"Fuming" Mad

Public Menace Truck

Okay, so tonight I could've blogged about the kids first day at their new homeschool co-op and maybe I will tomorrow, but tonight, I am too preoccupied and infuriated by something that I consider to be one of those heinous things that go on in our culture, that we are apparently just to except as normal.

We spend a lot of our evenings outside. We have the culdesac all to ourselves. There are no other houses on it. I suppose we feel like we own the nice round piece of asphalt in front of our home that has provided us with many hours of fun since we've moved here, hitting tennis balls, riding bikes, trikes, little trucks and fire engines, and the go-cart that Alton and Rob made a couple of years ago; not to mention the time spent playing with the remote controlled hovercraft. We used to have a remote-controlled airplane as well, but ever since it landed in the gutters of the house closest too us, well, that's the end of that. Anyway...I was saying that we feel like we own it.

Tonight's events jarred us back to reality reminding us that the streets belong to the city or county or some other government agency, not us. As we were all hanging out front tonight in our yard, an odd-looking truck pulled onto our culdesac. This of course, got our attention, as not too many vehicles pull in there. As we stood there staring, he started gesturing with his hands at us. We discussed among ourselves and could not understand what he was saying. Next, his big truck puffed a chemical haze a few times making a menacing sound. Rob began walking towards the truck and then noticed it said mosquito control. Not being able to think fast enough, we all walked into the open garage and stood there as the truck drove around our circle spewing it's noxious gas and then carried on down other streets as neighbors walked on sidewalks pushing strollers, riding bikes, etc...

We were in complete shock. Is this a normal thing here; just randomly driving down streets spraying for mosquitoes? The haze began to dissapate, but our time outside did not feel safe anymore and we soon wrapped up our outside activities and went in. We felt an injustice had been done here. Do we not have more control over the air we breathe than that? Was the little cloud really going to kill all the mosquitoes in the area? We didn't ask for that. We use an herbal mosquito repellent and it works just great. Why is it up to the government to control the mosquito population? This registers as one of the stupidest things my tax dollars have ever gone for.

As soon as we got in, I went to the county website and quickly found out about their mosquito killing program. Here is part of what they said about it,

"Treatment is accomplished using truck-mounted spray machines on public roads. This suppression tactic affects adult mosquitoes in the immediate area of spray and at the time of spray only."

Really. So driving down the streets randomly spraying chemical is going to control mosquitoes? Why was he so determined to come onto our culdesac when we are the only house? I further found that they were supposed to send out a postcard a day or two in advance. Had this been the case, I would've called and told them to stay far away. Now as it is, I will be calling to give them a piece of my mind. I used to be timid about things like this, but I've gotten run over enough by people and institutions etc, that I simply don't mind turning into a bear every now and then, especially when it comes to protecting my family's health. Absolutely ridiculous. I am furious! And people wonder why I believe in conspiracy theories. It's things like this, that just don't make any sense.