Spring: The Good and the Not-So-Good

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cherry blossom
Photo by Arno Smit on Unsplash

If you know me or have been up on my posts, you know that I am big on weather and the seasons. I detest Winter and I love Spring.

A Time of Re-birth

Spring is my favourite time of year. It comes later in Alberta than most places, but it is wonderful once it arrives.

Even with the lingering patches of snow, Spring leaves me with a sense of happiness and energy. I wake up earlier because the Sun is up. My mood is better because the days are longer and the Sun is warmer.

I love to go on walks to see the greenery all around me. The Willow trees have their pussy willows preparing to produce their leaves. There are buds sprouting on all the plants and the lakes and ponds are opening up as they melt. Life is waking up from its long frosty nap with urgency.

I enjoy the smell of incoming rainfall and the scents from the flowers as they bloom. There is nothing quite like walking through a dense arch of trees and shrubs as they bombard my nose with their mix of fragrances.

Even as I sit here writing, I take a few moments to pause and reminisce about all the pleasant smells this time of year.

Spring Brings Something Else Though

Since Spring is a time of re-birth, it isn’t just all the things we love. All life is in full swing, including the bugs. While not a bad thing on its own, it means something else is preparing to hatch. The demon child of the wetlands — the mosquito.

I took my motorcycle out on a ride the other day for a short loop around Cochrane. On my return, I noticed some telltale splatters on the front fairing of my bike. I could clearly see the remains of a mosquito wedged in the crevice of my headlight.

There’s nothing better than seeing the lifeless carcass of a mosquito but seeing it there tells me that this is just the beginning. The hordes of emotionless blood-suckers are about to be released upon our unsuspecting population.

Crazy Actions with Cause

If we were alien observers of humans during mosquito season, we would think the population has gone completely nuts. We would see people venture out with smiles on their faces only to see them quickly run back inside. They would then return with cans of highly toxic substances only to observe them liberally douse themselves with these products.

We would see them dancing wildly with their hands, arms and legs flailing about. Would we assume humans have no sense of “groove” or would we presume they need to expend this much energy simply to get from one place to another?

We would observe an unreasonable amount of self-abuse as they slap themselves about. Slapping their faces and their torso. Even going as far as slapping their own friends. What a barbaric culture, we would think, and quickly turn our ships about. Who wants to engage such a violent and hostile species.

That Undeniable Sound

If you came up to someone, put your mouth close to their ear and quietly made a high pitched “eeeeeeeeee” noise, they would immediately know what you are referring to. There are few sounds more annoying than that of a mosquito buzzing your ear. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to see someone instinctively slap your face away with a look of dread on their own. They would know, only too well, what that sound means.

The only thing worse than that sound buzzing your ears is when you hear it while you are trying to sleep. Imagine you are completely exhausted from your day and you are looking forward to a long restful sleep. You climb into bed and start to doze off. Just as you get to that point where you’re bouncing in and out of dreamland you hear “eeeEEEeee…eeeEEEeee…” in and out of audible range.

It’s dark and you can’t see your attacker, but you know it’s there. You pull the covers over your head as your only sensible line of defence and wait it out. You start to overheat and come out for air. It’s only moments before you hear that sound again “eeeEEEeee…eeeEEEeee…”. You’re too tired to get out of bed knowing that your attacker will disappear the moment you choose to deal with the situation. So you suffer, your head hidden under the covers, sweating buckets, just trying to get a few moments of true rest.

Something Bit Me!

This is not just a line from Forrest Gump. This is the reality of this horrid pest. Eventually, even with all your defences in place, they will get you. You may see the small creature with its vampiric “nose” buried into your flesh or you may only be left with the evidence of its efforts.

If you’re like me, you swell and you itch. If you catch it in the act, you may slap and kill it leaving a smear of your own blood but the damage has been done. It has already injected you with a healthy dose of uncomfortable itching juice. Now you get to experience several days of scratching or performing the proven remedy of etching an “X” into the wound using only your fingernail.

Acceptance

Finally, as Spring progresses to Summer, we accept the fact that we have to live with these pests. We accept the fact that we will spend the remainder of the season smelling like deet or some other, much less effective, formula.

We spend our outdoor meals housed inside mesh tents or we spend endless amounts of money on questionable products in hopes that the one we chose this year will be effective.

If we’re lucky, our bodies just become used to them. We get bit, we itch for a few hours and then the swelling goes away. Yay us! We can now handle the venom from these abominations of nature effectively and efficiently.

Focus on the Good

Even though I witnessed evidence of the pests to come, they are not out in force yet. Now is the time to focus on the beauty of the season. Focus on the smells and all the greenery around us. Focus on the flowers from the Crabapple trees and the wonderful scents they produce. Go on walks and enjoy your time not spent slapping yourself. It’s a great time to be alive, so enjoy it and just “live”.

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