We've had one of the hottest summers on record in Washington. Both the meteorological information and our electric bill confirms this. So when it the weather breaks, and we have a few moments of relief, my first response is to go outdoors.
Into a swarm of biting flies and mosquitoes.
It's my fault for forgetting to put on Cutter's before I go outside. We have the handy wipes at the door. It's just that I grew up neither plagued by or worried about mosquitoes. Oregon had few of them, SF and LA fewer still, and in Kenya, I lived above the malaria line (though I often traveled into malaria territory). Now, we have confirmed reports of West Nile Virus, Dengue fever, and allegedly malaria in the Washington area. (Or perhaps I should use the au courant DMV appellation. )
While I have the memories of a very lovely afternoon and evening spent on U Street, I also have a significant number of mosquito bites on my arms and neck. Keeping this in perspective, this is better than Manhattan's current plague of bedbugs.
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