I Has a Flavor!

Did I mention that we have been having a couple of days of absolutely glorious summer weather? The nights are cool and the mornings are too, but by afternoon, it gets sunny and warm. There is no humidity at all and with blue skies and golden sunshine, it is like paradise here. I wish this weather would stay forever!

My husband and I seized the day and went over to Couch's in McAlevy's Fort for a pair of really wonderful hot meals for lunch. Hot roast beef and gravy meal with curly fries and a side salad for me (you may see that meal in the extras from this Greenwood Furnace blip). A hot meatloaf dinner for him. We have eaten in there so seldom this past year that it was a real treat to do so. And we nabbed 13 paperback books from the book swap, leaving several of our own in trade; what a great deal!

Then we went to Greenwood Furnace for what would be our coldest swim of the year so far. The water was invigorating, and I caught my breath as I first dipped myself in. It's cold going in but then you get used to it, sort of. I swam around and around, and my husband finally got in. I almost felt a warm pocket, just as my husband said, "You know, in water as cold as this, when it starts to feel warm, it means you're dying." Um, OK! I'll take that under advisement!  ;-)

My skin was all pruny from my swim, which meant it was probably time to get out. (Did you know that dehydration can be a cold water hazard?) So we showered outdoors and changed our clothes and headed back to the car to read our books.

I was sitting there engrossed in a Harlan Coben murder mystery I hadn't read before, when I felt something LICKING my right pointer finger. I looked down to discover a juvenile katydid, walking up my finger, licking my skin the whole way. It felt dry and raspy; in fact, it almost tickled.

The first thing I thought to do was grab my camera, of course! But I am right-handed, and the bug was sitting on my right hand. So I had to sort of point and zoom and shoot with my left hand, which was not as easy as it sounds. I took a whole photo series of the mini katydid tasting my finger! I observed to my husband later, "Maybe it was trying to eat me?" (Like the joke goes about how you eat an elephant, I suppose, which is to say: one bite at a time.)

Eventually, I placed the critter onto a local tree trunk, where it marched right up the tree. It was an absolutely FUN experience and I laughed and laughed. A bug! That raspy tongue (or mouthparts, or whatever)! It must have thought I have a very good flavor! (As that classic icanhascheezburger LOLcat meme goes.) I am typing this Blip on the morning after, and when I woke up, my husband asked, "So, are you going to turn into a great big green bug now?" Well . . . . let's HOPE not! But who can know for sure?

The soundtrack song for this marvelous tiny adventure is this one: Lou Reed, with Good Taste.