How can 107 degrees be worse than 120?
Flies! Don't ask me why, but when it was 120 degrees out, there weren't any flies. Well, maybe you should ask me and I'll tell you, they're not out because it's 120 degrees out there - it's HOT!!!!!
But apparently 107 degrees isn't too hot for the flies. So along with our little cooling spell that's part of fall (no, the leaves haven't changed yet) we're seeing a flood of flies. Friends assure me that when it gets winter time, the flies will go away. I guess that's something to look forward to.
I don't know if the flies around here are genetically different than American flies but they act differently. They're pretty darned big and when they land on you, they land on you. Like a jet landing on an aircraft carrier. They kind of hit you and then wobble around a bit. Not a lot of buzzing around, but definitely a lot of landing.
In the mornings it's particularly nasty. Here I am, fresh out of the shower, nice and clean, heading off to breakfast and what? Almost immediately after leaving the building there's one, two, three or more flies jumping on me, like . . . flies. For some reason they focus on my head, or more appropriately, my hair. Now, either Baghdad flies have a thing for Pert hair shampoo, or they're doing something like sucking the moisture out of what little hair I have. I don't know about you, but the thought of flies sucking the moisture out of my hair, one strand at a time, while on my way to breakfast makes me wonder how important breakfast really is. And as we all learned as we were growing up, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. So everyday it's the same thing, shower, head over to breakfast, and let the flies suck away. Ok, maybe that's not what they're doing, but then I don't really want to know what it is they are doing, do I?
I guess I've left you with enough visual imagery for today. At least they don't have mosquitoes in this part of Iraq. Or maybe they start coming out when the highs are in the upper 90's. That's a depressing thought.