July 16 words

Plane/panel
Mid-week a plane flew over at dusk and sprayed poison for the mosquitos, which had been so bad that when you stepped out of the car or the door to the house, ten or so would immediately land on you and start feeding.  You could see clouds of them riding up from the grass wherever anyone stepped.  I was so grateful that we had a screen porch, which allowed us to gather outdoors with a modicum of protection from the mosquitos.  I had to view the bullet, though, and spray myself lavishly with DEET filled repellent.  The dogs couldn't stay in all day, after all.  The repellent worked moderately well, though a few intrepid insects always found a corner of skin or clothing that suited them anyway. The dogs and  I walked the island nature trail through the swamps.  I admired the swampy beauty, but some part of me wondered why it was considered vacation to traipsing through an inhospitable jungle when there were lovely forests at home, right outside my front door!  I know, I know.   We were in a place for fishing and frolicking in the salt sea.  But the dogs could do none of this, so through the swamps we trekked, covered from head to toe with repellent. After the plane went through, it was seriously frightening (though completely blissful for us humans)  how much the mosquito population fell off.  Maybe 98%? But.  Even if a panel of respected scientists were to proclaim that the plane's spraying would directly lead to ecological collapse, in that moment of blissful liberation from the biting hordes, I am ashamed to say that I probably wouldn't have cared.

After that I was able to focus my full attention on the other creatures who disturbed our walks: other dogs.   Other people's dogs seemed so well behaved! Unlike my disgraceful canines, they  didn't bark and lunge when they were not permitted to meet and greet.  Of course, mine could be good.   When we met a calm owner, my dogs were fully capable of calmly sniffing the newcomers while I chatted with their owners.   That was quite heartening, especially as I saw Peanut get better and better at meet-and-greets.

[bkb in the city]

Cute pic

[katy]

Sweet shot of the dogs in the sunset! Interesting narrative and I love how you managed to tie the two words together

[Kathy]

I like the expressions of your dogs. I remember when I was young, living in PA, there were a lot of cases of encephalitis in NJ from the mosquitoes. On my only trip to Disney World, the place where the animals were (possibly called Animal Kingdom, was closed because of the mosquitoes. They are quite a threat to health. Of course sprays of insecticide are too. I remember running in the cloud of insecticide sprayed by the truck in my childhood, probably about the same time as the problem in NJ. Maybe that's what's wrong with my brain now.