Bug off!

I'll continue on yesterday's mosquito rant and share more about Miami's insectdom (when I first wrote that word, I wrote incest-dom. Now THAT would have drawn in the readers!). I don't have any family here, so I wouldn't know about the incestdom situation (ew, ew, ew).

"What did Ann do about the mosquitoes?" If that question kept you up all night, let me end the suspense. I called mosquito control and waited on hold for 15 minutes. Isn't it amazing how long, or short, 15 minutes can be? Time wasted watching SVU reruns - flies by! Time napping...where did it go? Time on hold...endless. One thing I love about modern technology is speaker phones. I popped it on speaker - washed the bathroom floor and tub, switched the laundry, and put away the items that hopped out of drawers, cabinets and closets to scatter themselves around the house.

The 411 Miami help line personnel are polite, but I cannot imagine doing this job - call after call after call of complaints, requests, and reports. I have called 411 only once before, when my waste collector (garbage man) came to the door to report my waste collection cart (garbage can on wheels) broke during pick up. I received a new cart within days. Efficient government services still exist!

"Address?...What can we help you with?" I can hear typing. "Do you have a pen?" He waits while I find one. "Okay, here's your ticket number..11222112211. Thank you very much."

I am overwhelmed with confidence that mosquito abatement is just around the corner (2012).

I've never seen mosquito abatement occur in Miami. When we lived in Jonesboro, Arkansas, the spray trucks came around late at night. The first time we woke up and observed a truck with flashing lights slowly moving around our driveway, we freaked. When we figured out what it was, I was impressed. We lived in a neighborhood with very large lots - three or more acres (our choice boiled down to golf course lot, minimal land, maximum ducking or the 'you-can-keep-horses' neighborhood). Ours was wooded along the front border, with a center drive that came in, circled in front of the house, under the porte cochere, then around the garage. If they didn't come into the lots, the fogging would have been ineffective, but still, I thought it was great civil service, and managed the mosquitoes fairly well.

Each night, I take the animals outside and they play for an hour while I swim and do my version of water aerobics in the pool (walking from one end of the pool to the other - I keep a glass of wine on each edge. It's incredibly motivational). When I stepped out, I noticed the cat and dog were covered in mosquitoes. It was disgusting. My dog was confused why I was petting him by smashing my hand on his body. Ew, ew, ew.

HOWEVER, good news to report! This morning when we walked, the mosquito presence was minimal. Score one for Miami. I feel like calling 411, waiting on hold, giving my ticket number, and asking the agent to enter an addendum: The Bakers and their animals say thank you!