While only five centimeters in length, it lived over half-a-billion years ago. Now extinct, the remains of this segmented worm were found in 1911, within Canada’s Burgess Shale deposits. While the actual fossil, etched in stone is black and white, the iridescent blue setae or bristles have been modeled, because its hair-like structures were thought to act as diffraction gratings.

Meanwhile, fast-forwarding to the present. What was supposed to take only three hours to dry, finally dried by day three. We’re talking powder-post beetle spray here. It had dried well on the unfinished surfaces by soaking in like it is supposed to, but on any finished surface that is relatively impermeable the liquid had beaded up into now tacky droplets. This includes the floors, treated walls, furniture and electrical outlets. We have only surveyed about half the cabin at this point, because when not actively cleaning, we retreat to the kitchen porch, as much because of the cold as the bug spraying. Cleaning consists of wet mopping the floor, parts of which have been done three times by now but still show the exterminator’s footprints. Furniture and outlets are being cleaned with wet paper towels. Frankly, it feels like cleaning up an oil spill, like with the Exxon Valdez, complete with oil glycol-soaked birds. We made the mistake of leaving out Bubs’ whirly-birds, but we can probably hose those off when the time comes. Moved on to using Mop & Glo, which didn’t do squat with either the footprints or the tackiness.