Random 5 for July 15 – Insects, noise, road construction, music, reunions

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An invasion – I knew it was coming. When the fruit comes in season so do the fruit flies. At first it was a few “scouts” looking at the property. They were reviewing it for the fruit fly version of Airbnb. From the level of “reservations” that came in, we received high marks. They came with their aunts and uncles, grandparents and brought all the kids. ALL THE KIDS! (Do they not have birth control?) The advertisement read bright, sunny, lots of counter tops. Ripe fruit just waiting for you! (Yes, I love my fruit!) I have netting covers to put over fruit but that doesn’t get rid of them. In a pinch they will visit the cat food dishes. So annoying! It’s going to be a long season.

Freaking beeping! – Two of our neighbors had work done this week. One had several large pieces of heavy equipment in their yard. Starting shortly after 7 a.m. I heard the “beep, beep” of equipment in reverse. I did some laundry and put food in the oven. I couldn’t tell one beep from another unless I was in the same room. I was “beeped out” by the end of the day. The best news is that the BIG job (with all the equipment) was done in a day. Peace and quiet (sort of) reigns again.

You can’t get there from here – It’s road construction time. There are several large road projects going on this summer in our area. I went to our library this week. There are two ways to go and both had construction. One was a total road reconstruction with exposed re-bar and concrete trucks pouring and the other was a bridge rebuilding (with half the bridge gone!). I was wishing I had a drone that could support my weight! Fortunately this is not as bad as the year they redid the bridge between me and Starbucks. That was a cranky summer.

The power of music! – On the way to Starbucks I was bouncing and singing to Billy Idol’s “Mony, Mony.” (Pre-8 a.m. and pre-coffee. Only music can get me going like that!) It reminded me of a great conference I attended when I was working. I got up for a 7 a.m. presentation. There were 60 people ahead of me at the Starbuck kiosk so I went coffee-less (never a good thing!). When I walked in the room the presenter had really jumping 70s music playing loudly. My eyes bugged out but before you know it everyone there was bouncing in their seat and singing along. It would have been even better with a Starbucks.

Anticipation! – Next weekend is our family reunion. It’s always a great time and there is always some surprising news. Even better news is that I am not hosting this year but I am making my mom’s strudel recipe. I’ll keep my ears peeled for a good blog post! As Carly says, These are the good old days!

So how was your week?

63 thoughts on “Random 5 for July 15 – Insects, noise, road construction, music, reunions”

  1. I hope you have a marvelous family reunion, Kate. I just returned yesterday from mine, which included about 50 of us at the beach for four days. I’m still a little emotional about it…I may write about it. I may not be able to, lol! But wonderful, and I know it will be for you, too.

    I get it about the fruit flies! Me, too! And we are poised to have a huge home remodel two houses north of us. I suspect that awful beeping will be incessant! Ouch!

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  2. Fruit flies are weird. They make me as annoyed as the beep-beep-beep of yard equipment. I feel for you and your probs. Can’t wait to read about this year’s family reunion gossip. You know I live vicariously through you, right?

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    • If you are getting your excitement through me, you are in deep doodoo. Looking forward to reunion too. I don’t get to see the extended family often and you never know when something will happen and someone won’t be there anymore.

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  3. I looked into the fruit fly problem several years ago because I despise them. They’re always in your face and so hard to smack & kill. I creep up on them all stealth-like and still most get away. Apparently they come in as EGGS on produce which makes me about want to heave. I have the little store trap too and periodically refresh it with apple cider vinegar. It WORKS, so many little bodies floating at the bottom. Yes, time to heave.

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  4. You have GOT to get off these Air B’n’B lists! Rodents, fruit flies… Not a good time! Sorry also about the various constructions around you – no fun! But at least you have the reunion to look forward to – and there’s always Mony Mony!

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  5. Oh, the family reunion sounds fun! But I am not fond of fruit flies! Now I am wondering: are they the same as gnats or different? After my invasion of PANTRY MOTHS a couple of years ago I keep everything put away. This keeps the vermin away, but also is kind of a pain for fruit, especially for ripening.

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    • I think there are different types of teeny tiny flies. All are annoying. I haven’t had pantry moths in decades but we keep sunflower birdseed in the garage and they can get in there. The birds like the extra meat! 🙂 I like to keep tomatoes, bananas and most stone fruit out on the counter but I have to keep checking. As soon as they get a soft spot the flies are on it!

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  7. “fruit fly version of Airbnb.” – where is their darn information site – need to blast it good.
    If fruit isn’t available, they’ll settle into the cat grass. RC gets quite miffed – stomping around like Lassie getting help then racing to the grass location and practically pointing. She just watches them…she could lift a paw and help swat, but no, that’s beneath her…the supervisor, after all.
    The orange barrel curse is everywhere. We laugh that on weekends we’re all stuck at home because they shut down major roads to anywhere from Friday night to Monday morning. Tourists don’t know/haven’t prepared their kids and get really irritated and drive wildly trying to get to the beach, lake, boardwalks or restaurants. Can’t wait until football season starts and the visitors find other entertainment…so there will be more room on the construction detours.

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  8. A woman came into yoga the other morning (a regular and quite late) grumbling “the orange barrels got together last night and rearranged themselves”. We all got a chuckle…yes, the first day after a shift, you’d think no-one knew how to drive! And I just discovered a long set of new orange barrels on one of my “regular runs” …the way I go to quite a few of my girlfriend gatherings. I’ll need to remember to leave extra early. Unfortunately, these barrels look more like perennial plantings than an annual plantings. Road work seems to be a normal thing around us these days!

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  13. shhh … don’t give the fruit flies my address. They are NOT welcome here. Ugh.

    Hope you have a great time at your family reunion. It sounds like a good reason to tell stories, laugh, eat, and drink 🙂

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  14. It’s been awhile since we’ve had fruit flies . . . I do not miss them. Maybe yours heard that you’d be making a fruit strudel this week and wanted to be first at the kiosk!

    A 7 am presentation sounds horrible.
    Without coffee, it sounds preposterous.

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  15. Derek laughs at me, but as soon as I bring fruit into the house I wash it since I’ve heard sometimes the fruit fly eggs are hanging on. So far, we’ve had a token fly here and there. Why do they always go toward our face? Enjoy the reunion, Kate!

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  17. Carly Simon… Our song after CH and I met in 1973 at college. Still is our song… 🙂 Love Carly Simon! Haven’t had to mess with fruit flies… yet. I don’t think there is a song she has recorded I don’t like. I am listening to Anticipation as I type… takes me back to good memories. Our week has been a bit of a bumpy ride with CH’s Macular hole surgery but we are figuring it out. I think your family reunion sounds wonderful, cause FOOD. I want your strudel! I am feeling a little homesick for family. Muggy in Floridadeedaaaa… nothing new there! I am so excited, going to Publix after lunch. Publix my favorite grocery store ever!!!

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      • It’s all about FOOD! Heading to Publix in a few. Yeah, it is kind of serious. We won’t know for 6 to 8 weeks if it was successful. He can’t drive for at least 3 months. And he has to spend 50 minutes of every hour 24/7 in a chair that keeps him face down. We will see Friday how much longer he has do that. He has been a trooper. We have been dealing with this since January. Fondling interesting stuff… Hahaha! I’m on my way!

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  18. I’m looking forward to your family reunion (we have a small family so I have to live vicariously through you). Not being the host will make your experience so much nicer and less stressful. I hope you get some great gossip and you don’t have any food disasters this year. These truly are the good old days… enjoy every minute!

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    • Our family is small too. Our reunion is around 30 people. The “kids” have all grown up and bring their “kids.” Last year I was amazed at how much food there was! Everyone seemed to bring something. We could have eaten for a week!

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  19. I despise flies, I tried to open the back door and let them out, but more showed up. I think they put our an invite on Flitter (their version of Twitter).
    Family reunions. That’s where people in this part of the woods go to find a wife. Of course, there are “some” rules. No one closer than second cousin, or something like that is game.

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  20. Carly Simon was my hero as a kid. I’d blast her from my bedroom placing the stereo speaker on the window sill positive the whole neighborhood loved her too. The arrogance of youth.

    Love that you included that clip.

    You want to talk construction? Come to old New York who in a year or two will resemble Tokyo. The apartment buildings going up will triple the city’s population. There is so much jackhammering. Every other person you see is a hard hat smoking, drinking cart coffee. Peace is on the lam.

    Luckily no fruit flies, but we have other irritations, like those cell phone users who talk like they’re in their kitchens. The real reason they shouldn’t change gun laws, is so I can’t get one. I’d be a vigilante alright, for peace, quiet and old fashioned decorum.

    ANTICIPATION, sing it Carly. 🙂

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    • I love her too. I should google her to she what she’s up to. I wanted to get a cell phone jammer (yes I have a dark side) for those times I’m in a store and the stupid person in front of me at the deli is asking someone on the phone which balongie they should pick up. Then I found out they are illegal. Guns aren’t though. Just a thought.

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  22. Fruit flies are no fun. We had ’em bad one year and discovered a homemade fruit fly trap was pretty darn effective. Our big pests right now are the mosquitoes. I got eaten alive this week!

    Other than the mosquito invasion, I’ve had a good week.:-)

    How exciting to have a family reunion just around the corner. I’m sure it’ll be a blast!

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    • I have a gizmo that you put apple cider vinegar into and it attracts the flies and they can’t get our or they drown in happiness. I have to find it. Some years are worse than others. This morning they were buzzing in my sink. There’s nothing in there but now I’m paranoid that it needs a good cleaning. Reunions are fun. A bunch of people from the same gene pool trying to figure out how we all got so different! 🙂

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