Day 975

I'm sure a lot of you have heard about the outbreak of West Nile Virus in Dallas. The mayor has declared a state of emergency and the city is beginning aerial spraying of the entire city this evening. I got two phone messages from the city telling me to stay inside after dark tonight. There is a lot of controversy about the spraying program, but personally, I have no problem with it. When you compare the downsides of the Pyrethenoid insecticides they'll be using with the downsides of having the disease, I think I'll go with the insecticides.

I'm not sure it matters anyway. I've been bitten by mosquitoes several hundred times this summer and nothing has happened. Either I've gotten lucky or I've got an immunity to the virus. Truthfully, I'm more worried about the dogs. They get bitten by mosquitoes a lot more than I do. Mosquitoes are just a fact of life down South. No matter how much mosquito repellant you spray on yourself, you're still going to get mosquito bites.

I think people forget how common spraying for mosquitoes used to be. I grew up in Arkansas and during the Summer the spray trucks would come down our street at least once a month. A lot of times people didn't even bother to go inside when the trucks came by. They would just continue barbecuing, or sitting on the porch, or whatever they were doing as the cloud rolled past and dissipated in the evening air. It's kind of amazing to realize how many people survived and continued living perfectly normal lives after breathing in insecticides every Summer and driving around without seatbelts smoking cigarettes.

I wish I'd start getting some money in the mail. I've been billing things out at a fairly normal rate, but the checks are arriving slower and slower these days. It wasn't that long ago that just about everyone paid within 30 days. Now the average is somewhere between 45 and 60 days. Sign of the times, I guess. I still have to pay my own bills on time though. That's what I did this afternoon. I paid the electric bill, the water bill, various phone bills, and my car insurance. The depressing thing is that most of these bills will arrive again next month, whether any money arrives in the mail or not.

At least it's Friday tomorrow. I've still got enough money to buy myself a little bacon for breakfast. I've still got about 20 minutes left today to let the dogs outside to pee before the mosquito spraying planes begin their flyby. I'm hoping that the spray kills some roaches and spiders too. We have entirely too many bugs this Summer.

Pogo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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