It's now summer here in Sitges, even if the rest of you have to wait until the Solstice for it to be official in your part of the world. The skies are blue, the sun is out, and it's starting to get not just comfortably warm, but occasionally uncomfortably hot. The tourists are starting to arrive in droves.
Unfortunately, so are the mosquitoes. Comes with having a big garden and liking to keep my patio doors open during the day to feel the breeze. The little bastards sneak in during the day and like to try to torment me during the night. I'll be in bed, just about to drop off into sleep, and I'll hear this BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ as one of them dive-bombs my head. I spent some time in "defend myself" mode, cruis- ing the house with a flyswatter before going to sleep, but it never helped. They just hid; they're that smart. So I wound up taking the opposite approach with them. I started dropping garlic tablets before bedtime and spraying myself with an herbal mosquito repellent. Works like a charm; I haven't been bitten since. The mosquitoes understand that they can no longer actually land on me and feed, and it makes them CRAZY. They persist in dive-bombing my head while I'm sleeping, trying to disturb my peace of mind. But they don't. I've learned to ignore them as the petty pissants they are. There is a similar situation here on Fairfield Life. A number of posters on this forum -- like mosquitoes -- seem to feed off of the other posters. Whereas the mosquitoes are *needy* and must suck blood to live, the mosquito-posters on FFL are equally needy, but suck attention. They live to force their way into other posters' attention and get them to focus on them. These mosquito-posters don't seem to care what the nature of the attention is; be it positive or negative, it doesn't matter as long as they're getting attention. Ignore them, and they keep buzz- ing past your head, hoping that you'll get up and chase them with a verbal flyswatter again. No more. I've started taking my metaphorical garlic pills, and hopefully they'll work as well on these vampires as they do on the mosquitoes. And yes, I *know* that they'll keep buzzing me, trying to get my attention. But I don't have to give it to them. I've been taking this approach with Willytex for some time, and it's seemed to work. He rarely even tries to get my attention any more. It's worked to some extent on ed11; he/she rarely bothers to buzz me any more, except to play "pile on" to others' attempts at buzzing. A good start. Now comes the real experiment. If I consign Judy and Edg to the same genus of bothersome insectae and ignore their needy asses and desire to suck attention, what will happen? My bet is that they'll react just like the Sitges mosquitoes. They'll redouble their efforts at buzz- ing me, trying to get me to get up and try to chase them with a flyswatter. But if I don't, what will they do then? Will they *still* keep buzzing me? Will they continue to act so needy even when it becomes apparent to everyone on this forum *that* all that's being played out is their own neediness? We'll see. A new experiment. Gulp...down the FFL garlic tablets. Spritz...spray on the herbal mosquito repellent. Now kick back and wait for the buzzing to begin. And ignore it if I can. They can't bite me and feed on the attention they need to survive unless I allow them to. That I know. But like the mosquitoes they'll try their best to make my life miserable *because* they can no longer feed. My only recourse at this point seems to be to do what I did with the mosquitoes and ignore their needy asses. P.S. I might still swat at them from time to time, just for the fun of it, but on my own terms, not on theirs. It's weak of me I know, but I do the same thing with the mosquitoes. A big fat one lands on the wall while I'm sitting on the sofa, and lured into a sense of complacency since I don't get up and chase them at night, just sits there thinking it's safe. Swat. Big bloody smear on the wall, Yes, I have to get up and clean the wall afterwards, but it's worth it.
