adventures of a canoelover

…so rather than focus on the negative, here’s a lovely Tramea macelata.  A Black Saddlebags.

So last time I posted about Cross Country, I talked about the shirts…their inspiration messages and affirmations of teamwork and such.  Well, Ian had another meet Thursday, and I saw this one…

Yes, of course, it was from the local Catholic High School, the Edgewood Crusaders.

I guess if I were trying to counter the whole Catholic Guilt argument, I’d choose a different slogan.

This one was better.

Saturdays in September often find me mucking out the garage, digging through piles of gear that has collected over the summer.  All the times I couldn’t find a pair of straps to tie down a boat…well, that’s because they hide from me, creating a nest of straps for protection from predators (see photo for proof).  They seem to comingle species without too much of a problem…the genus Tiedownus is not fussy.  In this nesting cluster we have T. thuleus, T. racknrollii, and T. carlisleus, all coexisting nicely.

This is a really nice rain. Despite the flooding and heavy rains this Spring, we had a very dry August, and my friend Ray, a lamb farmer, has burned through a lot of hay due to the poor condition of the grass pasture.  Our lawn hasn’t been mowed in weeks, much to Ian’s delight.  Now it’s greening up with the sort of rain that you can stand in for a few minutes, get your hair a little damp and maybe your shoulders, but after you come inside you’re basically dry in ten minutes.  You probably should grab a raincoat, but it’s not that big of a deal unless you’re out in it all day.  This is the sort of rain that soaks in, leaving no puddles on the lawn.

Rain will most likely kill any business at the shop today, which is one of the not-so-positive things about the precip.  That said, without precip I wouldn’t have a business at all, so I prefer to think of it as the field laying fallow for a day.  And I can get some work done on my messy garage.

As I was mucking out the aforementioned garage, minding my own business, I saw this little Meadowhawk perched on the camper.  He’s a Sympetrum vicinum, a Yellow-Legged Meadowhawk, identified by the little stigmatae on the wings and an absence of banding on the abdomen.  And his (difficult to see here) yellow legs.

This little guy is a subspecies, a Sympetrum vicinum pluviata which means he doesn’t have the sense to get out of the rain.  Still, he sometimes would clean off his eyes and shake his wings to clear off the water.

I know some of you are tired of odonate blog entries.  I’ve decided to ignore you, as the odes will be gone sooner rather than later and you’ll be getting icicle postings instead.

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Anyway…the gear…

I have too much stuff.  Samples build up over time and create chaos.  When you don’t know what you actually have, you have too much crap.  So I am purging.  If you come over and see something you like, ask me if you can have it.

Off limits are my wife, my kids, and a few miscellaneous sentimental keepsakes.

Pluvially yours,

  Canoelover

Went to the dermatologist a few days ago.  I had a manky-looking mole sort of thing that Stephanie was concerned about.  It was annoying but not that big of a deal, but it’s a quick visit and I have good health insurance, so I went to see Dr. Xu (pronounced “Shoe”).  She looked at it, then smiled and looked at me, but with an air of gravitas.

See?  No odonates.  Just a beetle.

For you troglodytes who didn’t want to see the Eastern Forktail (Ischnura verticalis) here she is (she is a she). Lovely, eh?

Below is a common variant. Even non-geeks can spot the reason for the Eastern Forktail’s name.

Defiantly,

Canoelover