Buggin' Me

Here's some ironic itchy trivia. On our Jenny Lake trip, we almost Tweeted that we didn't see a single insect.  Then along came a single yellow jacket.  So, well, yeah, we saw one insect.  No mosquitoes, no blackflies, no regular flies, no gnats, no nothing.  It was eerie but highly delightful.  We could eat in peace at the picnic table without shooing away various flying insects.  Strange but true.

OK, we come back to Idaho Falls and go out to the golf course on Tuesday morning.  It's a beautiful morning, calm and wonderful, a little dew on the grass.  I wore shorts with a golf shirt, shoes and hat I picked up on the cheap in a t-store someplace.  I felt something on my leg and look down and there was a tiny insect there.  I shooed it away.  Whatever the little creatures were they sure packed a wallop. I suffered the worst bug bites Tuesday I've received in many, many years.  They are painful, incredibly itchy and all have swollen noticeably, some to the point of outright concern.  We bought and applied various bug bite chemicals at Wally World, mostly to no avail.  We even bought a half gallon of ammonia to bathe the bites.  The damage from little bug bites are worse than Arizona's legendary cedar gnats!  It feels like it's going to be a long time before the pain and itching subside. Likewise, it looks like the visual damage from these bugs will be with me for a long time and may even leave permanent scars.

Who knew golf could be so dangerous?

Yesterday was a disco go-go kind of day.  I actually went off to the fitness club at 8 am to 30 minutes of cario on the treadmill and then Susun and I went back again at 3:30 for another 30-minute session.  Susun spent her four hours at Habitat.  I met Houn' Dawg at Pinecrest and we whacked a couple of hundred golf balls each. 

Later in the afternoon, I headed on out to the shooting range for an informal IDPA-style match.  Even though the regular season concludes at the end of August, some of the club members continue on through September with few stages and fired rounds.   It's much more informal and a lot more "clubby," so to speak.  Everyone knows each other so it's as much a social occasion as a shooting match.  I took along Tom Bonomo's custom 1911.  It's the first time I've had that pistol out since it malfunctioned in July.  It worked great and I did really well. 

When I returned in the dark after 8 pm, Susun announced that Karen L. was coming over to watch a TV show.  Sure enough, soon thereafter, Karen arrived and Susun served a light late dinner with a red wine called "The Mad Housewife."  We retired to the basement while the ladies rollicked through their musical show and finally got to sleep well after 10 pm.

It's the dawn of a new day and we hope it won't be quite as busy as yesterday--maybe half as busy would be OK.

Well, we've reached the end of our story rope this morning.  Have a great day and Many Cheers!  jp