Smokey Mountain Breakdown

Scott comes over today after he gets off work so we can go visit Mizz Kayreen. She's not doing well at all and I'm afraid that we won't have her here on the mountain very much longer.

He lurches his way up to the porch and I absentmindedly say, "Watch the wasps."

I walk up on the porch like some sort of wasp charmer. They rarely sting me, but one did get me yesterday. But that was just because it got trapped by my hat and got confused. The only time I get stung is by mistake. They never actively seek me out.

"Holy Crap!" I hear Scott squeal and I hear him backpedaling off the porch.

"What?" I say, standing there with the wasps buzzing just over my head.

He's spotted the four rather sizable paper wasp nests hanging from the ceiling of the porch.

"Those are right at head level for me!" He says.

And it's true. The wasp's nests are right where he could possibly bump into them. That could be ugly.

I stomp off through my little cloud of wasps and we enter from the back porch, which is not quite as festooned with paper wasp nests.

"You've been walking under them for weeks now." I grumble.

There was an old woman in Bluffton who used to put up passive aggressive notes in her woods when I was a kid. I used to find them when I was riding my horses on the verge of her woods.

They went something like this:

I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING! I KNOW YOU HAVE BEEN KILLING MY SPIDERS AND SMILAC AND GRAPEVINES. I KNOW YOU ARE COMING BY HERE AND I WILL CATCH YOU. JUST YOU WAIT!!! CEASE AND DESIST HARASSING MY WILDLIFE AND KILLING MY SPIDERS! STOP IT NOW!!!

We would find them and laugh like hell then gallop off. She had a real thing for spiders. I hope I'm not turning into her. Not about spiders...but the damn wasps.

Scott and I visited and he waited for me to change clothes and then we went for a short visit to Mizz Kayreen. Her oldest son was with her and we had a good time chatting with her. She actually looked good. I could tell she wasn't well, but she seemed so happy. She was just radiant. The age spots in the shape of a kiss on her cheek were still there.

We came back to the house and after Scott left, I decided to get rid of my wasps. I hosed down the nests. While I was hosing off behind the folk art on the porch, a tiny little bat came lurching out and hung himself upside down from the window for a while. I wanted to get a picture of him, but he flew off before I could get the camera.

The poor wasps are buzzing around looking for their homes and I put a wasp trap with sugar water out for the remaining wasps to find.

Hopefully they will not think too unkindly of me for drowning them in sweetness.