Thursday, October 09, 2003
The Animal Kingdom
Nature has been very busy here lately. Specifically, yesterday. Yesterday, though it was a beautiful Indian summer day, I was inspired to finally go get my parking permit, all because of nature. What part of nature, you ask? The new bits of nature that have invaded the midwest: Multi-colored Asian Lady Beetles, otherwise known as evil giant orange lady bugs that bite. They are everywhere, they land directly on people, even faces, and they bite. And they just appeared here yesterday. People in Grinnell had been complaining about them for about a week, and then Ann in Madison mentioned them a couple of days ago, too, and now they have invaded Michigan as well. I can't sit out on the itty bitty porch and read, because I'll get bitten to death. I can't walk from my car to the building where I work without dodging bugs and inevitibly bringing some of them in with me on my clothes. They're in the elevators, the hallways, all over the cielings of our office because apparently our windows are not worthy of screens.
But! When I got home last night, I happened to glance out the window at the pond, and it was full of geese! They just covered the pond! Mark says he counted them when they landed, and he came up with 49. I say there must have been more, and when I counted I got to 46 before my view was blocked by a tree, so I say an estimation of +/- 50 is about right. Lots and lots, in any case. They were gone when I woke up, but seeing them last night was very neat. The duckies are probably less intimidated now, though.
Nature has been very busy here lately. Specifically, yesterday. Yesterday, though it was a beautiful Indian summer day, I was inspired to finally go get my parking permit, all because of nature. What part of nature, you ask? The new bits of nature that have invaded the midwest: Multi-colored Asian Lady Beetles, otherwise known as evil giant orange lady bugs that bite. They are everywhere, they land directly on people, even faces, and they bite. And they just appeared here yesterday. People in Grinnell had been complaining about them for about a week, and then Ann in Madison mentioned them a couple of days ago, too, and now they have invaded Michigan as well. I can't sit out on the itty bitty porch and read, because I'll get bitten to death. I can't walk from my car to the building where I work without dodging bugs and inevitibly bringing some of them in with me on my clothes. They're in the elevators, the hallways, all over the cielings of our office because apparently our windows are not worthy of screens.
But! When I got home last night, I happened to glance out the window at the pond, and it was full of geese! They just covered the pond! Mark says he counted them when they landed, and he came up with 49. I say there must have been more, and when I counted I got to 46 before my view was blocked by a tree, so I say an estimation of +/- 50 is about right. Lots and lots, in any case. They were gone when I woke up, but seeing them last night was very neat. The duckies are probably less intimidated now, though.
