Overheard:
“If I never have a worse enemy than a lady bug I won’t worry.”
Tipper
Overheard: snippets of conversation I overhear in Southern Appalachia
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Mercy – I always thought Lady Bugs were a good thing – eating aphids and such. A couple of years we had population explosions which coated our south porch, but no damage. So – at least around here – could do a lot worse than a Lady Bug for an enemy.
Now about those stink bugs – those things are quite the annoyance!! Delightful telling, B.Ruth!
Tipper,
and Ron…thank you, I got carried away scrolling again, sometimes i get going and just can’t stop…
The story by b. Ruth was absolutely wonderful. Geez, I wish I could write like that! We have had very few ladybugs but what we do have in warm weather is those nasty scorpions! I loath no other creature on earth like those things. Living in the woods invites them I suppose. I wish I could have yard chickens to eat them but the fox and coyote would get them. I would gladly exchange them for the ladybugs!
congratulations to Suzie Swanson for winning Charles Flecter book. Hope he makes the movie with his book.
Mama’s house was in the direct path of millions of ladybugs & she hated them with a passion. She had numerous battle plans but favored her fruit jar technique where she put the opened jar under the bug & pushed him into the jar. I don’t remember how the death sentence was carried out. Anyway, I was visiting with my son who was about 9 yrs old. He found her jar & released all the prisoners. Mama talked about this incident all the rest of her life. I still think of her every time I see one.
PS…
Congratulations to Susie for winning Charles Fletchers book, I know it will be a good read!
Thank you Tipper,
for grasping that “overheard” remark. Indeed there are worse enemies, however, “A bug, is a bug, is a bug,” to some folks with
“ETOMOPHOBIA”…LOL
Tipper,
I don’t think anyone so far has said a “thank you” prayer to the Master above for the nice below zero deepfreeze we just experienced! I know it was cold, and as some have expressed,
“Hell” did freeze over!”
I have had an enemy greater than the “Lady Bug”!
Timing of this enemy is his obnoxious favor. One can be sitting alone with a good book, snuggled in the “Christmas throw”, cat in the lap sleeping, when it begins! With a sudden jerk, the cat jumps and heads for the other room, knocking the book out of your “sleepy” hands! The swirling grey, armored thing swoops by the side of the lamp. My eyes strain to discern it’s location. I am now on a mission to destroy the enemy! Arming myself with a kleenex, I spy a grey marmorated shield on the inside lamp shade! Off, it goes again, waving it’s back legs in a gesture only the pie-eyed birds could understand! As it lands again, I slip up, grasp the “grey devil”, pulling all four corners of the kleenex together in a white dumpling-like shape. Twisting the top, I head to the kitchen to drop it deep in the trash, being careful not to squash, squish or smash said marmoration! The odor that will leach through the kleenex, would be agin (in my imagination) to a corner of Hades aka as pure stinking Hell! We have hunted for the crevice, of entrance for this enemy. Even crossing over enemy lines, looking into the long ago closed up fire place! This is a major hiding place, for when one lands on the crab orchard rock, it can disappear with its marmorated disquise and could take as long as an hour to discover. Sometimes the troops giving up until movement is noted again by the enemy!
However, we think that we are overcoming “the invasion” of these nocturnal light searchers, hate mongering, plant distroying, scent bomb carrying enemies! “Overcoming” per say, the ones that have slipped thru the cracks so to speak!
Thanks you Jesus, for the deep freeze for a few days! Hopefully the ticks, creepy crawling biting 6-legged critters, and the Marmorated Stink Bugs will die in their tracks…Only Lord, please to leave as per your descision, of course, only the few that are needed for environmental purposes…
Thank you Tipper,
PS…Do you’all have them dreaded Marmorated Stink Bugs in Brasstown!
Tipper,
Congradulations to Susie Swanson for
winning Charles’ book.
Dolores said a mouthful and I agree
with her…Ken
Congratulations Susie, you will love this book!
In the past month or so, the lady bug has definitely been my worst enemy. They love the heat provided by my light fixture that hangs (of all places) right over the kitchen table.
UPS places mesh over the doors of their planes to keep lady bugs out as they are loaded for destinations out west. They even have ‘Lady Bug Crews’ assigned to this task to avoid a fine of as much as $10,000 per bug found while unloading. Some states don’t have the pest and don’t want them.
I can relate to that. We lived with a whole tribe of lady bugs in our old house. But like I told my kids, their could be a lot of things worse than lady bugs to have to live with. 🙂
I sure wish that overheard were true. Why do we have to have enemies? Some people are just mean spirited, some are jealous of others, and some just want what others have, but don’t want to work for it. There are so many people in this world who work so hard to have what they need and maybe a little extra and to be who they are. I admire them!
“That feller is a bit hard to read. I think some of his pages are stuck together.”
Makes me wonder what the rest of the conversation was. A lady bug could not be much of an enemy so how did she arrive in this conversation!
We would all like to be in the position of not having enemies. great expression. As to hell freezing over, I think it did that last week. Saw a picture of the town Hell with icicles hanging from their welcome sign.
Hey Tipper: Yesterday I watched Charles’s interview on a channel down in Chattanooga. He is going keep on til Hollywood discovers him – then he will ‘go west’ again! Thanks for your coverage on Charles and his MANY BOOKS! I am delighted to get to know him.
Eva Nell
Overheard in Appalachia:
“This task might take as long as it will for hell to freeze over.”
This saying is to remind us of a very hard task, but one, nevertheless, that needs tackling with all the determination and effort within us.
Ever had a task you thought was that hard to accomplish?