summer is the bugs. It got nice and warm last night and the mosquitos decided to come out and play. With the melting snow everywhere, there’s lots of standing water for them to breed in, so there was quite a collection of buzzing critters hovering around the garage lights.

My Fiancee’s good buddy Dirge and his family were over helping with the bathroom drywall project. Actually, Dirge and I were doing the drywall, his wife split her time between helping with that and helping my Fiancee keep his three kids entertained in a non-destructive way.

The kids are great, don’t get me wrong, but the house isn’t exactly kid-proofed. At all. There are all sorts of power tools and sharp pointy things lying around, both as part of the project and as part of the decor… There’s a nice sharp boarding cutlass on top of one of the living room bookshelves for example. I keep it around for home defense.

I’ve heard people make “home defense” arguments about keeping a gun around, but for me they just don’t hold water. A sword is a much better choice. For one thing you don’t have to take time to load them or to remove a trigger lock. Even if you don’t have time to take it out of its sheath, it’s still a nice heavy chunk of metal to whack someone with. Plus I’ve never heard of one going off accidentally while it was being cleaned. Nor is there much of a chance of a missed swing going through the wall and killing someone in the neighbor’s house. The top reason though is that late at night and without my glasses I can only see clearly for about a yard beyond the end of my arms. That’s a bit short range for a gun, but just about perfect for a sword.

Anyway, the kids were fascinated by the cats and spent a good amount of time working Isaac and Vandy into a frenzy with the ‘feather on a string’ toy. When they got bored with that (about five minutes later) they went outside to play koosh tennis. After another five minutes they were all geared up to play flashlight tag. Five minutes later they settled down to watch a Back to the Future on DVD.

Dirge and I only got a little bit done compared to the marathon drywalling session of Sunday, but it was quality work. The space around the door is filled, and I have a much better idea of what I need to do to frame in the top of the former Closet of Lost Things.

Unfortunately, at some point when we were cutting drywall out in the garage, I got a mosquito bite… ON MY EYELID! It didn’t itch exactly, but it forced my left eyelid to droop, giving me a lopsided half-tired look. Actually, I think I looked like I had been punched in the face, except with less bruising. A combination of an ice cold (vodka) compress and Advil has helped the swelling go down, but it still gives me the creeps, thinking about that sharp little proboscis so close to my eye…