Shaking the August Stick
By
Cognitive Dissonance
Sometime towards the end of the third or fourth week of August, usually after one or two cooler nights brings them out in droves, Mrs. Cog and I go in search of a few sturdy August Sticks. While in a pinch anything can be used, a broom handle minus the broom, an actual stick fallen from a tree or a length of small diameter metal or plastic pipe, experience has taught us the best August Stick is a thin four to five-foot-long piece of bamboo repurposed after a summer propping up some top-heavy pepper plants.
It’s happened to each and every one of us at some point in our lives. We’re walking down a sidewalk or path in the woods, under some trees or overhanging deck, or turning the corner of our house when we plow face first into a large sticky spider web. Because we don’t actually see it until we’re fully entangled, we don’t know if a spider is now stuck to our face and body and is getting ready to counter attack.