Distractions, escapees

Mama has never been a fan of flies. Lately we have been dealing with some huge ones. Fortunately we see then only one or two at a time. When we see them in the house a murderous attitude comes over Mama and Rosie and until the buzzing pest is sent to the fly afterlife there is no peace in the house. Such was the case last night at FBI; only multiplied by seven since there were seven women there including Mama.

It is not surprising that a fly got into the fellowship hall where we have our class since we sit right by a set of double glass doors. The doors are not opened too often during class but it happens often enough that bugs find their way into our private meeting. Last night we had one fly swatter and ten attendees whose distraction because of the fly buzzing about caused a very aggressive spirit to come over the meeting.

I am one of three males in attendance and young Ryan had the fly swatter in hand when things almost got out of control. We sit in three rows of two tables per row. Mama, Victoria and I sit in the middle row with Erin Echavarria and Ryan sits on the back row. While chasing the poor creature, Ryan ran to the front of the class and performed the most unusual ballet moves for us in his attempt to strike the fly in flight.

Ah, the benefits of youth. I would not have been able to get out of bed this morning if I had tried the leaps and pirouettes Ryan performed for us. Needless to say the mood instantly changed and we should have paused the instructional DVD we were watching but we were so captivated by the moment that no one thought to do so.

Mama kept saying, “Give me that thing! I’ll kill it!” She did not get her chance to exercise her lethal desire because Ryan chased the fly to the far side of the fellowship hall and smashed it into the floor – from mid-air. We all had a good laugh; until we discovered there was a second fly among us. Fortunately class was almost over. I have to assume the second winged intruder died of natural causes.

While she was home yesterday Victoria let the pigs out. Their enclosure is surrounded by chain link fence with a gate at the building; however, the gate does not quite meet up with the gatepost so we have access blocked by a cinder block and a piece of plywood. Once Victoria moved the block and the plywood and opened the gate they happily began to roam the property.

My greater concern is that they will end up eating the bulbs we are hoping to put in the landscape. Mama obviously shares the concern because as they slowly made their way around to the front of the house Mama had Victoria put them back in their pen, close the gate and replace the block so the gate could not be opened outward.

But pigs are pretty smart and it did not take long for them to figure out that the gate could be pulled inward allowing them to roam freely once again. They did not go anywhere they were not supposed to but the rest of the day was a repeat performance of putting them up only to find them free once again. The pigs rather enjoyed it.

I put a bungee cord on the gate last night but I would not be surprised if they meet Mama at the door this morning.