Skip to main content

The moot moots and me

I think it's going to be a long fight between the two of us and I suspect they're going to stay on the winning side of things.

The other day the weather was so beautiful when returning from my after-supper trip to feed the cats that I just stayed out on the porch and soaked up the beautiful scenery, the voices of the neighbours and the bright setting sun. Sitting there, I asked myself, why haven't I done this before?

I was called into the house before long, my sunset drinking cut short, so today, despite a fair amount of cloud making a much less lovely evening, I nevertheless determined to enjoy the weather on the porch after supper.

By the way, I've got all these itchy bites and I was thoroughly stumped as to where they came from. I have hardly seen a single mosquito here and the one or two I've seen have been so sluggish and slow-moving, I easily sent them to mosquito heaven. I haven't caught anything trying to bite me yet I keep finding insidious itchy spots.

Back to the porch. As I lingered there, Becky poked her head out the door with a warning, "the moot moots love this time of day." Oh. That's why I hadn't done it before: I believe I had heard a warning before about biting critters being worst at dusk. Not to be dissuaded from my outdoor absorption time, I put on some bug spray and sat out anyway, moot moots be hanged!

They were not, in fact, hanged. I may even have caught one or two at their dirty work. Either my bug spray was ineffectual.or more likely, my bugspraying was inept. Within a few hours, the familiar pink spots appeared up and down my right arm. But only the right, leading me to hope the latter is the cause.

This means war, bugs. I refused to be chased inside on a lovely night in Africa.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Bigger dreams for a livable city

A message to a mayoral candidate Just a few thoughts arising from the BW ride with the ED.  1) That bridge connecting Edmonton and Scott across the Assiniboine would be nice, of course. But we don't have the money to even build it, much less to build all the other bridges that would be desired.  The reason that a downtown AT bridge is so greatly desired is because the city *somehow* failed to put a bike lane on the Osborne Bridge when they rehabbed it in 2010ish, despite the fact that is was in *all the plans*.  Meanwhile there *are* three bridges downtown. Yes, they all have their challenges for cyclists, but there *are* three bridges.  Whereas Maryland to Omand's Creek is a *very* long stretch with *no bridges whatsoever* (except that sewage bridge at Aubrey taunting every pedestrian or cyclist who has to bike kms out of their way to connect from Cambridge to Sherburn. Poop can cross here but humans cannot.).  Since we do not have all the money in the world to...

Broken people...

After reflecting with one coworker on how often churches in all their forms really mess up and hurt a whole bunch of people in the process -- and how "we gotta do better" -- I stumbled into another conversation with a coworker which highlighted our brokenness, and I suddenly realized what was wrong with my take in the first. I wanted the church to be better at fixing our mistakes, or better yet, at not making them in the first place. But maybe this "fix-it" attitude is partly the reason we keep blowing it again and again! My friend recollected an experience when a church community was in a terrible place: compounded mistakes, hurts, and frustrations had blown up, spewing pain all over all parties. (I'm sure anyone with a long history in the church can think of one, if not several, such occasions in their past.) A new Christian who observed all these goings on responded in an unexpected way. Instead of "you people are a bunch of screw-ups! How could this pos...

Our money for genocide

(A little spice added to a form letter from Just Peace Advocates) I am disgusted by what I have learned through CPPIB’s 2026 Annual Report.  An analysis of CPPIB’s holdings shows more than $54 billion invested in companies that are actively participating in illegal activities in occupied Palestinian territory. As of 31 March 2026 (fiscal year end 2025/2026), CPPIB had over $54 billion invested in 120 companies complicit in Israel’s genocide, war crimes, and apartheid. This represents 6.9% of CPPIB’s total holdings in 25/26. This includes 8 companies listed on the UN Database — 3 US companies (Airbnb, Booking Holdings, and Motorola Soutions) and 5 Israeli companies (Bank Hapoalim, Bank Leumi, Delek Group, Israel Discount Bank, and Mizrahi Tefahot Bank).  Further, as of the 25/26 fiscal year, CPPIB drastically increased its investments in complicit Israeli companies. CPPIB reported investments in 21 complicit companies that did not appear in either the 23/24 or 24/25 annual repo...