Having a wonderful time! Wish you were here!
“Hello from Ho Chi Minh City!” It was an email from my globe-trotting Monday Morning Coffee Buddy1 and it was a long time ago. She wasn’t in Ho Chi Minh City. At least not that time. MMCB has been to Ho Chi Minh City but she went during the month of December and that email arrived during fish fly season at Houghton Lake. Not December. So I don’t remember what city it was but it was someplace exotic and I gleefully replied, “You may be in <insert-exotic-city> but *I* am here in Fish Fly City!” And I put a picture of fish flies all over the Little Princess trailer on my website and sent her a link. That was a long time ago, even before I was rolling my own blahg2, not to mention dragging it onto WordPress.
This weekend the fish flies were out in full force at Houghton Lake. Their carcasses went crunch, crunch, crunch under my Chacos. Their carcasses got up underneath my toes and turned them black. [Gay, I scrubbed the tub after that.] They fell out of the trees and entangled themselves into my hair. As we were driving home, a wayward fish fly was flapping around above the dash in the front of the Dogha. I debated whether or not to eject him and finally decided he wasn’t bothering me and I’d let him live out whatever little time remained to him in my vee-hickle. He attached himself upside down to my visor and it wasn’t until much later that I noticed that he had molted, leaving an exoskeleton or whatever it is behind.
On a good year, I get to experience two fish fly hatches! I get to the hatch at Houghton Lake and then they hatch a few weeks later up on Fin Family Moominbeach. We call them Canadian Soldiers up there (via my long-dead Canadian-born grandfather) and sometimes a fish fly Canadian Soldier-encrusted yellow kayak will show up on the Flickr widget over on the right. I’ll miss the Canadian Soldier season this year but I didn’t miss the fish fly season. It’s a short one, they only live a day or so in their adult stage. Here’s what wikipedia has to say. And Click here or on the pic for more unless you are squeamish about up close and personal bug pictures.
1) Yes, we’re still wondering why the globe-trotting MMCB hangs around with the likes of a baggy old Kayak Woman whose main method of travel is an old Honda sedan that only traverses Great Lake State freeways (yay for Hondas, by the way).
2) That means I was writing my own html — every day — and not using WordPress or other blahgging software, in case you aren’t right up to snuff with the terminology. And I wasn’t. Until last week. So.
June 9th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
There were some pictures of Fish Flies on the web cam today. They were on the screen door atthe cottage. First I thought it looked like a tree branch in the yard. (My eyes aren’t what they used to be) Then I realized that they were hanging onto the screen on the non-windy side of the cottage. I think that even though they are annoying, they are harmless. I would rather have fish flies than ants or spiders.
June 9th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
Jane and I were chinking on the old cabin one year, on ladders, and I carefully picked a Canadian Soldier out of the way of my chinking, and gave him a flip of my wrist to set him/her free. Unfortunately for him/her, I flipped them right into a spider’s web.
June 12th, 2008 at 1:44 am
I live in New Baltimore, home of the Fish Fly Festival! (on Lake St.Claire ) Years ago, it was held around Fathers Day. Now, they move the date around to avoid the flies. With so many fish fies, it makes a smelly, nasty festival, especially for a date. As the lights come on at night, suddenly all the rides are covered with fish flies! Girls n the ferris wheel always scream, so that’s fun to watch. When we first moved there, I put David in the moon walk.. He was three. The lights came on, he was afraid and he refused to come out and I had to crawl in and get him. When my boys became older cub scouts, we had contests to see how many fish flies you could get to sit on your ear. Little boys, all trying to put fish flies on their ears…. Now, sometimes the flies get so bad, they have to get out snow plows in the parking lots, it causes car accidents just like ice on the road, and it just smells. At night, the businesses turn their lights off, because the flies are all around the doors. Yuk….
Anyway, Doug Schell aka Flec S. Mindscape, will be performing at the festival this year with the lovely Lelani, his girlfriend, the belly dancer, on June 28th. checkout his videos on his myspace, search for myspace.com/xynosis … there is a list available of where he performs, his schedule. Go see one of his shows or, go to the Fish Fly Festival.