A Couple of Plagues

I think I've mentioned previously that I'm not much of a television watcher. I seldom think to turn it on at all. In the evenings, however, when I finish sewing down in my studio, I come upstairs and join Himself in front of the screen and we put on whatever Netflix has sent us recently.

Of late, however, here's been a variation. About every ten or twenty years I have a "baseball year." I never really know when it is going to strike (beg your pardon), but for a season I'll learn the names of the players and follow the Phillies with a fervor. This year I've even learned that there are times I should put on my "rally cap" when things are looking bad.

I've also noticed the commercials seem to be for Levitra, Cialis, and Viagra. It appears that there is a plague of erectile dysfunction in the Philadelphia area. I'm just sayin'.

The other plague is far more personal. It involves Bodacious and his propensity to catch locusts and bring them, still a-buzzin', into the house. As far into the house as he can get. Joe swears the cat was smiling yesterday as he passed through with his prey in his mouth, wings waving furiously.

There are things about the end of summer that I've always appreciated. The Jersey corn, tomatoes and peaches, for example. And the cooler nights. And seeing The Nonspeakers'* dogwood trees beginning to turn color. I'd forgotten about the locusts, however.




*Our very strange neighbors across the street who in ten years have not only not said a word to us but actually look the other way when we see them outside.

Comments

*karendianne. said…
Oh Bodacious. The efficient hunter! Would it be rude if I just mentioned something that we have here? An overflow of baby tiny frogs. It's very distressing to attempt a rescue. Upsetting. All three pounce. Then Duke gets in on it. Oh. It's very upsetting. I thought the lizards were bad but tiny baby frogs...

Sometimes it's hard livin' in Florida. For real.
Laurie said…
Our kitty who disappeared a few years back brought in live birds a couple of times. THAT was not fun. Must say, if we had to lose one of our kitties, I'm kind of glad the non-hunter was the one to stay around.

Also, if you think the ED drugs are bad, you should see some of the stuff on the lower-budget soccer channels, which have to take all ads to stay in business. I won't say more, but there's some serious, "I'd prefer my 14-yo not SEE this" stuff!

(Also, I find it kind of hilarious that this stuff turns up in the Weekend Warrior channels. And that I can tell by the ads that I'm definitely NOT the target audience for these channels.)

(Captcha: worsess. Just when you think things can't get more bad.)
Ms. Jan said…
I don't think the E.D. problem is limited to the greater Philly area, dear. I'm following the SF Giants and it seems that we have the same issues in the Bay Area too. Perhaps if they were watching fewer hours of sports on tv........
Helen said…
LOL...we have a Nonspeaker neighbor, too!

I can MAKE the man speak to me, by speaking directly to him; however, I can be 10 foot from the woman and speak to her and she turns around and ignores me!

I'm just sayin!

Hugs
Pat said…
Junior, the tabby cat who was left under our bushes as a kitten, tried to sneak a mouse into the house the other night. Good thing my hubby noticed a squeaking noise and an odd look about his mouth & shut the screen door just in time.

All of those ED commecials on during sports broadcasts lend new meaning to the term "not being up for the game."
Tricia said…
Oh no! I am a non speaker neighbor...however I do live next to a drug addicted couple that has 3 kids, constantly scream profanities at each other in their driveway, and play very loud music at 7am in a nice neighborhood. How does this happen? Oh mommy and daddy bought the house for them :(

I hear you on the rally cap! The Phils need to bench Lidge and move on so we can clinch the division!
Mrs. Goodneedle said…
We have NS neighbors, never been able to figure it out. When we started building they wanted to buy a strip of our land as a buffer zone, the lots can't be subdivided and we couldn't make their desire happen. It's very rural here, so it's not like we built in their yard or anything. Anyway, we found out that Mrs. NS has cancer, from someone else who happened to learn it, they didn't communicate this fact. I took her a quilt but she didn't come to the door, I left it by the garage door and noticed that they have taken it inside, we did telephone them to let them know that there was a gift at the door. I hope she can use it. I was raised with friendly neighbors and we all looked out for one another. This behavior stymies me, but it's they way it is.

Bo the fearless locust hunter... ewwww.
Karen L. said…
Yea, neighbors just aren't what they used to be. We lived in South Jersey and the whole street of neighbors talked to each other and looked out for one another. Now we are in NC and I am still looking for that "southern hospitality" that is hyped. We do have a former neighbor that was great when we first moved down. However, the road we live on now is very strange .... even one of our neighbors said that!!! I think we are the only ones who talk to almost everyone else because we walk our dogs up and down the road and people will stop to say "Hi" or at least wave. What a shame it has come to this. A sign of the times perhaps? It saddens me.
AnnieO said…
Live Locusts? OMG that's worse than a 3" dead grasshopper I once removed from my cat's mouth, thinking it was a stick!

We call our weird neighbors "The Unfriendlies". The wife drives up the street ramrod straight, never looking at anyone and apparently unable to lift her hand to acknowledge a wave. It's been 19 years! The husband isn't as bad but they are both allegedly TEACHERS.
Salem Stitcher said…
Luckily our neighborhood is fairly friendly except we have a house across the street that I swear is a sleeper cell. People come by and maintain it and check the mail but no one lives there. It's freaky.

And for those ED commercials...they have figured out how to cure THAT but they can't cure juvenile diabetes or ovarian cancer? I'm just sayin'...
Anonymous said…
While we have no pets ourselves due to traveling, our son and grandchildren all have dogs that are family. Our pets are of the bigger variety - 4 deer in the front yard this a.m. inches from our front door and 10-12 wild turkeys. We are very rural - 2 to 10 acre homesites but EVERYONE waves and because we have high fire danger we have a phone tree, e-mail, and those neighbors surrounding us all have each others phone numbers. We look out for each other when gone, taking in mail, feeding animals, etc. We always lived in custom-development-type areas before moving here 3 yrs. ago but we picked a very friendly area (even two close quilters that let me use their quilting room to cut my fabric). Can't get any friendlier than that!!
The Boy said…
Definitely time to bench Lidge. If Myers continues to heal well they should put him in the closer spot. And I'm not too thrilled with Hamels either, though he's been throwing better in recent weeks.
Tanya said…
I had to laugh at your description of your very strange neighbors! You too! We have next door neighbors like that! I really wonder why. I always try to say hello, but the husband RUNS when he sees me. He runs when he sees Tetsu too so I guess it isn't personally aimed at me... Sort of a shame though...

My cats catch those things too!