Deerflies are really nasty! I'm allergic to their bite but I can deal with that. It's not like I have an life-threatening reaction. It's not pleasant but I can deal with it. What bothers me about deerfly is their incessant buzzing. They circle your head with a determined buzz that is sure to drive you insane or just slightly mad. My dogs don't even want to go outside anymore. Their looks of reproach when I snap on their leashes for our daily walks are classic. I've spent every summer in Wisconsin for as long as I can remember. Deerflies are no mystery. They exist. Get a hat! The hat does help keep them off your vulnerable head. Unfortunately, this does not stop the little beasties from circling your body and head like an invading war party. Diving and circling, circling and diving. No amount of insect repellant will save you from these little horrors. I sprayed myself with enough repellant to drive off every mosquito from here to Arizona. I wore long sleeves and long pants. I wore a hat. I was prepared. I sallied forth to pick the earliest of the wild raspberries. I did not get bit. I stubbornly ignored their persistant whine. I hate deerfly. I can think of no earthly reason that they exist other then to plague all living creatures. If tomorrow someone were to tell me that deerfly were on the endangered species list, (Who in their right mind would do that?) I wouldn't have one moment of regret. I'd search out the last nest and I'd launch a seek and destroy operation. I'm not too fond of mosquitoes either.

Cliche of the Day

Risk Life and Limb. Take a grave chance; embark on a dangerous enterprise. It is a strange ordering of risk. If one puts one's life at stake and loses, it doesn't much matter what happens to one's limbs. It would be a more logical expression as "risk limb and life." At some times in the past it was "life and member." Thus, Thomas Burton's Diary for 1658: "It is not enough to serve in those offices, unless they venture life and member."