There, at the start of one of my favorite hiking trails was a new sign. Underneath three yellow rectangles arranged like a pyramid the sign read, CAUTION GROUND WASPS. The park where this trail is located already has a nice sign warning of rattle snakes. It has another fine sign explaining about ticks that can carry Lyme Disease. Now it has a sign about wasps.
I thought a bit about whether or not I wanted to risk seeing ground wasps or their seeing me. I have not been careful at all about being on the lookout for wasps that nest up high and have not had any problems. So I decided to not let this new sign keep me from having a nice walk.
I wondered if the three yellow rectangles were some sort of universal symbol for trouble. I was familiar with a symbol for radioactivity, a symbol for electricity and symbol for biohazard. It didn’t make sense to me how three yellow rectangles could be a universal warning of ground wasps alone. Maybe it just stood for something new to worry about.
I have long sought out nature hikes as a way to relax and de-stress. Occasionally when I do so I pause at the sound that mosquitos make. I wonder if the creature making that dreaded noise might be harboring Zika virus. I wonder why one of the Rockefellers has a patent on this virus. I know I can’t spend too much time wondering because I might not notice that my leg is at risk of being in contact with grass that may be hiding ticks.
I don’t encounter rattlesnakes much around here. I’ve only seen them a few times. Only once did one notice me and hiss in my direction. I am afraid of rattlesnakes and find them cool at the same time. They arenowheree near as creepy as the Zika virus.
I have seen rattlesnakes keeping cool under rocks and staying warm basking in the sun. I try to remember to keep my eyes open for rattlesnakes around rocks when it is hot and around open rock shelves when it is not. This is more difficult to do with ground wasps.
Of all of the new things to worry about when I am hiking, one of the worst is airplanes spraying toxic chemicals. I am not referring to low flying aircraft spraying fields with pesticides. I mean the high flying planes that trail streaks, usually of white, that some stupid people believe are ice crystals.
This spraying can be noticed anytime it is not cloudy and anywhere. On days when there is not a cloud in the sky it may soon become completely overcast after the spraying has begun.
I was used to clouds rolling in, particularly if there is a little wind going on. The new normal however is for clouds to develop like I used to only see in time-lapse films of clouds forming.
I mainly see the white trails. I have only spotted black trails twice and a dotted white trail once. I have observed many times jets with the streaks coming from other than where the engines are located. I don’t spend much time looking up anymore.
I don’t know what they are spraying besides aluminum oxide, barium sulfate, and strontium. I understand it is all kinds of other stuff and nano stuff as well.
I don’t know why “they” are doing it and I have no ideas as to who “they” are. I imagine that there are multiple “theys.” Some want to make it harder to see objects in the sky that they don’t want others, who are not “the,” to see. Some “theys” just want to be ahead of the weather forecasters, who pretend that geoengineering is not a thing, to aide in commodity and crop weather insurance hedge fund speculation. Other “theys” maybe spraying to help get the World’s population down to 500 million. Some “theys” might just be spraying because they can.
Then there is the sun. Sunshine used to just be a problem because too much of it can cause the kind of cancer that kills people if it cannot be to be carved out of one’s flesh in time to prevent that from happening. The new problem is with the solar simulator that some of the “theys” have got up there. This thing looks white, where the sun used to be yellow. Thanks to the sun simulator it is now harder to catch high flying baseballs, drive and keep plants from looking burnt. The strange colors we are seeing this fall may be a combination of the influence of the solar simulator and sprayed chemicals.
People I know remind me that the sun has always appeared to be white or that they find it to be yellow as always. They reassure that plants always have turned strange colors in the fall, that weird clouds have always filled the sky along with periods of walls of white. They want me to understand that the strange light on the horizon at 3:30 am or anytime it is supposed to be quite dark, is probably light pollution and that there must be some easy explanation for spots of illumination breaking out in multiple places through the clouds, they just don’t have the time to look into it.
I have been told that my eyes must be aging that my visions must be quite impaired. My optometrist is not one of these people. I am told that I have been “brainwashed” by reading about conspiracy theories on the internet causing me to see strangeness in the heavens. I have been asked that if there is anything different going on in the sky, what am I going to do about it and if nothing shut up already.
The answer to that question includes keep going on hikes to get away from people who think I am crazy for a while. I will keep trying to avoid things that may sting or bite me.
I took a longer way back to my car to avoid the area posted for ground wasps. I noticed the almost constant jet engine noise but mostly tuned if out. When I got back to the parking lot I noticed a jet climbing steeply and spewing whatever it was spewing. I imagine that there were drones dumping stuff up there as well.
As a man nature is very important to me. That has not changed. I might be better off not believing that there is anything sinister and secretive going on up above other than a little air pollution from power plants and acid rain, but I can not unsee what is obvious if you look with an open mind.
The fouling of Planet Earth goes far beyond anything I ever imagined before I retired from work and started doing some noticing. It is going to take something much bigger than people to set things right may it come soon.
I have no credentials in meteorology and don’t have any insider information on any of the “theys.” What I do have is some common sense and a distaste for being lied to.
I wish I could just lie in the grass and look up with childlike wonder at the sky without a care or at least stand in the grass and look up with my socks up over my pant legs, bug sprayed and sunscreened. Those days are long gone too.
I did not think that an awareness of poison planes and an artificial sun could carry me closer to a much better place than here. They have and in a way that I am not in control of. In a way that I sure do notice.
Call it wishful thinking if you must. I call it spiritual transcendence.
This not coming from a spiritual master of any kind. This just coming from a retired man who is grateful to share the experience of being a man on goodmenproject.com.
If you believe in the work we are doing here at The Good Men Project, please join like-minded individuals in The Good Men Project Premium Community.
◊♦◊
◊♦◊
Get the best stories from The Good Men Project delivered straight to your inbox, here.
◊♦◊
◊♦◊
Sign up for our Writing Prompts email to receive writing inspiration in your inbox twice per week.
The Good Men Project is an Amazon.com affiliate. If you shop via THIS LINK, we will get a small commission and you will be supporting our Mission while still getting the quality products you would have purchased, anyway! Thank you for your continued support!
Photo: Getty Images