"Now what in the world is the purpose of a mosquito?  There is no good use under the sun for those goddamn pests.  They should just exterminate them all."  Chuck asked and answered his own question.  However, he is not likely to bring up the topic again, at least not in my presence.  When he made those comments they were followed by about 15 minutes in defense of the lowly, under appreciated mosquitoes, care of your friendly environmentalist science teacher.   Not that I changed his opinion, mind you.

 However, take those pesky no-see-ems, PLEASE.  The past two evenings our sunset watching has been nearly ruined by these absolutely useless, infernally pesky and ubiquitous insects.  And they hurt too.  I'm thinking that Chuck might have been on to something.  Some damn thing better evolve into a no-see-em eater and quickly - like before tomorrow evening. If someone did come out with a poisonous extermination plan, I'm not sure where I would stand. 

Our experience with this nearly invisible skin munching plague has made us wiser.  Any damn fool can learn from his or her own mistakes.  This night Nancy and I elected to go to Skaket Beach for the sunset.  Here we could sit in our air conditioned car, see the sunset and be entertained by all the ignorant no-see-em fodder aka tourists.  One group after another jump from their cars and onto the broad, soft beach bathed in orange glow.  A Mongol horde of the little white biting bastards descends upon them.  Some folks had cameras, other had Frisbees, some even came with insect repellant.  Each went down in turn in a frenzy of swatting, running for their lives - women and children first. 

A teenage couple saunter over, hand in hand, to an empty bench.  How fortuitous to find such a prime seat in such a romantic location.  Now, they have suffered through tattoos and endured the pain of body piercing but the alighting of .00001mg insects is too much for love to conquer.  They last 15 seconds.

 Three generations pile out of a minivan with insect repellant towelettes and several cameras.  You have to admire that they arrived with a plan.  They are to apply the necessary protection, get lined up for the once in a lifetime family portraits (multiple cameras were available) and enjoy the afterglow of the set sun.  Within one minute the little white repellant towelettes are being used as breathing filters and grandpa had joined the younger generations in that Jamaican trance thing that they do with the dead chicken. 

One determined couple arrived with their three little boys all dressed in matching shirts.  Mom had the camera while Dad the chore of arranging the trio along the shoreline in front of the orange-ball sunset.  "Oh, this is going to be hilarious", I tell Nancy. I grab my camera and head out to get a picture of this poor, soon-to-be suffering family as they swat, wave, cry and run through their Christmas card photo op.  Mom is alternately swatting and focusing.  "Say 'Christmas cheer".  Dad is doing the arrangement thing with hand signals that could easily be mistaken for an epileptic seizure.  All of this is for naught since the kids are dancing like injuns at a war party.  Needless to say, I too have joined the spastic parade.

 Safely back on the car, Nancy and I watch the last of the sunset afterglow and head out for some ice cream.  There is no rush to leave the air conditioning in this 90/90 weather so we drive.  Down past the Barley Neck Inn and, after a few turns onto quiet roads we have not seen before, we come to a dead end.  The little parking lot opens onto a tidal bay. 

The sky and water are still azure blue with the last light of day but the land has become indigo, inky and featureless.  This silhouette view could not be photographed, just enjoyed for this moment alone.  As our eyes adjusted to the dark, the sparkle of fireflies filled the indigo forest.  The thousands of tiny lights each announcing the location of an optimistic suitor or a willing object of desire.  They filled our space with a romantic sparkle.   

If we were to be rash enough to do something to kill off all those no-see-ems, might we inadvertently destroy the fireflies too?  I think I'll take the bad with the good.  Life is more interesting that way. 

Life is Good.