| 034 | Trouble with Flies | 2009-01-19 |
I don’t want to really get political, but I have been trying to figure out the Israeli - Hamas conflict. Israel seems to be upset over the missile attacks directed at them from the Gaza Strip. I realize nothing is quite that simple, especially with Holy Wars, but Israel finally got mad enough to fight back. Now there is a truce, but Sunday mornings news still reported missiles being fired from Gaza at Israel.
........
Climbing in Canada one summer, we must have hit the prime black fly season. We were camped at a lake for several days waiting for a clearing in the weather. The black flies seemed upset (or happy) that we were on their land and were intent on biting us.
We tried coating our skin with heavy doses of DEET, but they seemed undeterred by the lotions. Swatting the flies was our only means of defense.
Sitting around the campfire we swatted. A fly would bite, we would swat. When a fly landed on a friend, we swatted. A fleet of flies would land and we would swat them all. Oddly enough the flies were not at all like Tennessee flies in that they didn’t seem to fly away or avoid being killed. The flies did not want to avoid us, they just wanted to bite us.
We tried counseling and reasoning with the flies, but to no avail - they still attacked us and we still swatted them.
Days later we finally left the campsite still swatting. The flies never learned if they bite us we would swat them.
Happy trails.