Deluge

Rather impressively, those natural disasters just keep coming.  We had the earthquake, the hurricane, and the camping disaster about two weeks ago.  This week, we have experienced a deluge of rain, and another deluge of ants.  I like rain, but I must say that neither has been particularly pleasant.

The rain began on Labor Day afternoon.  Actually, I must give Mother Nature some credit for being polite.  She did allow us most of our Labor Day weekend - we ate outside for nearly every meal, and the Monday night was the only one where we got wet.  And now this Friday afternoon, the sun has begun to shine in time for the weekend.

So, the rain began on Monday afternoon, and did not quit until sometime after lunch today.  No joke - it did not quit at all.  Sometimes it would rain less and sometimes it would rain more, but it did not ever stop raining this entire week.  We live on top of a hill, and so we have seen no flooding, but our front yard is a spongy mess and plenty of places in the area have.  Rivers have crested and overflowed their banks all around us.  So many roads became impassable that many area schools were canceled for the day.

The rain makes the house a bit smelly.  It makes my hair a bit crazy.  And it really makes me wish for a garage - I've gotten soaked plenty of times, trying to carry a baby and a bag of groceries from the car to the front door.

But the ants are what really drive me crazy.  They seem to have begun around the same time, and brought progressively more friends each day.  The first few days, I killed all of them that I saw, laid chili sauce at their front door, and saw no more for the rest of the day.  Today I woke up to a flood of them. 

These pictures show steady streams of ants, but they fail to convey the itchy feeling that comes from finding them everywhere - crawling out of the stove burners, showing up on the side of your drinking glass, walking over the baby's plate, climbing up my leg.  Ick!  I've invested in some ant hotels, but these ants don't seem interested.  They've taken over the kitchen and laid siege on the dining room.  We've retreated to the family room, and the coming sunshine may allow us to lay claim to the back deck for our meals.  Hopefully, the ant hotels will prove to be the final weapon - and we can return as weary refugees to our ant-ridden kitchen.