The other day I returned from the grocery store and propped open a door to make it easier to unload the bags. As I was making my second trip, a housefly buzzed by my head and into the kitchen. I could almost hear him shouting as he whizzed by, “I’m in! I found an open hoooooouse!”
When I was growing up, most people didn’t have air conditioning, and those that did used it much more sparingly than we do today because those window air conditioners were very inefficient. Houseflies had many more opportunities to sneak in through screen doors or open windows than they do now.
Nowadays we’re all pretty much sealed in tight, and kids and adults are too busy with their gizmos and gadgets to spend much time outdoors. The neighbor kids across the street are home for the summer, but the only time I see them is when one of them lets the dog out. I often wonder what they do inside that house day after day. My sister and I spent our summers biking, swimming or running through the sprinkler, playing games with the neighborhood kids or looking for bugs and butterflies.
I’ll be the first in line to salute the inventor of air conditioning. On a hot summer night I can’t sleep without it. But during the day I hate being cooped up. I want to hear the buzz of the cicadas and the scratching sound made by squirrels’ toenails as they chase each other around and around the oak tree trunk. When the breeze blows I want to be able to smell the lilies and roses or the ozone that precedes a summer rain storm. And nothing beats the whiff of a freshly-cut lawn.
I don’t understand why houseflies are trying so hard to get inside. All the best things are outside.