If You See Something (IRL), Post Something! (Part 1)

Well my last clinic wait there was no TV in the waiting room but in the prep room I had a TV and could tune into TCM which was nice as I had about a 45 minute wait there. Outside of that I was too drugged to notice if there was TV or not. (well does the monitor showing what the scope sees count as TV?)

8 Likes

Actually congratulating Gyrofrog on his diagnosis, in my own weird, roundabout way.

8 Likes

Thanx! I’ll take what I can get.

Except for this:

They thought I would give them… money?!

17 Likes

18 Likes

They’re so starved for cash too.

6 Likes

You’d think they’d just completely omit my zip code. At least this time they included a pre-paid envelope…

6 Likes

Just wanted to give a shoutout to this elegant little bug who made it all the way up 31 floors to say hello…

17 Likes

That’s quite the view you have there!

8 Likes

Tis the season, I guess: saw a couple of those on the windows of the revolvy restaurant in Phoenix this weekend.

5 Likes

Awesome.

But I can’t tell – what is he holding?

3 Likes

Looks like a kitty to me? Can’t tell for sure, tho.

3 Likes

Way back when our University started warning that some of our offices were going to have to relocate out of Manhattan, my boss volunteered early when no one wanted to move, so we lucked out with an extremely nice space. That view is the fanciest thing I have…

12 Likes

It’s the right shape, if not the “right look,” in terms of how I remember Zappa. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

5 Likes

I think this answers the question!

image

13 Likes

That’s totally Toadfish from Neighbours outside the pub, right?

6 Likes

I avoid touching brightly colored and fuzzy caterpillars. insect larvae are so tasty to birds that if they aren’t camouflaged they probably have toxic and/or highly irritant hairs, and their visibility is a warning flag.

I saw a one inch caterpillar send a six foot man to the hospital. That caterpillar kicked George’s ass!

6 Likes

Good to know!

I try to exercise a lot of caution around Texas wildlife and adapted locals.

So many venomous things here. It’s kinda unreal. It is not a calming activity to list everything here that can really endanger a human. Last week I came within one or two paces of stepping on a rattlesnake (at night, cloud covering the moon, I forgot my flashlight, was saved by my DH who turned on his cell phone flashlight just in time for me to see a 2-button diamondback well over a meter long, there in the middle of the road trying to warm up).

I am told that living in central and south Texas is a bit like Australia in this way, but with fewer snakes. And spiders.

ETA: typo

6 Likes

On my walk to Job #1, Texas native milkweed (one species is called “Antelope Horn” has these bugs (Lygaeus kalmii ?? sorry I don’t have an ID right now but I know they are not cochineal bugs) on them:

At Job #1, I find that frogs are starting to shelter in the pool, which on one level lets me know that I’ve probably got the chlorine on the low side, but means that I need to relocate these to safer waters (both because kids at the pool may not be so kind to them, and I know that chlorine is bad for living things generally speaking and frogs especially) so I have to walk back the way I came to a low spot where our creek is still running:


Go swimming there, little dude! Grow up to be a big ol’ Texas Leopard Frog and eat a lot of bugs for us! Don’t forget to make more frogs! Sorry the algae is a bit high right now.


Sunset over Job #1’s workplace in Central Texas. Child in water included for scale.

Later I took my mom grocery shopping at HEB, and I wonder why why why the Japanese have this idea that the U.S. state of Vermont and the word “curry” go together in a special, put-it-on-a-package kinda way:


Not to throw shade on Vermonters, but… really… curry?

ETA: I looked up a picture of cochineal bugs and yeah, nope

27 Likes

A Route of Evanescence
With a revolving Wheel–
A Resonance of Emerald–
A Rush of Cochineal–
And every Blossom on the Bush
Adjusts its tumbled Head–
The mail from Tunis, probably,
An easy Morning’s Ride–

5 Likes

It’s a product of japan, so I am not surprised at all!

6 Likes