They'll Need A Crane

I like the TMBG song, They'll Need A Crane, but with regard to this picture, it's only titular.

I think crane flies are really neat. If Tolkien were adapted to play to an all-fly audience, I think the elves would be played by crane flies.

The little clubs beneath the wings are halteres. As I understand it, they are balancing and stabilizing rudimentary hind wings. If instead the forewings were the rudimentary pair, we'd have to call flies "halter tops."

Did I mention I've been on a stream of consciousness kick lately?

Isn't that Dandy?

It's like the love child of a snowflake and a weed. I hadn't noticed the hexagonal symmetry before I took this picture. I also thought it looked like the puff had tilted its head into the frame and said, "Boo".

Close up dandylion pictures seem kinda cliche, but I suppose they're popular for a reason.

Cpt Tribble of the 3.14th Airborne Division

Perhaps this little thing really escaped from a Dr Seuss book.

I like these. They always make me laugh.
I'm more sure about this id as a bee fly or Bombyliinae. :)
http://bugguide.net/node/view/40598

Thanks Anonymous for the Lynx spider. I must be distracted.

Hum vs Buzz

This little bird was buzzing around us, eating mosquitoes while we were playing catch and release with crawdads.

I'm sure that day was the first time that I thought a hummingbird really should be much, much faster. She might have just thought it was good sport rather than an actual meal.

Just about everyone in our little group was being eaten alive. I don't usually react to bites, so I can often neener-neener. Skeeters are an annoyance, but the bites aren't painful and won't raise a bump or itch. For all my other allergies, I'm relatively immune to mosquito bites. This day, the sheer number of mini-vampires that were trying to enter my ears was enough to send me packing. I hate that buzzing sound when it's actually in my ear.

When I got home I think I found a red dot on my arm. That was surprising. I couldn't find it the next time I checked, so maybe it wasn't a bite.

Dragon Overhead

'Nother present for Matt.

I was in a swampy area with cat tails standing six plus feet high. This dragonfly was patrolling the area. A few times he came to hover and buzz a couple feet in front of my nose, but I guess I looked mostly harmless.

No news yet. IBM fires Theo today for job desertion. The HR people are trying to figure out if the kids and I can apply for COBRA or not and if so will IBM contribute. Previously it was yes, then maybe, then yes with perhaps little help, then today it was that Theo would need to fill out and sign the forms.

As Matt said, there is a certain irony that they are terminating his employment since he's missing, but in order for his family to get COBRA he needs to sign forms -- presumably including why he isn't there to sign the forms.

The Catch 22 is alive and well.