I'm amazed at the optimism/tenacity of life in general. I was mosquito bit a few weeks ago - in December!! We'd had lotsa rain and a few days warm enough to encourage these little flying 6 leggers to get out & do what they do.

I let her have the blood - there's no way she'll get a raft of eggs to a successful brood with the real Winter coming but the diva of mosquitos doesn't care. Any opportunity and she's in gear.

I think all life (even ours) is like that. Pretty wonderful.

While still on the bug subject - I have a house guest - a small plain gray bug - a real (true) bug - the kind that looks like a police badge with pointed shoulders and covered wings.

This guy slowly walks around, carefully disregarding up or down and is apparently doing some extensive touring-investigation of the Casses abode.

I'll see him in the kitchen and then later on in the day in the living room. The dude gets around. Apparently there is something for him to eat and since his curiosity is fueled he's kind of spending his Winter checking out Chris' Indoor Critter Park.

I really don't think there's more than one of these in the house - I've never seen more than 1 and he turns up in varied places. If there is more than 1 there's just 2 and they are sucessfully fooling my observations.

I named him Lesster. Saw him near the bathroom sink yesterday morning, curiously climbing my toothbrush and last night in the kitchen near the window.

I love his pace - not hurried - he taps the future ground very gently with both antennae - one at a time - does this give his little body the equivalent of directivity / triangulation?

Then one leg at at time always forward (do bugs back up? and is this related to the antenna function?) and at a turtles pace - slow & steady ....wins.

Now it's quite a relative distance for a quarter inch guy from the bathroom to the kitchen and though he had time to make the trek on foot - even 6 of them, I'm guessing he flys occasionally (true bugs have a double set of wings under a protective carapace.) If he does, I wonder what makes him decide to take off & soar thru the doorway & around the corner?

When he first showed up I thought it might be a precursor, similar to a LadyBug problem we've had round these parts in previous Fall seasons.

A while back when, somebody apparently imported a whole lot o LadyBugs to control (eat) some agricultural pest. These cute little spotty things with their cute little names are the sabre-tooth tiger meat grinder Godzillas of their mini world.

They love voraciously dining on aphids, etc. at an industrial pace and can be mighty handy in produce fields. But the best laid plans of men and mice oft multiply wildly out of control. (bugs lay lots of eggs - almost everybody knows that!)

Anyhow, this happened years ago and now in the Macon County Autumn sundown you can get a west wall densely covered with these things and if they get in the house they congregate in the light fixtures all Winter.

What is it with bugs & light sources? As a kid I was logically positive the full moon had to be carpeted in dead moths.

Before we leave the world of 6 leggers, I am self-reminded that we are also covered with them, albeit on a microscopic scale.

We've all seen those electron microscope photos of the monsters that live on our eyelashes? Well every pore & cranny is host to all kinds of scavengers chomping down on our flaking selves. And it is known that they have their own resident ecosystems too - right on down the line.

"The Siphonaptera" is a nursery rhyme,
sometimes referred to as "Fleas".

Big fleas have little fleas,
Upon their backs to bite 'em,
And little fleas have lesser fleas,
and so, ad infinitum.

-------- The New Year -------

Happy 2016 to all of you. XOXO

I blinked and we're more than a week into the first month of the new year. Amazing - the "now" seems to exist at the same rate it always had - but the memory of what has passed gets shorter & shorter. What a ride.

I'm taking a paragraph here to celebrate the birthdays of two ladies who had a major positive influence on my life. January 10, 1947 was a grand day for my future. I learned major life lessons from every aspect of my association with these girls.

Though neither of them choose to associate with me these days, (OK, I'm not a saint) I nontheless honor and thank them for tolerating me when they did and freely admit my life and the lives of those I love was totally benefitted by their presence.

Been going to a weekly Hatha Yoga class. A friend convinced me by saying "It couldn't hurt." ummmmmmm Let's just say they were incorrect but the pain doesn't last long and it tells me which muscles (many) ain't been used in a while. We have a good gentle instructor and I'm hoping the benefit accumulates. (It does feel better the morning after - a bit looser & easier to move.)

Had a grand time playing R&R with the Remnants on New Year's Eve. A good crowd on the big night, a smaller crowd the following evening but they were "stickers" (stuck with us to the end) and Saturday they all came dancing back out again. The sound was excellent and it all went too fast. We play 3 nights in a row and the product gets very tight. Big Fun.

I cannot tell you all (All Y'all) how happy I am to see daylight at 5p.m. again. One more time, over the hump, thank goodness. For me, it almost gets almost depressing, watching the daytime dwindle down to dark at 5p. What do they do way up north? I bet they 're all very grumpy - arrrgh.

I'm one of those people who literally crave sunlight & solar warmth. Always did. Perhaps I spent a little too much time surfing out in the semi-tropical sun in my youth - got a few dark spots excised over the years so now I cover up a bit more but it still feels great to sit in the sunlight and just cogitate (or not).

Weather permitting, I live on my deck. It runs the legnth of the East side of my place - @ 12 ft wide & 50 long - it floats me 5 feet above where the woods meets my property. At the South end of the deck, the steps (no gang plank) to the yard & parking. At the North end, a fantastic vista of the neighboring valley and all that sweet air that comes from that direction. Clear cool in the Winter and green and fresh as O2 can be the rest of the year. (yum)

For the last week however, I've had very little time out there - too darn cold. We've dipped way down past the freezing line several times since the unseasoably warm winter quit. It isn't peggd down all day so the pipes ain't freezing once night falls but it's still down right cold - Hats & Gloves are the order (other clothes too - there's a silly chilly visualization there - ouch!)

Even with all that fridigness I have bundled up & decked myself to brave the elements for a few minutes and watch the deer feed - armed with a hot cup O tea steaming up my glasses. I do love those critters and will feed them, the coons, squirrels & yardbirds as long as I can.

It's a bit of a comfort that they're used to it. I hear the impatient twitters as soon as there's any daylight. My first chore is to put out deer nugs & blackoil sunflower seed - they're ready and sometimes I get a chickadee landing on the board as I lay out the seed. One day I'll take some time and get them to "eat outa my hand". Always admired that.

After the yardbirds riot for a few minutes the squirrels detect the flurry of movement at the seed platform and they come on down too. I've learned to spread the grub out so there's elbow (wing) room for everybody who's hungry. Usually works out fine but I may have the fattest tree rats in the county.

Ain't seen the Chipmunks in @ 6 weeks. I guess they're down in some nest snoozing next to a great pile of last year's gathered sunflower seeds.

I have a 3 inch PVC drain pipe buried underneath my drive. Been there for years and I've seen the chips coming out of either end. I'm guessing they have that cozy watertight bluegreen tube packed with a Winter's worth of seed and are reaping the just rewards of their labored savings.

I certainly hope so. I won't do any major maintenance until Spring.

More Later
XOXO again