There's a song to that title and I never noticed it - until.... the club in our front yard started playing it every time it rains! And honestly - having rain is like re-birth. Unfortunately White Ants know this and are born in the millions. My friend Holly wrote me about the White Ant (termite) invasion at her house in Kitgum. They woke up this morning to the floors being covered with the bodies of zillions of white ants (you know the ones they saute up with a little oil - after pulling the wings off and serve with a little chilled white wine??? OK - I exaggerate - serve with beer). Fortunately they'd slept with their door closed, so they were not rudely awakened by the swarm. At the time I read this, I was basking in the wonderful cool, autumn-like breeze that blesses us during rainy season and the marching band down the street (4 measures repeated with gusto) had tuned up. For just a moment I had a nostalgic thought of foot-ball, tail-gate parties.... crisp evenings. A few bowls of crisp white ants, some BBQ goat, a few bottles of Nile Beer - and the fantasy got really weird. So I went back to my Italian Roast Espresso, pan-made toast with Blue Band (akin to margarine - even the mice don't eat it) and the last chapter of another who-done-it. But this afternoon, we noted that a little girl in the neighborhood was collecting white ants in an empty water bottle. Somewhere tonight hors d'oeuvres are being served...
We had a storm of Biblical proportions a few nights ago. The storms here out-do anything I've experienced in Texas or Louisiana in terms of the sheer violence of the thunder, the torrential rain and duration - until you get to hurricanes. It was spectacular and cold (meaning below 70). Ugandans the next morning were dressed in winter coats, shawls, knitted hats. The Mzungus were in heaven. Getting up the morning after - in the dark, power being "finished"- I stumbled into the dining area and once again something big skittered away. This time I saw it - a calico kitten - about 6 months or at least not old enough to look near death like the other two feral cats who live on the property. (We've named then Yin and Yang by the way, since they are studies in black on white and white on black). This one is not completely wild because she paused halfway out the kitchen window considering her options no doubt. She's awfully cute, but evidently terrible at her job as mouser. The little beast is still here looking for my Dark Chocolate Granola Bars. It'll be a cold day in hell before it gets another one. They are now in a metal can..
Well damn! There are things flying around the light-bulb! Oh god it's White Ants!!!!!!! Time out.
OK - five dead white ants later - I've now had my aerobic activity for the night. First we spray them with BOP to make 'em dizzy. While they're distracted I whack 'em with the famed Mosquito Zapper.
They're BIG and they crunch underfoot. You will know it's time for me to come home when I ask for Lemon Pepper to use on White Ants...
Oh that note, I hear water trickling. It's been on and off 4 times this afternoon - never enough for a bath or shower, but enough to fill the toilet tanks. Tonight we flush. How the mighty have fallen...
No comments:
Post a Comment