Grasshopper Tales
I performed a test today and know now that one large yellow and black adult grasshopper can withstand 55 MPH winds without being carried away.
Today when I drove to Lowell's garden to pick their tomatoes and peppers, I noticed him hunkered down on the windshield and decided to see how long he could hang on. Granted, I didn't see much of the passing scenery on this trip. I did notice that the grasshopper's antennae streamed back over his head, nearly flattened by the "wind." He started out to my right, facing me and then shifted around so that his head pointed downward. He shifted yet again so that his head pointed to the right, and I had a good view of his strong hind legs. He was quite handsome, I thought. And he was dexterous enough to move around without letting go of his moorings.
Lowell's family will be proud of me for transporting this grasshopper to their farm I thought ruefully as I turned off the blacktop onto the dirt road where they live, with the grasshopper still gamely riding along. Then I looked down and gritted my teeth at the sight of an ugly brown grasshopper calmly sitting there on my skirted knee. I braked to a halt, opened the door and swooshed him out. This must have been the same beast that scared me to distraction yesterday when I felt something on my leg and closed my hand over a very large insect body on the other side of my skirt fabric. A mad flapping of fabric followed. It was a good thing West 4th was nearly traffic-free at that moment. I don't think I was driving very straight there for a few moments. Experiences like this rank high on my list of undesirables. I had never gotten a good look at whatever-it-was that rocketed off to my right, but assumed it was a grasshopper because of its size. So he was back again today, more circumspect this time, but no more welcome. I wonder if he was disappointed at the relative absence of theatrics in our encounter today.
With the brown grasshopper gone, I checked again on the yellow and black one. He was still there, and we took off again together. The gravel on this road must have just been hauled in. Some of it has no tracks across it. Oops. This is as far as it reached. I'm glad I wasn't on this road right after we had our three-inch rain. It must have been a ribbon of mud. There's still water standing at the edge of the road here, and the gravel has all washed away. Is the grasshopper still there? Sure enough.
I slowed to turn into Lowell's drive. Still there. I pulled into the shade of a tree near the garden. Then I looked around at the garden and the flowers and the cats (three white kittys, and that long-haired gray and white one they got from us) and forgot all about the grasshopper.
Tomorrow when Lowell's family has returned from their North Carolina trip and someone goes to check the tomatoes in the garden, they may find a handsome yellow and black grasshopper parked on one of their tomato vines. They will not know that it is a very special grasshopper-- that he was escorted to the premises, that he participated in a "grasshopper tenacity" study enroute, and that he witnessed the expulsion of an ugly brown grasshopper from my minivan. They will think they're seeeing an ordinary grasshopper.
On the other hand, Joey lives there, and, if he sees him first, he may capture the grasshopper and carry him inside to show his mother. His mother will admire him obligingly and admonish him to carry him back outside before he turns him loose, and that self-same grasshopper may end up being the most admired yellow and black grasshopper in Reno County.
As long as he doesn't behave disgracefully like the brown one did, I say let him live--as long as no one from their house trasports him back over here. The study is done. Case closed. No more grasshoppers needed here.
Today when I drove to Lowell's garden to pick their tomatoes and peppers, I noticed him hunkered down on the windshield and decided to see how long he could hang on. Granted, I didn't see much of the passing scenery on this trip. I did notice that the grasshopper's antennae streamed back over his head, nearly flattened by the "wind." He started out to my right, facing me and then shifted around so that his head pointed downward. He shifted yet again so that his head pointed to the right, and I had a good view of his strong hind legs. He was quite handsome, I thought. And he was dexterous enough to move around without letting go of his moorings.
Lowell's family will be proud of me for transporting this grasshopper to their farm I thought ruefully as I turned off the blacktop onto the dirt road where they live, with the grasshopper still gamely riding along. Then I looked down and gritted my teeth at the sight of an ugly brown grasshopper calmly sitting there on my skirted knee. I braked to a halt, opened the door and swooshed him out. This must have been the same beast that scared me to distraction yesterday when I felt something on my leg and closed my hand over a very large insect body on the other side of my skirt fabric. A mad flapping of fabric followed. It was a good thing West 4th was nearly traffic-free at that moment. I don't think I was driving very straight there for a few moments. Experiences like this rank high on my list of undesirables. I had never gotten a good look at whatever-it-was that rocketed off to my right, but assumed it was a grasshopper because of its size. So he was back again today, more circumspect this time, but no more welcome. I wonder if he was disappointed at the relative absence of theatrics in our encounter today.
With the brown grasshopper gone, I checked again on the yellow and black one. He was still there, and we took off again together. The gravel on this road must have just been hauled in. Some of it has no tracks across it. Oops. This is as far as it reached. I'm glad I wasn't on this road right after we had our three-inch rain. It must have been a ribbon of mud. There's still water standing at the edge of the road here, and the gravel has all washed away. Is the grasshopper still there? Sure enough.
I slowed to turn into Lowell's drive. Still there. I pulled into the shade of a tree near the garden. Then I looked around at the garden and the flowers and the cats (three white kittys, and that long-haired gray and white one they got from us) and forgot all about the grasshopper.
Tomorrow when Lowell's family has returned from their North Carolina trip and someone goes to check the tomatoes in the garden, they may find a handsome yellow and black grasshopper parked on one of their tomato vines. They will not know that it is a very special grasshopper-- that he was escorted to the premises, that he participated in a "grasshopper tenacity" study enroute, and that he witnessed the expulsion of an ugly brown grasshopper from my minivan. They will think they're seeeing an ordinary grasshopper.
On the other hand, Joey lives there, and, if he sees him first, he may capture the grasshopper and carry him inside to show his mother. His mother will admire him obligingly and admonish him to carry him back outside before he turns him loose, and that self-same grasshopper may end up being the most admired yellow and black grasshopper in Reno County.
As long as he doesn't behave disgracefully like the brown one did, I say let him live--as long as no one from their house trasports him back over here. The study is done. Case closed. No more grasshoppers needed here.
posted by Mrs. I at
7:18 PM
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