Ants

This morning I was watching CBS Sunday Morning as I was tidyiing up the kitchen from the previous two evenings. There was a segment called "Small Wonders" where a professor from the University of Florida pours molten aluminum into the top of an anthill. After the metal cools, he and a friend spend about seven hours carefully digging out the resulting cast. It is a wonder of art, architecture and scientific study. They mention in the segment that the ants have been sacrificed in the process in the interest of science. The whole thing really struck a chord with me.

I had been having a terrible time with an invasion of tiny little ants into my home about six weeks ago. It was especially disturbing to find swarms in the shower. For a few days, I was having to grab the shower head, which is conveniently attached to a hose, and wash hoards of them down the drain before I could shower. They were moving along the baseboards in my bedroom and occasionally, I would find one crawling on me in bed which, needless to say, freaked me out. I pay monthly for an exterminating service and have been for many years. When I threatened to cancel the service, my friendly exterminator, Bill, began to visit almost every day in an effort to get rid of them. In the meantime, I was checking the net on various remedies, talking to friends and relatives, and looking things up in my organic gardening books.

Eventually, Bill was able to staunch the flow of ants into my house. In the process of tracking them down, he discovered, smack in the middle of my raised vegetable garden, what he said was the largest colony he had ever seen with the largest sized egg sacs, a few of which he took back to their trophy room. I had provided another trophy once before. I keep a box of pop-up tissue on the floor of my car. Once, after not driving it for a week, I got in and noticed some tiny shreds of tissue laying around. Then, I decided to follow what appeared to be a trail of them into the back of the station wagon. When I opened the deck, inside there was an incredibly-beautiful, delicately-constructed ball about 3 to 4 inches in diameter made completely of tiny pieces of shredded tissue. I slammed the deck back down and I did not dare get into the car again until the exterminator had completely checked it out. In the end, they decided that a mouse had constructed the ball, not a snake, as we had feared, and they gave my car a clean bill of health. I had it detailed after that so I could drive it again.

Bill came to check up again one day as I was out in the garden, shoveling gravel from the walkways, deconstructing, and I had not yet gotten to the middle, for obvious reasons. He suggested I wear a Haz-Mat suit before I tackle it. He had offered, in fact begged, me to let him spray in my garden. I would not allow it. I have worked my way around it, but I have not yet started disturbing the middle. I am now toying with the idea of pouring molten aluminum into the anthill, although they said, “don't try this at home." How tempting! You get rid of the ants ecologically, have a nifty new sculpture, and an object of scientific interest!

Killing ants by the tens of thousands is very disturbing to me. I often think of them in terms of man finding alien life on other planets. Suppose that alien life turns out to be very intelligent, creates incredible architecture for itself, and communicates over vast distances with other colonies, but its individuals turn out to be the size and shape of tiny ants? A friend, Ted Smith, once said that I should not be disturbed about killing them because really intelligent creatures like man create art and ants don't do that. My first reaction was, "What use would an ant have for the Mona Lisa?" Perhaps down in those beautiful architectural tunnels, there are tiny artworks that only an ant would appreciate. I wonder if ant colonies here know of the existence of ant colonies in France? Would that be akin to humans knowing of the existence of intelligent life on other planets? Are ants aware of the existence of a universe outside of ltheir anthills?

On another subject, only Beth joined us for Shabbat dinner this week. Larry had a graduation celebration to attend. As promised, I made her satay chicken. I had lunch with Roxy on Thursday. Afterwards, we went shopping at Costco and I picked up whatever odds and ends I thought I would need for dinner. On Friday, I realized I needed only fresh ginger to complete the meal. It was pouring all day and Saul has been struggling with a nasty cold. I hated to go out just to get a knob of ginger, but it was absolutely necessary for the chicken. Around 5 o'clock, after everything else was prepared, I got ready to make my foray over to Assi Market, less than a mile away, to get the ginger. Saul suggested I call Beth first to see if she had any. "Don't be ridiculous," I told him, "Beth barely ever has any food in the house. Besides, she wouldn't be home from work yet." We decided to call anyway, but she was not home yet. So, I prepared myself to go out in the cold, pouring rain. I got in the car, opened the garage door, drove to the end of the driveway, and there was Beth, turning into the street. I pulled up alongside her, rolled down the window and told her I was going out just to get fresh ginger. "How much do you need?" said Beth. "Just a small knob," I said. "I have that," said Beth, smugly, to my absolute amazement! "I'll bring it right over." So Beth, who evidently had a hankering for satay earlier in the week, by coincidence perfectly timed it so that she saved me a trip on a nasty day to the supermarket. With the extra time, I made a batch of Jumbo Oatmeal Peanut Butter Raisin Cookies to go with the extra quince apple pie I had taken out of the freezer from a dinner a few weeks ago. Timing is everything.

The Bar Mitzvah at Saturday services was really wonderful. Yoni Payne, the Bar Mitzvah, is known for his playful sense of humor. He is a day school student and so was very well prepared and poised, if quite tone-deaf. Part of his family flew in from England and his grandmother was obviously delighted to be present and read a lovely speech to him. The parents invited not only all the parents of the day school students that are his friends, but the entire congregation to lunch. It was a beautiful afternoon, but by the time we arrived home, Saul was feeling terrible from his cold and went right to sleep. We skipped the Israel Parade and celebration downtown today because he is still under the weather. Hopefully, now that he has a few days off before summer session begins, he will have tiime to rest and recover.