Saturday, May 2, 2009

ANTS IN MY COFFEE, NOT MY PANTS
















I hopped out of bed this morning like an english muffin from a hot toaster port... ready for the day. I am one of those sick individuals who wake happy and ready to go. Most days. I have had a few slow goes. Today my morning began with getting a great email and that's always a good start. Big smile!

So I go into my kitchen and make myself a nice hot cup of chai tea, shake a bit o
f powdered creamer in it, give it a stir... and there in the middle of my froth and foam twirls a little ant. I gave him my morning salute, which includes several words I can't even find a cute way to put in my post. I don't just hate ants, I loath them, incinerate them with my brain waves, smash them, kill them with Windex... which works remarkably well, by the way... and even blow them away with a hot hair dryer whenever possible. There is something very satisfying in smiting ants with super heated air. ;-)

Ant seasn is here and what that silly little swimmer didn't
know was that he sparked the begining of this year's war with the ants. It is an annual event that has no clear begining or end because it all depends on how tennatious they are and how crazed I get. You will be warned... many ant rants are likely to follow. If you have any idea how to get rid of ants, please feel free to share. In fact... I beg you!

I have had some interesting options offered to me over the years. One friend swore by cinnamon. "It really works..." she said and went on to explain that "All you have to do is lay a line of cinnamon around the edges of your counters. They don't like it", she went on, "It gets on their feet and they can't stand it." Desperation drives me to try these things. My ant
s liked it. My ants thought that I'd done such a super nice thing to provide some lovely smelling cinnamon... that they invited all their ant relations to come and party hearty. I really hate ants.



The cup of coffee up there isn't the chai with the ant jimmie. This cup was from a nice evening yesterday. I met my friend in the town to the left. We had coffee and then walked to the museum, where some of our students had work on display. I took my photos of the event, including some for the school newsletter of the girls with their work. They did an impressive job. Much better than my crappy photos.





It made for a nice evening. I do not socialize much. I'm more of a hermit. But this was a good change. I really liked sitting on the veranda and people watching. This town is full of old folk like me. They are a funny group. I found myself thinking that I might like to move there. Maybe sit here on a regular basis and people watch.

I am not good in social situations generally speaking. I tend to freeze up and go stupid. No words pop into my head beyond ah, um, er , and ehem. Yet in a work environment I can yak and have a great time. I was okay once we got to books. I can talk books all day long and into tomorrow. So I had fun after all.



I took this photo as I was leaving. Not a great work of art to be sure. No. It's my toilet. Well, one that looks exactly like my toilet at home. I have to ask... have you ever seen such an ugly piece of porcelin? Think of it as not having a batch of flora to give it grace. Who would want an avacado green toilet? There are some things from the 70s that I have not managed to forgive. Avacado and Harvest Gold are two of them.


So here are a couple of questions for you...

What past abomination, such as stupid colored toilets bugging me, do you wish were never created?

Do you know a solution for ants?

Well, I hope you have a great weekend. I see through my window that we have rain after several days of stunning sunshine. So it goes.

15 comments:

  1. I hate ants. Especially the gi-ants that are about 1/3 of an inch long.

    The only thing that seems to work is sealing up where they get in.

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  2. dmraks-- My house in a box is full of holes. Sad but true. I got a grant from the gov. a year back to have it made energy efficient. They did that for the most part,but they never did fix the holes they made doing it. I think some may be for ventilation to keep the house from sweating. I do not pretend to understand stuff like this. I'm sure that's how they get in. AAAAGGGG.

    Maybe I'll try caulking. Thanks for the thought.

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  3. Hey Ananda :) Saw you at David's authorblog, and wondered about your name, which means bliss :) And then I liked your blog so here I am :)
    When you said "ant season," i thought you might have lived here in India! It's just begun...
    I'm an Aussie living in a village here...

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  4. I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords.

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  5. Braja-- Oh welcome! I'm so glad you stopped in and liked what you found. Nope... I'm in Oregon. I'd love to see India and Australia both. Your life must be interesting.

    Michael-- Okay, send me your address and I'll ship you mine. lol They are overlords aren't they? Clearly I am not the one in control.

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  6. i told my chinese neighbor that ants were worth 10 cents each.

    the next day i had no ants.

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  7. billy-- I wonder where I can get one? Do they get feisty? I only have scary old cat lover, heinous cat hater and Sham Wow school of crack graduates here.

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  8. you could try sevens powder, we used to use it in trinidad. man they had industrial strength ants there. of course i have no idea if it is even available here or not.

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  9. Lime--Thank you! I'll try that. I'll google it.

    Hey... I had a friend who married a man from Trinidad. Good food came out of their house!

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  10. They do indeed sell Sevin powder here, but you run the risk of getting it on your food. Sounds like what you have are house ants - so what you want is a toxin they can take home to their nests. You actually shouldn't kill them when you see them, but set out a bait and let them eat it and go. Like Terro. Also, you might want to caulk the holes they are getting in through.

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  11. Citizen-- Good information. Thanks. I'll look up Terro. I've gotten those disk things that have stuff in them and these ants are not bothered by them.

    In my head they wear armor and tiny gas masks and have a taste tester. If Elmer doesn't fall, they take the food home.

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  12. You already know about using Windex. Lemon also works.

    I have a horror story involving ants. One morning I groggily went to the coffeemaker to make coffee and, for a second, it looked like it was writhing. I shook the sleep from my eyes and saw that it was covered with ants. It was disgusting! That coffeemaker was thrown out promptly and a new one purchased later that day.

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  13. Cube--Yiiiiiiiiiii! I would have lost my mind! That is real life horror alright. Uck. I'm going to keep my Windex handy!

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  14. I guess I'm glad I'm not the only one, but our house has had an ant problem (the little kind) since the tornado. I'm sure there are more holes for them to get in since then, but they make me crazy too. Good luck to all of us.

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  15. Churlita-- If I learn the secret of getting rid of the beggers, I'll let you know.

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