Going Buggy

Why would anyone want to live anywhere else? How lucky are we? Summer has been giving us a preview and it’s spectacular. The past few days have been what they call “Chamber of Commerce days" in the public relations business.

Smithtown Bay was not as crowded with boaters as I expected. There was a mixture of fishing boats, recreational boats, jet skis and kayaks. I thought that perhaps the gas prices convinced some families to stay on land. I can imagine the discussion ... “Should we eat this week or buy a tank of gas for the boat, honey?” The beaches were crowded and people from West Meadow Beach even spilled further east along the shore to find some private space.

I took my kayak out and paddled over to the Big Rock. There was some kind of unidentified sludge on top of the water over the weekend. All I can say is that it better not be anything that floated over from the Mamaroneck Water Treatment Plant! I do not know what it was, but it could be some kind of algae bloom (like I would know how to identify an algae bloom). I have no official credentials. I am not licensed in anything resembling marine biology or environmental science. I don’t do tide tables – how nice that The Patch does them for me! But I do give you an everyperson’s take on what’s going on. It was slick and yucky, whatever it was! Today it is gone.

My only gripe – and it’s a big one – are the mosquitoes. I just spent $70 at The Home Depot on a varied arsenal of repellents. I even bought that device that you clip onto your pants. It has a little fan in it and blows bad pesticides all around you. I got bit four times in a five-minute period. Maybe you are supposed to smash the bugs with the device. Save the $8.99.

Tomorrow I am mixing up my all-natural brew of witch hazel, tea tree oil and lavender. If this doesn’t work after spraying it all over my body, then I will just drown the mosquitoes in it.