By Phyllis Galowitz

It had been a hot humid day with thundershowers threatening. I went to visit Amy who was in Cooperstown Hospital. It was a big trip up and back, including getting lost in the hospital’s corridors. Amy was recovering from a bout of some unexplainable and never quite understandable illness. Fortunately, she is recovering due to the miracles of antibiotics. It gave us a scare and probably was the reason I felt extremely exhausted when I returned home.

I got into my pajamas and prepared for bed, leaving the light on next to my bed and returned to the TV room to watch one more episode of “Law and Order” before going to sleep.

When I returned to my bedroom an hour later, an invasion of tiny black flies (what seemed to be thousands) were on the ceiling, down the wall and on my pillow, in the circle of the light. I was shocked! Where did they come from? How can I get rid of them! I put Lili, my cat, on the sunporch and found an old can of Black Fly And Roach Spray and sprayed the area closest to the doors, and came back to the TV room, hoping the spray would do its job, even though it was not meant for flies. Lili was meowing on the porch. She was supposed to be getting into bed to read with me, as the routine goes.

An hour later, I let her back in, hoping the Ant and Roach Spray would not make her sick. There were dead flies all over the bed, on the night table, on the wall and on the floor. I got the vacuum cleaner out and did a thorough job of absorbing the tiny flies into the hose. Exhausted, I got into bed. I turned out the light and went to sleep; Lili finding her special hiding place for the night.

The next morning, the weatherman on CBS, was promising a beautiful day—cool with low humidity—a perfect gardening day. I planted my dahlias—late but hopefully they will be all right, watered them well and then went to shower off the bugs, which I felt were in my hair, down my back and everywhere else. I carefully lathered myself from head to toe, back and front and was about to rinse the lather off when – oh, no! The power went off! There was not a drop of water anywhere. The doorbell was ringing. I threw on my bathrobe, and, looking very strange, covered with lather, I went to the door. It was my neighbor, coming to tell me there was a power outage! (As if I didn’t know!) We sat on the sunporch and talked about all of the strange occurrences of the past day and a half.  Suddenly, the lights went on. The water was running. I excused myself to continue my shower, the lather having dried and my skin and hair, stiff with soap.

Amy is feeling better and will, hopefully, go home tomorrow!~