Loving Lazy Friday

As it is with shift workers, I have today and tomorrow off, and work Sunday.  So my lazy Sunday has been moved forward to lazy Friday.  This involved a nice sleep in, 2 full cups of coffee before my healthy whole wheat naturally vanilla flavored cereal modelled upon my childhood favorite, Kellogg's mini-wheats (with the white frosted sweetness on one side of each one), flavored of course with almond milk rather than dairy milk.  I have adopted many of the well publicized health trends...greek yogurt, always whole wheat if it involves bread, pasta, or flour, choosing natural items, or at least the option with the least chemicals and preservatives.  I hope somewhere inside some cell is quietly thanking me for the reduced toxins and extra antioxidants...because it certainly has not made me slimmer.  In fact, I have gained weight the last couple of years as I have transitioned into healthier eating.  So I hope some microscopic good has come of this.  Although to be fair, I have my transgressions, and that box of delicious home made cookies that arrived earlier this week from upstate New York are likely to have lived a longer life in their journey here than they will in my home (recalling my previous posts, you will be happy to know that these cookies arrived in less than three months, making a speedy trip across the ocean to arrive in only 21 days!  A big shout out to Lanie and Tim for the gift.  Much like Karen cookies, Lainie cookies are a coveted prize, and have been used around the shores of Marley Beach as a currency over the years.  I believe a small package of them are travelling around Asia to be used as bribes at the present as well, and I recently heard that Qatar is brokering for some as well.)

On my lazy morning I perused the recent activity on facebook, read the online news, and caught up on everybody else's blog.  Through this I learned the Olympic Games opening ceremonies are on, but alas, they are listed on the Cablevision guide, but are not playing.  Another quirk of Bermuda.  I know some of the games will eventually show up on one of the channels, but the coverage is not as comprehensive as I recall from my days in Canada.  The cats are lounging, content with having me home for the day.  I wouldn't say hey are enthusiastic about it, just non-interested with my extra time here today as cats sometimes are.  Nothing is so humbling as co-habitating with felines.  I also learned that I was not the only one to open a closet on the weekend and find mould.  Facebook had abundant stories of leather jackets and favorite outfits and accessories that had succumbed to the scourge of January dark and dank.  I pulled out a pajama top from the bottom of the drawer last night and didn't realize til I saw my reflection in a mirror that I was modelling more mould.  Perhaps more cleaning needs to go on my to do list today.

The weather outside is pleasant but cloudy.  The last 2 nights have boasted gorgeous sunsets over town, and it is on my wish list to have clear skies at dusk today so that I can venture out and get a picture.  The news is already reporting signs of the returning spring, and therefore returning tourists, such as humpback whales sightings by researchers, a very early return of a few longtails, and union strikes by labourers resulting in the shut down of the bus and ferry service.

One of the nuances of life in Bermuda is the ants.  Much much lower on the list than cockroaches and mould, are ants.  I read somewhere once that the standing joke is that Bermuda is not a British colony, but an ant colony.  These are nice, ordinary little ants, not like the fire ants my friend Jody is contending with in Belize, but they do have a tendency to try to take over.  A while back there was a video going around that showed an American researcher who poured molten metal into an ant hill and dug it up to show the intricacy of their tunnels.

A metal cast of a regular ant colony in America (photo borrowed from internet, no credits were attached to share)

In Bermuda, if you do the same thing with concrete, it looks like this.

Initially you notice one of two, and despite knowing they are little scouts, you let them go because they aren't really bothering anything.  But within 48 hours they are back with friends, visible rows of 2 lane traffic coming in and out of the electrical outlet, the unseen gap in the frame of the door or a tiny opening between one of the tiles in the bathroom.  One of my cats, Harry, stays slim by chasing each kernel of food before he eats it.  This leaves lots of decoy areas on the floor, so my house ants never really interfere with the higher surfaces.  But nothing makes the cats more despondent than ants in their food bowl.  I hate killing them with spray, so I do my best to sweep the streams outside, and shake them out of the bowls before washing (and drowning any hanger-ons), but inevitably a few are sacrificed when their point of entry is sprayed with raid.  They are creative though...they will stay away from the sprayed spot, and pop out somewhere else you hadn't dreamed of.  After a particularly long battle of back and forth between me and the ants last spring, I finally sprayed around all of the windows and doors and every crack and crevice of the main floor.  I returned from work that evening.  I came home and was met at the door by JJ cat who let out a mournful yowl that was extremely out of character.  Always a hearty eater, I knew he was ranting to me about the injustice of ants in his food bowl.  Sure enough, I walked to his bowl and found it swarming, and followed the stream to its source.  The ants had scaled the outside wall of the house to the 2nd floor, accessed the house via an unsprayed window in the bedroom, trekked across the floor to the stairway, and unable use the spiral staircase, were marching up and down it's support pole and across the kitchen directly to the food bowl.

The ants are non-discriminating.  They also like to visit the lab where I work.  In the summers we will often find one or two, wondering where exactly they come from (we have never been able to find their entry point).  A petri dish of bacteria doesn't seem very enticing to most of us, but one morning I came in to work to find this note from my coworkers in place of the normal stack of cultures we keep at arms reach to perform tests with.

Well, pesky as they are, they are part of life in Bermuda, and not the worst problem on the list.  That said, I believe I have some ant sweeping to do today before I head out and see what awaits me on my day off.  If anyone is looking for something to do tonight, I heard a great recommendation for Lido, which has a buffet and wine tasting tonight and tomorrow.  Rumour has it $75 gets you a great meal and 10-12 wines to taste...this weekend France is being featured.   I suspect Lido has it's own ant issues, and the little fellas will be very happy tonight and slow moving tomorrow.  Happy weekend everyone!