In Which October Weather Bugs and De-Bugs

 

Monday, seen on the central campus plaza. A student activities group had pumpkin painting over the weekend, and I assumed these were leftovers. My cute fall image of the morning ride.

Five hours later, early afternoon, walking back across campus to the library. Carefully walking. It's slick out here!

The weather in Iowa, as it can in fall, has taken a sudden turn. The month began unusually warm, and it felt like one of those lingering summers where we had to wait until November to finally put the hammer down and get rid of the bugs.

In fall, the tiny ones you can’t see start to bite. Called minute pirate bugs, as cooler weather comes on and their normal prey get scarce, they start to wander and probe with their egg-crushing beaks, which frankly don’t help them get much of a meal. They don’t really benefit from hurting us, and we sure don’t benefit from being hurt by them.

It was just a week or so ago that the local paper ran a feature on those fierce fiends. Ah, Oct. 13—back when it seemed the warm fall would prolong that awkward time of year when the insects get desperate and more than a little crazy. That time of year when sweat bees brazenly attack picnics and the last mosquitoes of the year are desperately trying.

And those pirates. Dang, they were fierce this year.

And then, Sunday morning, it was all different. The grass was coated in a thin white slushy mix, as temperatures dipped into the upper 30s and wet snow fell. It lasted only a few hours and the day cleared up. I rode to campus Sunday.

Well, Monday dawned rather cold. I had to put my hood up and wear gloves, and I thought the theme of my next bike blog post would be the start of cold weather gear wearing.

There was a change of a bit of stuff—mixed rain and snow—in the middle of the day. It wasn’t expected to be much, nor to last long, so I rode my mountain bike and parked it inside. I knew I was working late Monday.

Monday morning--wearing hood and gloves, bike in the background. I thought of parking it by the library when I got co campus, but knew there was a 40 percent chance of a bit of rain-snow, so luckily I put the bike inside for the day. Turned out to be a good move ...

Walking across campus early afternoon Monday. There are tunnels, which is why mine are the only footprints. Even if I get a bit wet and cold, I choose not to be in an enclosed space to transit campus these days. Pirate bugs may bite, but a virus can kill.

What I did not know was that Mother Nature had given us just a brief appetizer of snow Sunday and had the full meal bubbling away for Monday afternoon. It wasn’t a rain-snow mix, but full on wet snow, and not just a grass-covering icing, but full on coat the world inches of heavy, wet, white.

The good news is that the pavement is still so warm that it was mostly dry that cold night as I biked home. But what a change a few days make. Pirate bugs? Goodbye.

A morning last week, C Avenue Pond. Back when October was unusually warm. We skipped the "normal" part and went straight for early winter.