Making peace with bugs

When we first arrived in St. Lucia, the Canadian health nurse's warnings of all the loathsome diseases awaiting us were fresh in mind. We were terrified to step foot outside.

The paranoia lasted about 24 hours. You know what, there are disease-carrying bugs in North America too (e.g. Lyme disease) and there are more mosquitoes in my backyard in Nelson than there are in my backyard in Soufriere.

We're getting bitten (those are Ana's legs in the picture above) but we're adjusting too. We're wearing more bug repellant and we're experimenting with earth-friendly stuff like lime juice and lemongrass. We're closing the doors when we can and keeping the fans on. We're encouraging the geckos to go about their bug-eating business, and we're letting the landlords fumigate on their schedule, even though pesticides bother Gina's conscience.

But most of all, we're just not worrying. So far, the only thing that's infected us is the happy, relaxed disposition of the locals.

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About

I'm an intranet consultant living in Nelson, BC. My company is One Intranets Inc. I'm the co-creator of ThoughtFarmer, social intranet software that powers enterprise intranets in Microsoft environments. I've been consulting on web and intranet projects since 1995 with a particular emphasis on interface design, information architecture and usability analysis.

I live with my wife, Gina, and our three children, Ana (age 7), Sam (age 5), and Reuben (age 1). Gina is my best friend and the absolute bestest wife a man could ever find. Ana is the most hospitable and intuitive 7-year old you'll ever meet. Sam accosts strangers on the street and engages them in deep conversation. Reuben walks from room to room and creates disasters, washing his hands in the toilet, lifting cats by the tail and eating things he finds in the kitchen garbage.

When I'm not working I'm playing with my family: golf, swimming, snorkeling, hockey, skiing and extreme travel. We're currently escaping winter with a 4-month stint in St. Lucia, West Indies.