Bugs and Reptiles

Hey,

So a week ago, on Friday night, I was crawling into bed. I have a little ritual, I turn on the bedside light and get ready, then get into bed and shut off the light. As I was getting ready by the dim light of said bedside light (which is really an old gooseneck desk lamp) I noticed something moving on the wall. I had a minor case of the heeby-jeebies and turned on the big lights (really just two flourescent fixtures on the ceiling). I notice that there was a gecko on the wall. I grabbed a paper towel figuring that with all my dexterity and athletic abilty, I could easily capture the beast. No such luck, after about an exasperating three minutes of trying, I shut off all the lights and went to bed. I hadn't been lying there much more than five or ten minutes when some bug flew by my ear. I swatted, but it persisted.

I ended up turning on the light and saw a number (probably a couple dozen) swarming around. Thing was they didn't fly for too long, they ended up losing their wings and then crawled around like little worms. I ended up killing as many of them as possible and that took a serious half hour, maybe even forty-five minutes. The following monday I called the lodging office asking about fumigation options and described the bugs to the guy, he was like, yep, those are termites. I have to admit that I never knew that termites flew, to be honest, I always thought they were more like ants.

So today they finally came to spray, they sprayed down every wall, since the whole place is made of wood. I hope that takes care of the problem. The senior guy pointed out where one of the joists has a major chunk missing, and a few other places that needed repair. While the other guy was spraying, we talked, he in broken english and me in decrepit spanish. I was telling about how cold it can get in Minnesota, he just laughed.

So now that the termites are mostly taken care of, I'm not sure what the gecko is going to eat. I did get a couple of picture of the little fellow. I know that he is still around. Gecko's (according to Wikipedia) are know for their distinctive noise, and this guy "beeps" three times. It doesn't really bother me, at least I know that he can take care of bugs for me.

Evan

Flying Cow Pies

So this morning the Col call the entire Joint Task Force together for a little talk. There are of course a few trouble makers and he wanted to remind everyone what it means to be a grown-up in the military today.

After that we went for a 3-or-so mile formation run around the base. Towards the end, we were running down a road in a more remote part of the base. I've been on this road once before and have seen cattle and horses grazing. All of the sudden, the First Sargeant of the Army Company picked-up a chunk of cow pie and had a cow-pie fight with the Col. Absolutely disgusting... I must remember to not shake hands.