May 17, 2005
-
Curse the Vermin!
And not little pissy Anglo-Saxon oaths, either. I want big fat nasty Gypsy curses, curses to bring on mysterious illnesses and devastating financial losses, eye of newt and tongue of frog and hair of dog curses, curses that would last down the generations, curses that would detroy their estates utterly, and sow salt among the ashes. There! I feel better already. What has me in such a royal snit, you might ask? I am incensed because some heinous perpetrators poisoned my sweety, that’s why. I would call them fucking morons, but to do so would insult fucking and morons alike. But I digress.
I had a frustrating day yesterday–business had been rained out all weekend, but the comp weather said “zero percent” chance of precipitation. Well, I had zero precipitattion all over my van and my tables and knives and stuff yesterday, so I was miffed. Not homicidally so, but fairly pissed off nonetheless, and I was hoping that Kathy had had a better day. Things often seem to work that way with us. Sort of part of the Alaska boom and bust syndrome, partly because of the way our natal charts resonate. Anyway, I called her last night and heard the news. It was bad.
There has been a bit of a mosquito epidemic up the valley of late. This is annoying, but hardly life-threatening–it’s not like they carry malaria or anything, and the effects of their bites (unlike those of the really awful East Coast US salt marsh skeeters, which can last a day or more) subside in a few minutes. Kathy had been looking forward rather keenly to the first hatch of the dragonflies, oneof the main skeeter predators. Besides, it is a lot of fun to watch them. (Yeah, we watch bugs. You don’t have cable, you do shit like that.)
Anyway, yesterday afternnon, Kathy is minding her own business, and suddenly she smells this awful chemical odor. Then her sense of smell shut down. Then she started showing other neurological symptoms–muscle tremors, weakness, sudden-onset visual problems. Turns out that some ignorant human vermin sprayed some sort of chemical poison all over the neighborhood in an effort to reduce the mosquito population. This is stupid for so many reasons it seems pointless to list them all, but. . . .One, the effect doesn’t last very long anyway. Two, it just improves the breed, tends to make future generations of mosquitoes more poison-resistant. Three, it fucks up the environment, kills off beneficial bugs and birds and all. Four, it poisons PEOPLE.
Shortly after the spraying, things got real quiet outside. Before that, there was a lot of critter-noise–frogs doing froggie noises, birds chirping, other bugs buzzing. But then it got, well, deathly quiet. The critters that had not been killed outright fled the scene. Kathy had to stay and ingest the toxin, however. That was when she started crying, realizing that so many critters had been killed or at least traumatized. And when we spoke about it last night , I made the mistake of mentioning that it probably killed the dragonfly larvae that would have hatched soon. Then she started crying again.
I would love to have some quality time alone with the perps. I would show them the error of their ways. I would use reason, logic, and a blackjack.. They would probably never poison the environment again. At any rate, they would never WALK again.
Comments (11)
Eek. I hope she is all right.
I’ll help you track the bitches down.
Well… Have any newbies moved into the neighborhood? Some dipshit from the lower 48, where the spray first, think later mentality reigns supreme, and who cares if someone in the immediate vicinity doesn’t give a shit about mosquitoes but reacts violently to chemicals?
Morons. Utter fucking morons.
I hate people like that who feel the need to kill so many animals. People like that see all insects as pests and don’t realise that we are all part of nature. All animals and insects (and humans) are here for a reason and when humans interfere too much things start to go wrong. People like that need to learn to take a few insect bites.
That totally fucking SUX. I hope Kathy is okay.
Well, I know violence isn’t really the answer, but we solved that problem down here with a big flyswatter last year. It’s pretty simple, really. See, you get a 3×3 piece of subflooring, and about 6 board-feet of 2×4. Cut 2 feet off the 2×4, and set aside. Nail the 2×4 to the plywood, so that the end of the 2×4 is attached to the center of the subflooring, with about 2 1/2 feet fanging off the side. Cut the 2 foot length of plywood in half, and use it as a brace. Then find the person who was spraying the chemicals, and smack ‘em around until they see how the skeeters feel. We got the guys to quit spraying after about a week, and people in the ozarks are more dense than mercury. Just a suggestion, though
Your sudden reactions to the idea that someone sprayed for bugs couldn’t have anything to do with the fact that your reading ‘Silent Spring’ at the moment, Could It? A book ABOUT pesticides and chemical sprays! Wouldn’t a person have to spray themself in the face to get a high enough dosage for it to cause a reaction in a human. Hell most fresh produce has enough pesticides on it that if a person forgot to wash it before eating it it would have the same concentration for toxicity as a person with some bug spray.
from http://www.ourlittleplace.com —
Looking back, I realized that my “chemical poisoning” began when I spent over 10 years living in mobile homes. Mobile homes are made of lots of particleboard, glued wallpapers, synthetic carpets, etc. – all of which outgas formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is very toxic and causes many of the symptoms I experienced: dizziness, spaciness, etc. It also weakens the immune system, making you more vulnerable to other toxic chemicals. Formaldehyde is in MANY things these days. It’s in most cosmetics – including BABY SHAMPOO and BABY LOTION. Look for “Quaternium-15″ on the label – that’s formaldehyde in disguise. It’s also in the clothes you wear – if they’re permanent press or polyester. It’s in your polyester/cotton bed sheets. It’s even in a lot of the food you eat. And, yes – formaldehyde is the stuff they embalm people with. At this rate, we won’t need to be embalmed by the time we die!
There is a lot more here that your wife may find valuable. Question is, why should I be so nice. Oh yeah, I’m a narcissist, a take this sort of person. Well, where I work we satisfy our customers, that’s why we’ve been there over 40 years. hmph, how many people are that successful!
^I should probably ‘fess up–I hardly ever am actually reading or watching or listening to the media I list at the bottom of my rants, I just try to put in something appropriate.
Hmmm… I must be psychic or something. I’d pegged redhawkstball for NPD before I read that far in that “comment”.
Greyfox, you didn’t quite get the story the way I told it, but I’ll set my readers straight, right after I go thank elementalmagicks for the flyswatter idea.
Bad news, indeed. Too bad you don’t have a little ole local newspaper that can report on such stuff, so everybody knows. Then somebodies would also know the culprit, and he might get shy and wise up.
WTF does cross referencing the topic of a book a person is reading with the topic of a persons blog have to do with someone having NPD? Any person who has actually read Silent Spring should have caught onto such a glaring “coincidence” right ‘off the bat’.
Um, gee, mosquitos? You guys got West Nile Virus yet? We do! Oh, let me clarify. PA has reported cases of it … not ‘we’ like me and Markster. Anyway – All ya gotta do is buy some OFF Deep Woods with Deet (whoever he is) – Spray the Shit All Over Yourselves if the little buggers are making you buggy. It comes unscented, which is a blessing for those with allergies! My personal method is to only kill spiders on the porch (except daddy longleggers, they get picked up and pitched), just take off a shoe and beat the little bastards with it! Perhaps you guys could construct an awesome outfit made from Sketter-netting and start selling on ebay? What the hell, you can always say the Pope wears them! Just cover your whole body, man! Find some netting in a dumpster and give it a shot….