Quote Originally Posted by Silmakhor View Post
Anyway, this highland games was somewhere in Mississippi. We start playing our set and I feel very sharp, unpleasant sensations coming from my lower legs. It turns out that I was standing on a nest of fire ants. They swarmed over my brogues and into my hose and starting attacking during the competition. So I couldn't deal with the problem. Not fun.
OUCH! That sounds worse than the cicadas - one of the 17-year broods - that invaded the Glasgow (KY) Highland Games a few years ago. They were just a nuisance for the most part, only occasionally drowning out the pipe bands with their noise, but causing some major tune-by-ear issues. The pitch they were 'singing' at was just a few cents flat of the average pitch for most of the bands and soloists on the day.

Only a few pipers and drummers had any issues with them actually landing and/or crawling on them, though one of the pipers in my band (Louisville Pipe Band) came face-to-face with a cicada that landed on her pipe bag just below the blowstick.


Regarding the OP's topic: When I first laced up my first pair of brogues, I must admit I went high with the lacing. They make the laces long for a reason, right? After trying to walk around with them that high, paying a little more attention to others' laces, and doing some reading (before I found this site), I realized I was wrong and started tying them off just above my ankle-bone.