Hatching out
Sigh. I started nodding off during the Trumpian party convention last night. What little I heard was BOOOOORRRRING. As I was driving around the eastern yooperland doing errands this morning NPR filled me in on the details. He has not changed and I did not miss anything. I won’t tell you how many times listening to this I said “F*CK OFF” or “What a bunch of SHIT” or “YOU ARE AN *SSHOLE” or whatever. Since I was the only person in Cygnus X-1, I don’t think anyone cared? But tonight I’ll tell y’all a moomincabin story instead.
Okay, so a few nights ago, I mobilized to hit the sack. I took a short turn through the moominkitchen and found THESE little (dead) buggies in the dishpan. I do not know what they are but I know that they are not a threat to humans. They do not sting or bite or anything. They are very fragile little buggies that probably don’t live more than a day in the best of circumstances. The moominkitchen dishpan is not anywhere near the best of circumstances.
Okay, there is a hatch of some sort. How are they getting in? Oh yeah, the back door is probably ajar. And I was right. Bad pic but maybe you can see some buggies. On the right of the pic. The shelves on the left are a reflection.
The back door is tricky, as are many things about the 60-something-year-old moomincabin. If you don’t consciously shut the back door, it doesn’t shut itself. Except sometimes it does. If it does shut itself, sometimes it SLAMS. I have explained this to various folks not familiar with the quirks of the moomincabin. I always say something like, “if you hear the back door slam, it’s probably slamming itself. It doesn’t mean somebody is mad at somebody. Not usually anyway.”
So in fact, the back door was ajar. I don’t mind if it’s ajar during the day but I definitely want it to be closed tightly for the night. I mean, a bear could probably open it even if it was closed tightly but it’d be a lot easier if it was slightly ajar. Or an insect hatch could make its way inside. So I pulled the door shut.
The last pic shows the back door in daylight. It’s the door to the left, at the “end” of the kitchen. The door to the right is the “front” door. To the left of the kitchen is the mini-hallway that leads to the mini-bathroom and my childhood mini-bedroom, which I am mostly sleeping in this summer, sharing it with a water heater and various detritus.
July 19th, 2024 at 8:13 pm
My mom’s screen door is like that; it doesn’t want to shut unless encouraged. My dishwasher is the opposite as I wrote about–it simply needs to be pressed in and not slammed or shut hard. Unfortunately, someone at my grandson’s first birthday party didn’t realize that. I associate bugs with cabins since it’s a bit like camping. More like glamping?
July 20th, 2024 at 8:17 am
I awoke this morning determined to be in a better mood and not let the state of affairs in our country ruin what’s left of my life. So I’ll start with a few comments about your (perfect) cabin. Those little buggies are essential to life, right? Biodiversity and all that. Have you ever seen bears around the PCabin? I’m sure they’re there. We had bears down here just outside the DC border in Maryland this spring; I think it happens every spring. I’d love to see one in my back yard — from a window of course. We were in the Adirondacks in 1995? and saw them do the typical digging around in a trash dumpster near our cabin. Not sure why the locals decided to leave out big dumpsters with no covers except maybe to entertain the tourists (like us). Doesn’t seem very smart to me but I did get to see them up close. Thrilling! I recall one other visitor, who had apparently had just one too many martinis, stroll casually up to the bears and try to talk to them. Bet she’s voting for… (never mind). But the most interesting thing in that picture of your adorable kitchen (jealous, jealous) is the radio on the shelf near the left side door. I have that same radio! Inherited from my dad. I love my old-fashioned radios and will never give them up.