On being a swarm of ladybugs

On being a swarm of locusts (or ladybugs)

It’s been a strange week so far.  Mike left for Norfolk on Saturday morning at the crack of dawn.  I envisioned a few days of catching up on my sleep, doing some sewing and generally relaxing before going back to teaching on Tuesday.  But as it transpired, there was a power outage on campus as a result of “blowing” a transformer.  This event happened over the weekend and then there was an intense windstorm on Sunday night over to Monday.  Power was knocked out for thousands of people across the state.  So the transformer problem at Framingham State University has taken a back burner.  The hope is that it will be fixed by Friday.  The upshot for me was that labs were cancelled this week.  So I have had a lot more down time than I anticipated.

 

This morning, I drove to Rhode Island to visit my elderly parents in the nursing home.  I visit them each week (when I’m not ill).  The nature of the visits varies a bit depending on how alert my parents are.  Mostly I talk to my Mom who still has some hearing.  Communicating with my Dad relies on writing on a white board, at this point he doesn’t hear anything I say.  Often, by the time I write something on the board, dad has fallen asleep again.

Today I was out of luck all around. Dad went back to bed after two notes on the white board.  My mom was sleeping.  After I stroked her shoulder several times, she opened one eye and told me she was going back to sleep.  Each subsequent time I tried to rouse her, I got less response.  After half an hour, I gave up and drove back home.

Maybe this is what it feels like to be a plague of locusts.  Actually, that would probably get more response.  They reacted to me the way I react to the swarm of ladybugs that invades my home every autumn.  One day, I look up at the ceiling on the landing and see the hordes of beetles in the corners.  After years of vacuuming them up or collecting them with the dust pan and hurling them outside, I’ve become resigned to them showing up as the cold weather draws near.  I don’t know if it’s true but the “interwebs” suggests that the first invader leaves a scent trail that the next ones follow.  What am I going to do wash the entire outside of my house?  (Might not be a bad idea, but what a lot of work). 

It’s the first of November.  The start of the rally draws near.  If all went well, the crew should have assembled in Norfolk today.  I’m sure we will be hearing more from there soon.