Those of you who know me or who have followed any of my blogs, know that I have had some issues with ants over the years. Some of them have been so bizarre that I am starting to think that I am being played with. Today's event even had me suspecting that my beloved mother might be having some fun with me from the beyond. After all, one of my ant events was right before she passed. But the first weird one happened years ago while she was still living.

Rachel and I had lived in our house for about a year. I worked during the summer to make some extra money, which allowed us to buy a dining room suite. Rachel moved all of her china, still in the gift boxes we received them in, down to the dining room table. When she opened the box housing her china platter, ants went everywhere! Those little pharaoh ants (some folks call them sugar ants) had made a colony in the box and within the layers of tissue paper wrapped around the platter. It was hilarious! They even had eggs in there. We called a pesticide company and went to war!

The next event happened after N1S was born. He had moved into the bigger bedroom, and for the time being, we were using the nursery as a store room. Rachel hangs candy canes on our Christmas tree every year. She bought several boxes of them on sale after Christmas and they had ended up being stored in there. When she went to get them the next Christmas, she had three unopened boxes of perfect candy cane wrappers. There was not a trace of the candy canes left. It was freaky. We called the pesticide company and went back to war!

The were three other times: the time with my mom before she died, the time ants invaded Dad's car before he died, and the time they invaded the Colby T on the last night of my Summer Circle Trip last summer. Those have already been documented in one blog or another, so I won't repeat them.

Today was the latest. Rachel's car needed to go into the Jiffy Lube for an oil change. I got up, dressed and went downstairs this morning ready to take it in, but the car was gone. Rachel had run to the grocery store. I went ahead and made myself a cup of coffee and waited a few minutes before she was home. I helped carry in the groceries, finished my coffee, and got in her car. I saw a few ants on her dashboard, which made me nervous. I smashed them, and banged on the dashboard to see if there were others. Nothing happened. I decided they must have been the only ones, so I went on and headed to Jiffy Lube. When I got to the light at Bandera and Mainland, I thought I felt something crawling on my legs. I looked to see that I was covered with ants. Then I saw them on my chest and arm. They were everywhere.

I headed back home, calling Rachel to tell her to meet me out front with some bug spray, but she hung up before I could say that. When I got there, I showed her all the ants as I brushed them off of me. They were not biting, thank God. I don't know what kind they were. They had long legs and moved really fast! We got some spray and sprayed some, but we couldn't really tell where they were coming from. We popped the hood and it seemed like they were all over the engine on the driver's side. I hosed it with spray, too. After that, we didn't see any in the car.

I got back in, started the car, and started to back out of the driveway. Then I saw that my left arm was covered in ants again. I couldn't tell where they were coming from. I didn't see any in the car, except the ones on my arm. I got out of the car and brushed them all off. Then I called Rachel back out. I told her to keep her eyes on my arm and see if she could tell where the ants were coming from. I was beginning to think they were materializing on my arm from nowhere. That's why I thought of my mother playing a trick. I told Rachel what I was thinking and she told me I was an idiot.

I got back in the car, cranked the ignition, and stared at my arm. Ants started crawling all over it again. I shouted at Rachel, “Do you see them? They're just appearing out of thin air!" I was actually beginning to freak out about it. Then Rachel said, “I just saw some fly out of the air conditioning." I told her they weren't flying ants, just as I to saw something like specs of dust flying out of the AC and landing on my arm. The mystery was solved.

I went ahead and took the car to Jiffy Lube. When the guy came out to talk to me, I said, “Whatever you do, don't turn on the AC!" He asked why, so I told him the story. He said they may be in the cab filter. They tried to check it, but evidently Rachel's Malibu doesn't have one.

Anyway, they didn't find any ants at Jiffy Lube. I saw a few more on the dashboard on the way home. We'll just have to see over the next few days. When Rachel asked which car we were taking to the Wildflower Stomp today, I said, “I won't be riding in your car for awhile."