Bloomsday

I drove thirty miles to the big city today for an electric bug repellent device that I have no guarantee will work. I’m not sure about its environmental impact, either, but these things are driving me crazy. The joke in Maine is that there are four seasons: winter, winter, winter, and black fly season, and we’re hardcore into black fly season as of June. I’m not complaining, but I am declaring nuclear war.

There are all these techniques, like BTi, a kind of bacterial organic biocide that you dunk in the beaver creek. But it sounds awful. Better for me to breath in the electric biocides than all the poor little peepers. I’ve still been managing my two-mile walk every day, but I leave in a good mood and come back in a bad one, covered in bites, even with the Deep Woods Deet.

Illegitimi non carborundum. That’s all I can say about the suckers. I’ve seen some mosquitoes in my day: the Sierra Nevada after snowmelt, the Florida Everglades at the wrong time of year, Thailand. But Maine swamp may do me in.