rites of spring

We're all sick of winter.

I don't know a single person, that if you asked them would say, "We need just one more good snowfall". It's March 10th and we should be seeing some signs of spring, already. Enough.

I saw my first signs of spring today, in the form of unwelcome visitors.

Ants.

We get them every year, without fail. Some years it's the big fat carpenter ants invading our space, other times it's the teeny little guys. We have 2 huge maple trees in our yard and maples mean ants. I don't know why exactly, but they do. I should look into the why.

At our old house in Dearborn we would get them so bad, that for weeks I was like a psycho on patrol, exterminating thousands a day. If you come into my house, you are fair game. If I wanted to be crawling in insects, I would live outdoors. 

Once we came home with our baby daughter after having gone somewhere for the evening. We walked in the back doot, flipped on the kitchen light and I literally screamed at the sight of thousand of ants on every surface of the kitchen. I wanted to abandon everything and move right then and there.

I suppose the main reason they bug me so much (no pun intended) is that they make me feel unclean. One or two bugs in the house=persistance of nature. Tons of ants= filthy hovel.

So today, after showering, I spied a slowish moving small ant crawling on the wall of my bedroom. No big deal. Suck it up with the dustbuster (otherwise know as the bug sucker). Doing my thing, getting dressed and lotioned and hair-did.

There's another one. And another one.

Now I'm starting to pay attention.

They have found a little slit in the window where the screens fit in, and are coming out through there. A few at a time, tenatively. In the time it takes to me get fully dressed there are 9 that I can see. I never like to be outnumbered.

I've seen Antz, and the Ant Bully and A Bug's Life. Cute movies about bugs are fun. But that's not gonna stop me from sucking them up. Humanize them all you want.

I have to wonder if they are realizing yet that their friends aren't returning. Pretty soon it's gonna be down to two ants, drawing straws or playing rock/paper/scissors to see who goes next. Stupid animators.