Blessed by the Potato

One thing about being on PEI in the summer is that there are always a ton of bugs around, especially annoying flies that get inside. While they can be a pain up north, I generally don’t notice any flies around Southern Ontario, and while most people out here have several flyswatters, I know we don’t even own one in Toronto. However, our cottage is pretty new, well-insulated, usually has a stiff breeze coming off the water, and just recently aquired air conditioning as well (so those windows get closed!). So we usually don’t get many (typically 2 or 3 will hang around to be swatted), and they’re hardly ever a major nuisance. By comparison, at my grandparent’s place, or at the cottages we used to rent before we got our own, they were the bane of our existence. A good hour before bed would have to be spent either swatting them or else turning on just one or two lights in the place to lure them away from the bedrooms.

However this time there are dozens of flies around here. Which I thought was really weird because it’s freezing outside. It turns out the stupid things will go dormant for long periods of time, hiding in the vents or the walls or what have you, and as soon as we cranked up the heat coming back, they all woke up at once and started buzzing around.