Ants Are Afoot

I live in one of those squeaky-clean upscale Southern California neighborhoods with a Homeowners Association to enforce squeaky-clean behaviors. On the bright side, an interactive website dedicated to homeowners allows us neighbors to share tips that would be the envy of Better Homes and Gardens Although the ten or so emails received each day get automatically deleted, one did catch my eye. It read: Malik Basadii, Eagle Rock Homeowners Just noticed ants in our front yard and wanted to take care  of the problem.  The post managed to get a laugh out of this grumpy pre-caffeinated person perusing her emails while waiting for the morning coffee to finish brewing. How can it be that a person living on the edge of a mountain range, albeit on a manicured plot of grass, bushes and flowers, be surprised to see ants in his yard? Is he unaware that the planet is populated by insects that outnumber us by at least 10 squared to the billions? And what would he do if someone were to show him a movie of the massive underground cities that ants build right under our noses? God help him. He has ants in his yard. Blessed be the day when he notices the wind, the trees and the sunlight.