I'm a total baby
24 September 2009
So, I’m afraid of my backyard.
Or afraid isn’t the right word. I’m leery of it. I avoid going back there.
The wariness began in June with the mosquitoes. I’m a mosquito magnet, even with bug spray. I’ll cover every inch of exposed skin only to have them swarm around my hair, looking for an area of weakness. I don’t know what it is about our backyard—the shade, the bird bath—but we have tons of mosquitoes.
Last year, when McKenna wasn’t walking yet, she didn’t care where we were outside just so long as we weren’t in the house. We spent a lot of time on the front lawn where for some reason the mosquitoes aren’t as bad. This year, however, McKenna has definite opinions that she wants to play in the BACKyard. She doesn’t care about the mosquitoes; she cares that the tomato plants are back there and that’s what she wants to see.
Most of the summer, I’ve loaded us up with bug spray, sucked it up, and taken McKenna out back. But a couple weeks ago, the cicada shells began littering the patio. I’m sure there are more disgusting insects on the planet, but I hate cicadas.
Then last week we headed out to see the tomatoes and a huge spider had made a home out of one of our plants. Like one of those big, meaty ones with a web that spans half the side of the house. I was so nervous that I explained to McKenna the big spider freaked me out, and wouldn’t she rather come inside and have a cookie?
Ben took care of the spider while I was out of town (could I love him more?), but today when McKenna and I headed out there, I realized that being in my backyard this time of year really spooks me. The cicada shells, the spiders, the mosquitoes, the overgrown plants that remind me I didn’t do as well with the yard this summer as I intended.
Basically, I realized, I’m a huge baby, and I need to get over my bug fears and act like an adult.
Then I convinced McKenna to grab a couple tomatoes and return to the front yard. Maybe by next year I’ll be an adult.
The spiders around here have been way over-industrious this year. I’m talking, clean off all the webs you can see one day, kill all the spiders you can find, and it’s back again the next. Eww! I thought it was just my house until friends from Baltimore said they were having the same problem. I shudder just thinking about it.
Posted by Roseanna White on 24 September 2009