Youngest Son noticed them and Middle Daughter-in-Law traced their route to the morning glory where they were 'milking' the aphids. The focus is on ants, ants hastening to and fro, to and fro, to and fro on the deck railing. The exact edge of the deck railing. Direct from nest somewhere along the ground up the side of deck, along twenty feet or so, down to deck floor, up morning glory pot, up morning glory. I begin to feel a bit breathless at the thought of walking this route over and over, over and over, with the number of steps I would need to take: the thought of how many steps, in comparison, they must utilize to transverse this distance - whew and wow! Son ran his finger across their path and found that it did disturb the pattern and they halted at the 'break'. Scurried around. Seemed to re-establish the route by some anty means. What is curious to watch is how the ones going and the ones coming pause for an instant and each greets each. A butting of noses? A myopic greeting of recognition? Clumsy? Exchange of information? Watch long enough and personalities emerge. They are all hurrying and keep in a quickly moving line with small spaces between but every once in awhile one impatiently rushes the one ahead and finally zooms around and takes the lead, but then, hesitates, as if regretting the rashness. The other night, at dusk, I noticed one lone ant headed toward the morning glory. "Bedtime snack?" I inquired. "Getting paid for overtime? Lost?" Not bothered by my queries he trekked along.