Sunday, March 6, 2011

Little Green Worms

Nature indulges itself in excess now and then, with human beings as the worst offenders. And for all my good intentions and my respect for the natural order, I realize that my peaceful and benevolent feelings are a slim veneer, easily cracked to unleash my inner wrath, when it comes to something like these little green worms that are descending from our oak tree and covering everything in sight with a silky, worm-infested web that, once cleaned away only comes back in an hour or so, so bad that we cannot even park our cars in the driveway or walk around in peace.

The worms are commonly called Oak Leaf Rollers and are considered to be a natural, helpful part of the environment, providing food for birds, etc. I even found this quote on a web page: "They are our green little friends. We should treat them with love and respect. They get up on their little hind legs and look around. They're not hurting anyone."

Are you kidding me? We can't even walk to our car without getting these on our clothes and in our hair (or Cheryl's hair). I would permanently banish them from the planet and send them to wiggle for eternity in worm hell (which is populated with big fat birds), so yet again it is a good thing that someone else is in charge.

Apparently nothing can be done--nothing short of renting a flame-thrower and turning the oak tree and the front yard to ash (which I only briefly considered).

Meanwhile, I've installed some insulation to the exterior-facing wall, put up a layer of roofing paper, and I've put up my first panels of backer board. I still have some framing to do in the shower area, so I'm getting ahead and doing things out of order, but I wanted to get some experience with the board first so I can make any adjustments. The backer board is more flexible than I expected, and it is not too hard to trim using the special tool that I got.

I suppose I need to learn to love the green worms, but this won't happen until they are gone from sight and I can become a "good" person again and forget this unpleasantness ever happened.

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