please don't get insecticide in my face next time. a reasonable reaction to a gross overreaction.

well, the unpredictable weather continued today.

it rained for near about 10 minutes this morning, then the warm sun burst through the clouds and immediately began drying things out once more.

yet, as i walked to my car, a government vector control truck drove right in front of me, and sprayed copious amounts of insecticide into the approximately 1'x3' 1/4 deep puddle i was about to walk through to get to the driver door. the amount of poison they sprayed was hardly relative to the size of the puddle, but more like comparable to the size of the puddle.

seriously?

i was gone for an hour and a half, and the puddle was dry when i got back.

it makes me wonder if this happens every time it sprinkles and i just don't notice it because they were driving so slow that their engine was silent, and if they hadn't engulfed me in a mist of ddt, as they almost ran me over, i wouldn't have even known they were there. that is unless i had been previously aware that the foamy surface of the puddles in my neighborhood was caused not by some anomaly of nature, but instead by the abundance of toxic chemicals that had been blasted into them.

all down the road they went, as i was stuck behind their slow moving rig for a block and a half, spraying anything remotely damp with an overkill of pest killer.

now, this is a far cry from the time i was in guadalajara, and saw red flashing lights, and heard blaring emergency horns. as i looked out the window which contained no glass, just a rickety shutter with quite a few slats missing, i saw a huge tanker truck with the vector control markings, and haz-mat emblems spraying insecticide from two fire hoses (one on either side) all over the streets and buildings, creating a fog of noxious deadly chemicals.

why?!

why would you draw so much attention to yourselves like that?!

of course i'm going to open my window and stick my head out when i hear what sounds like a tornado warning system going through a concrete mixer, and see flashing red lights outside my window, and frankly people sticking their heads out of open windows is the last thing you want to happen when you're doing something like blanketing the entire community with deadly poison. just ask the people of yolo county.

one muggy summer day in davis, CA, the radio warned me of an airdrop ddt sweep in the county. this to kill those pesky mosquitoes, ooh, they itch somethin' fierce.

the spray is perfectly safe, coos the voice, but here comes the legal: yolo county vector control advises citizens to stay inside their houses or places of business during the spray, with doors, windows, and vents closed tight. yolo county vector control also recommends keeping anything that you eat with or off of in closed cupboards or drawers until the spray has settled. yolo county vector control would also like to remind you to thoroughly wash any and all fruits or vegetables before eating.

well, that all sounds perfectly safe to me.

look, when i'm on my deathbed, probably in a couple of years, probably with some mysterious carcinogenic disease caused by exposure to modern society's advanced techniques for preserving quality of life, i doubt i'm going to look back on those mosquito free summers and think, "wow, dead at 30, but it was all worth it to avoid a few pesky mosquito bites."

but since this lowly little ol' blog isn't going to stop the powers that be from doing idiotic things like this on a regular basis, can i just make one plea for common sense?

if you have to wear a haz-mat suit just to get anywhere near it, take a little time and do your job cautiously. please don't spray it where i walk (sometimes barefoot, sometimes in shoes that i then wear into my house), or on my car door handle, or on the grill of my car (where driving will cause the fumes to circulate through the hvac system), or into my bedroom window, or all over the front door of my residence, or all up in my ventilation system where it will then blanket my silverware, flatware, and glassware. as you zip up your tyvek jumper with vinyl gloves and strap on your gas mask nice and tight, try and remember that if you see me walking down the street, or poking my head out of my window, don't spray the pesticides in my face, or all over my body from a foot and a half away!

if the goddamn gardener on the corner can turn off his leaf blower when i ride my bike past, i'd think you could have the courtesy to not accidentally poison me from point blank range.

thanks for nothing, government employee idiots!

sincerely,

someone with half a brain.