Jolly Green Giant

            Summer is hanging on with all its got here in Podunk. The temperatures have been hovering in the 80s during the day, dropping into the 60s and 50s at night. I will admit that it has been nice. But with the good comes the bad, right?

            The grass is still growing. It has slowed down, but it grows enough to make me use at least two hours of my week mowing it. And the bugs are still relentless, attacking from every direction.   

            I came home from work the other day and decided to lie on the couch in my office, or “inspiration room,” as I call it. I like to try and clear my head before I dive into writing. After lying there for a few minutes I decided it was time to get up. I opened my eyes and looked out the window for a minute. I have a hummingbird feeder outside my office so I can watch the little wonders. My eyes almost bulged out of my head when I spotted something on the window screen. Quickly I wiped the sleepiness from my eyes, stood up, and walked to the window. As soon as I realized I wasn’t dreaming I grabbed my phone and stepped outside to get a few pictures of this creature inhabiting my screen.

            That’s right. A praying mantis attached itself to the screen. And it had its eyes on the hummingbird feeder. I have read that the big bugs can eat a hummingbird. Honestly, I didn’t want to experience nature at its worst so I had to interfere. Eh hem.

            Normally I don’t mind the presence of a praying mantis because they eat bugs. Lord knows I have plenty of them. So I didn’t want to hurt the big… lug. Let’s just say it ended up on the deck without being injured. (You could say that the neighbors may have heard screams.) But something happened to its eyes. They were freaky enough as it was, but now they were beady and focused on me. Creep. 

I made it extra big so you could see the big scary eyes.

           From that point on I decided that I better get inside before it tried to eat me. I snapped another picture or two before I went in. I checked back later and it was gone. The hummingbirds can thank me. On the other hand the hero I was writing suffered death at the hands of the heroine. I had to go back and fix that oops.

            I don’t know what has happened to me over the years. Years ago things like bugs never bothered me. Now? I get squeamish. And sometimes scream a little. And sometimes run away!

            Has fall arrived where you live? Do bugs bother you? What is something that makes you squeamish?