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Love is in the air
When I go home to lunch each day, I pull the car up the drive way, park it under a big oak tree and leave the windows open so the car can cool off after being locked up tight in downtown. Monday was no different, up to that point. When I got back in the car, or better yet, when I started to get in the car, my driver's seat and back, the passenger seat and back, the entire steering wheel, the dash, the windowsills (all the way around) were totally covered with more lovebugs than I had ever seen in one place at one time. It took me about five minutes or so to get enough of the lovely creatures to shoo out of my way before I could get in. There was still plenty that preferred the car's interior to getting back out in the heat, so I brought the inseparable couples to the office with me. The drive back to town was an interesting one with these pairs of insects meandering around in front of my face and throughout the car. Of course when I arrived at the office I rolled up the windows and locked up the car for another afternoon's work. As I walked across the street from the parking lot, I had to brush off my slacks, my arms and run my fingers through my hair to try to get rid of most of the hitchhikers. I'm now looking for a good place to wash and vacuum my car. Instead of those annoying things flying around, they all lay dead (except for the new ones that have decided to come for a visit) in every nook and cranny. Oh, and don't even mention the grill on the front of my car and my windshield. There's so much stuff on it, it almost looks like somebody's been mud riding. I've read that if you don't get the splattered bugs off your vehicle within 48 hours they'll eat right through (or what's left of them) the toughest wax job and take your paint off. You'd think I'd be an old pro with love bugs by now since this isn't my first experience with these adorable little things. When my daughter Beth was in high school, she and Dani (who was probably in the second grade at the time) were heading out bright and early one morning for school. Beth was a fairly new driver - I think she was 16 at the time. Her car didn't have air conditioning so she had the windows wide open. As Beth pulled out of our driveway and started down the sleepy little street we lived on, Dani let out a blood-curdling scream as if something horrible had happened. Beth immediately looked over to her right at her little sister while the car veered to the left - wiping out about five of our neighbors' mailboxes. The "something horrible" that had happened was a swarm of lovebugs had decided to fly in Dani's open car window. The car and the girls were pretty much OK, but the mailboxes were a total loss.
Love may be in the air, but use plenty of caution while the lovebug mating season is in full swing, it could possibly wreck your whole day.
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