I
thought it was a joke at first.
Noseeums.
As
in no see them, or you don’t see them. A way of identifying tiny
bugs that pester you.
The
joke part, my reaction to hearing the name for the first time,
actually moved in two stages.
At
first, since I hadn’t been getting bothered by bugs at the time
my friend first mentioned them, I thought it might mean something
else. Like when you scrape your knee on some carpet or bash your
hand against the side of a tree, don’t really notice anything
in the moment but find it later. Shift the scenario a bit and
you find no real bug bite, but you’ve walked too close to a branch
and start to itch and blame the noseeums for the problem because
you don’t remember hitting the tree.
But
that wasn’t it.
Part
two struck when I was out with the dogs in the twilight of a late
winter afternoon. I saw them. The noseeums.
Bit
of research took place. Name actually gets spelled about forty
different ways, a result of it not being an official term but
a regional nickname. Appears to originate as something along the
same route of thought I initially traveled. You can’t see them
that well, so you don’t notice as they’re biting you. Noseeums.
Could
be cute (if they weren’t so annoying).
In
reality, sandflies. Or biting midges. Even seen the concept applied
to mosquitoes. Pesky, pain in the rump tiny bugs that swoop in
and are often gone before you noticed they were there. The name
changes, still, the flies arrive and the itching begins.
What
else is out there hiding from sight and causing us frustrations?
(Or headaches. Or rashes.) What are we missing, not noticing until
it’s too late? What are the noseeums of our everyday world?
Many
of us have people in our life that would qualify as noseeums.
Folks that are causing us issues even though we may have no idea
it’s happening. I’m actually coming around to the idea that many
of these two-faced individuals that talk behind our backs should
be called noseeums. You begin to wonder why the world is conspiring
against you, and what sources are revealing your secrets, only
to see it all too clearly once the reality is revealed. Works
a bit too well, truth be told.
I
suppose some mechanical issues could qualify in this area of consideration.
The wear and tear on parts taking place all the time, with every
use moving you steadily toward a necessary repair though all seems
well at the current moment.
Those
batteries in your television remote? The ones you’ll soon need
to replace? As often as you flip them around or take them out
and put them back in, all with the hopes of extending their use
so you don’t have to get up and find some fresh batteries at this
very moment, they will eventually need to be swapped out. Doesn’t
matter that you don’t see how often you’re using it and wearing
down the available energy.
All
of which brings us back to a warm evening, bugs and an itchy arm.
It’s all annoying. Maybe, literally as well as figuratively, we’d
see things a bit clearer if we just paid more attention to the
condition of our batteries.