noelleprice (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} noelleprice) wrote,@ 2006-09-20 21:10:00 |
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Lovebugs
When I arrived back home on the Northshore, there were some new residents there to greet me. Lots and lots and lots of them.
My first week in Slidell, I was talking to Rock about my bug-related heebee-jeebees. His answer? "Just wait 'til _luuuuv_ bug season!" He seemed to take a certain pleasure in drawing out that first part of their name. Apparently they come out for a couple weeks every early fall, and they are everywhere. What are lovebugs? According to Rock, they are creatures God put on earth to "eat, s@#%, screw, and die, all of which they do in mid-air". Here's a portrait.
No, despite appearances, this is not a two-headed bug. Once closer inspection reveals that this is in fact a pairing of linked lovebugs, you may think me crass for taking pictures of them in the midst of so personal an act. But you would only think that if you have never been in Louisiana during lovebug season. This is pretty much what they spend all of their time doing. You rarely see a lovebug going stag. They fly around like this, walk like this, climb like this, eat like this. I'm pretty sure they spend the majority of their lives as a "push-me-pull-you". I'm not sure how it's decided which one is going to walk and drag the other, etc., or whether they take turns. But it seems to me that their means of reproduction must be either incredibly inefficient, or highly recreationally rewarding.
It is not, however, the total lack of modesty of the lovebugs which makes them particularly distasteful... the problem is how many of them there are. I mean, on the one hand, they don't bite and are not unforgivably large, which in many ways makes them several notches in social grace above your typical Louisiana vermin. But they just get everywhere! You find gobs of them in your vehicle, even if you only have your door open for brief periods in the course of the day. They particularly like my tailgate and tool drawers. They like to alight in the crease at the back of my knee when I am in the middle of a skilsaw cut. They love the gatorade cooler, but they don't hesitate to hover around the water tap either. Everywhere all the time. But at least it's only two to three weeks.
And it certainly does bring a whole new kind of retrospective comedy to instances in which I've heard the term "lovebugs" used to refer to a particularly couple-y couple. I will certainly never be able to hear it the same again...
When I arrived back home on the Northshore, there were some new residents there to greet me. Lots and lots and lots of them.
My first week in Slidell, I was talking to Rock about my bug-related heebee-jeebees. His answer? "Just wait 'til _luuuuv_ bug season!" He seemed to take a certain pleasure in drawing out that first part of their name. Apparently they come out for a couple weeks every early fall, and they are everywhere. What are lovebugs? According to Rock, they are creatures God put on earth to "eat, s@#%, screw, and die, all of which they do in mid-air". Here's a portrait.
No, despite appearances, this is not a two-headed bug. Once closer inspection reveals that this is in fact a pairing of linked lovebugs, you may think me crass for taking pictures of them in the midst of so personal an act. But you would only think that if you have never been in Louisiana during lovebug season. This is pretty much what they spend all of their time doing. You rarely see a lovebug going stag. They fly around like this, walk like this, climb like this, eat like this. I'm pretty sure they spend the majority of their lives as a "push-me-pull-you". I'm not sure how it's decided which one is going to walk and drag the other, etc., or whether they take turns. But it seems to me that their means of reproduction must be either incredibly inefficient, or highly recreationally rewarding. It is not, however, the total lack of modesty of the lovebugs which makes them particularly distasteful... the problem is how many of them there are. I mean, on the one hand, they don't bite and are not unforgivably large, which in many ways makes them several notches in social grace above your typical Louisiana vermin. But they just get everywhere! You find gobs of them in your vehicle, even if you only have your door open for brief periods in the course of the day. They particularly like my tailgate and tool drawers. They like to alight in the crease at the back of my knee when I am in the middle of a skilsaw cut. They love the gatorade cooler, but they don't hesitate to hover around the water tap either. Everywhere all the time. But at least it's only two to three weeks.
And it certainly does bring a whole new kind of retrospective comedy to instances in which I've heard the term "lovebugs" used to refer to a particularly couple-y couple. I will certainly never be able to hear it the same again...
