#28 — Wasp Wars, An Eclipse, And Indulgences

Janie,

Things in the backyard have taken a nasty turn. I guess, technically, I am the aggressor in this situation, but you can’t say I wasn’t provoked. The wasps are just getting far too comfortable and have started landing on us. As my first attack, I’ve set two traps - honey and sugar water in a plastic bottle and a bowl of sugar, soap, and apple cider vinegar water. This is a high stakes kill or be stung operation, and if these traps don’t eliminate the problem, I’ll have to call in for backup. To deter the varmints from attacking us until things are settled, we’ve opted to play with sliced limes in water in the front yard where there’s less activity. So far we’ve only had one unwelcome fly by, but he didn’t seem to want to stick around.

End of day one - zero wasps caught

The next day, I had to put making more traps on pause. The weather was just too nice to be spent anxiously scanning the skies in all directions, so I thought a trip to Grandma’s house seemed to be the best move. This turned out to be 1hr 30 min drive due to some rather appalling incompetence on the road.

While the cousins played in Grandma’s sand box, and Olga took her morning nap, I had the rare opportunity to do some thinking and a little planning. I realized that using ChatGPT for organizing my projects and creating plans for getting all the chores done around the house is super useful! Especially when it comes to getting our basement cleaned out (it’s filled with junk from the previous house owners). It suggested to gather supplies before start like pre-labeled boxes to throw stuff in, a vacuum to tidy up after moving things around, trash bags etc.. simple and seemingly obvious things. But, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve started a project having not prepared anything at all and having to run upstairs to grab a trash bag makes the task seem that much more annoying. So, it’s nice to see a well thought out or calculated list of everything essentially to have in place before getting started. Sometimes, it’s nice to have AI to do some thinking for me when my brain is hyper focused on everything.. all at once . If only that kind of technology could be used exclusively for non threatening things like housework. I’ll probably ask it help me build my chicken coop too…

Speaking of, we have little chicks in the house now! They are almost a week old! We started with 4 and, tragically, lost one due to some unknown cause. We were able to make her as comfortable as possible and she died very quickly, about 30 minutes. The other three (two Jersey Giants and a Rhode Island Red) seem to be thriving so we’ll be getting some of the Egyptian breed later on to add to the flock.

Anyway,

After Grandma’s house I rushed the kids home (a 57min drive) to Silouan, leaving myself just 20 minutes to shower, feed Olga, and get ready to meet Ginny at Sasha’s for a much needed wine night. This also included a beautiful stroll down to the corner store to purchase a pack of light blue American Spirits from a very jolly man working the register. (And jolly is not a word I use to describe many people and especially not this time of year). But he was giggling and cracking jokes I couldn’t understand very well due to his soft voice. It was such a positive interaction and he even threw in a bright green lighter for free. Sometimes I really miss city life. When I arrived home later that evening around 11:30, back in the sticks of JeffCo, Silouan was finishing up baking a few loaves of bread and we boldly decided to stay up till 2 IN THE MORNING to watch the total lunar eclipse. This was a total mistake.

Disappointing, right?

-Lydia

p.s. I checked my traps today and we have successfully murdered two wasps! And can you guess what came to mind from so long ago?

“Ha! Have a nice life! Well, afterlife!”