Bedbug update: They are still here. I have killed a few more spotted on search and destroy missions along my wooden bed frame. I've captured one live (they can live for months without feeding) and am keeping it for interrogation. If it doesn't talk soon about the location of its comrades, I'll hang it under my bed from a tiny, tiny rope as a warning to the others. Meantime, people are very sympathetic when I talk about my problem. They also tend to take a step back an inch or two. I've already been de-invited from one party. Just in case. But that's OK. I am a bedbug survivor and I will prevail.
I've learned a few things. The web is enormously helpful in providing information--there are whole blogs devoted to bedbugs, which I'll link to in coming days. Basically I could have had this problem for awhile, since your chances of spotting one of these nocturnal, sly critters is not very good. They are expert at hiding. Bites are one way to reveal an infestation, but not everyone reacts to the bite. (I can't say I've had any bad reactions, and I have sensitive skin. But I'm wondering if Casper my cat is the main course and I'm just a side dish. He's here all the time, and I'm not.) The bite is basically benign. Bedbugs are not considered a health threat. They're just creepy and very hard to eradicate.
I am sleeping in my bed. I made the strategic decision not to sleep elsewhere in the apartment, like my sofa, because I didn't want the bugs to follow me there and colonize the sofa (assuming they haven't done so already). So I'm offering myself as a temporary target to keep them in place and so I know where they are. So far, I've slept well, although last night every time I felt a twinge on my skin, I went for my flashlight. That's just psychological panic, because apparently you can't feel them biting and inserting their feeding tubes into you (I told you they were creepy). But I will probably toss the mattress and the frame, something I was going to do next year anyway, since both are years old. I'll wrap the mattress in plastic before I do, so I don't spread the bugs around, such as in my hallway or in the building hallway. Same for the disassembled bed frame. In the meantime, I'll have to vacuum almost every day, continue to clear my closets and shelves and get rid of every trace of clutter. Tomorrow I call pest companies, since that will be the ultimate step and, from everything I've read, the only way to finally beat them is to nuke them. More as it happens.
Adventures with cars: I'm also learning this week about brake lights. Never changed one before in my life, but when my rear brake light went out, I had to learn. I changed the light just fine, but somehow shorted out the brake light fuse in doing so. I'm learning about fuses, too. So far, I've made two trips to Canadian Tire and spent about five hours on this sucker. In order to find out which fuse on the fuse box does what, I also spent an hour searching for my car manual. I tossed stuff around in my bedbug-infested apartment, swearing and annoying Casper, before I finally remembered I left the manual in ... the car. It's been that kind of week.
Today's bLINKit: PBS Frontline World looks at NATO in Afghanistan, and how we're not so quickly winning the war. (Video of the show is available online.) It includes a close look at a Canadian Forces hearts and minds effort in a Taliban-controlled village. I haven't seen it all, but it's free of the usual rah-rah coverage we get in Canada--it shows both the desire to help on the part of soldiers and the frustrations they encounter in trying to turn the country around. "It's just a bandaid," says one.
And my regular Courier column, featuring reader responses to my previous column on words and phrases I want banned from good writing.

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