Two boys, one fly,

. . .and some construction workers. They keep me entertained and, in the case of the fly, annoyed.

So we're supposed to take the garbage and put it out on the street each Thursday morning, when the garbage truck comes and picks it up for us (it's a magical thing). Taking the garbage out is the husband's job, as was decided by wives of old, and who am I to question that decision? He does a wonderful job at it too, except for once in a while when he forgets to take it out. 

When you live two stories up in the big city, you don't have a driveway, or a yard to keep your garbage out of sight (and smell!), you have a balcony. And in our case the tiniest balcony you have ever seen. It will fit 4 bags of garbage if stacked correctly, which just so happens to be about the amount of garbage we produce on a weekly basis (don't judge me, I have 2 boys in diapers. Boys poop. A lot.).

Two weeks ago my otherwise near-perfect husband forgot to take out the garbage and that's when the trouble began. It wouldn't have been so bad if the weather two weeks ago hadn't been completely hot and sunny for a few days in a row. There was lots of food waste in those garbage bags you see, and we live near the sea which means we get a lot of seagulls circling overhead, in search of their next unhealthy meal (they always seem to find their way to my neighbourhood... hmm.). Seagulls can smell through plastic. Don't ask me how, but they smell the food waste I have in my garbage bags that sit on my tiny balcony and that have been roasting in the sun for a week. Actually, come to think of that, after all of that they probably just go wherever the swarm of flies seems to be emerging from. Flies circle the bags in the hope of finding a way in, seagulls come wanting the food as much as the flies but actually having a handy beak to facilitate getting into said bags, and many disgusting happenings ensue. The bags are ripped to shreds, the seagulls nibble on what strikes their fancy (which often seem to be the poopy diapers, eeeew) and the flies mate with my garbage or something because the next day things come crawling out of my garbage. Have I mentioned that the balcony can only be reached via the kitchen? Where I prepare meals for my children? 

Here's how I fixed the situation: After welcoming my husband home with a kiss the following Wednesday evening, I let him eat his dinner in relative peace (we do have four kids) and then proceeded to tell him to fix the mess he had gotten us into by not taking out the trash last week, while I was at the movies with a friend.

There was no way in H-E-Doublehockeysticks I was sticking around while he was carrying maggot-infested trash bags through the house, and hosing down the balcony afterwards. 

Though the balcony has been clean since then, and the trash has been taken out each week, we haven't really been able to completely rid our house of the fly infestation, though it's gotten better each day. I think the fly that's trying to kamikaze its way into my eye right now might be the last one. Kamikaze away I say, an eye seems a small price to pay to not have bugs in my house anymore (we already had a grasshopper plague earlier this summer. Why do they come all the way up here??).

Next post I'll tell you all about the construction workers. . .