Let's talk about bugs baby..... Okay. So those that have never lived in the south are missing a few things. Humidity. Humidity. Did I mention the humidity? You walk outside to get the mail and are accousted by sauna like steam that grabs hold of you leaves you gasping for air. No amount of fanning or crying helps. In fact the crying makes it worse. Try having very curly hair in Tennessee. Back home it was wild sometimes, but managable. Here? Forget about it! Try finger in the light socket wild. All that moisture just sinks into the hair molecule and your hair is toast literally. Back to missing out on southern amenities . Oh yes, Humidity and BUGS. I am not taking little bitty ants and an occasional spider to scare you onto the kitchen table, I am taking HUMUGOUS, GIGANTIC, OVERSIZED, bugs. Sure, some bugs are good for the environment, I get that. But, do I have to look at them? Must they come and visit me personally in my own home. If anything, could they at least call next time and make an appointment? This guy was waiting for me when I returned from the grocery store early Saturday morning. He made it very difficult to run past him with grocery sacks, looking at me with those beady eyes.*Shiver* Although, the grocery sacks provided ample coverage of my own self, just in case he decided to attack me. This fella had big enough wings to take flight with our dwarf hampster Elfaba.

This is actually a Cicada.When we first moved here, it was the hottest time of the year. July. Our first night, I was accousted by the most horrible and earth shattering sound outside. It took me a while, and a lot of asking around to determine what that sound was. Here was something I found about this interesting beast "As adults, males produce a loud species-specific mate-attracting song using specialized sound-producing organs called tymbals. These sounds are among the loudest produced by any insects. In some species, the male calling song attracts both males and females to mating aggregations, while in other species males remain dispersed. Female cicadas do not have tymbals, but in some species the females produce clicking or snapping sounds with their wings. "

So, take thousands of cicadas up in the mutitude of trees outside our house, and you get a choir unlike any other you have every heard. You know it's summer when in the early evening , or morning you hear the most tremendous shutter of cicada's in surround sound. Add tree frogs and it's astounding.


Now, this bug was interesting. It looks like a bumble bee with bright red instead of yellow, but bigger. Sorry it's blurry, but I preferred to take the picture fast as not to have the bug get the wrong idea from me that I was trying to be friendly.

Hmm....For some reason the pictures are not working, so I will post them separately . Maybe that will give me time to take a picture of the spider I captured stalking my children the other night. It was so big, even I screamed. My daughter Kiera asked if it was a tarantula. Really, it is big! This is not a fish story, I promise!

Okay, I need to get dressed and clean my house. Have a great day!

Thought for the day: By Jack Handy

“Sometimes I think you have to march right in and demand your rights,even if you don't know what your rights are, or who the person is you're talking to. Then on the way out, slam the door." - Deep Thoughts