Good Timing

There are times that simple luck or just being out of the wrong place at the wrong time is beneficial. We have been in Willis Texas for a week now. The weather has been cooperative without a lot of rain and some nice sun. There has been some rain, some cloudy day, and quite a bit of fog. We are not far from the large Lake Conroe so the fog is understandable. Some of the areas that we were in just before we came here have been getting extreme amounts of rain, up to twelve inches in a day. We have seen the pictures of flooded streets and submerged cars and all the other stuff that goes with that much rain. Our timing has served us very well by getting us out of those areas. It is good timing.

We have had one thing here that we could have done without. There was evidently a massive hatch of some small flying insect happened shortly after we got here. These little insect were just slightly larger than gnats. Most of the insects were black, perhaps five to ten percent were either white or almost colorless. We stayed inside unless we really needed to go out. Whenever we did the insects swarmed inside. It did seem that most of them would land on the ceiling and then stay there, most but not all of course. Evidently there is a spider that is living in the cabinets at the front of the Vectra. While I was working on the computer one evening I saw a jumping spider creeping across the ceiling toward one of the insects, it crept slowly to what it determined a proper attack position and suddenly it would jump and grab its meal, and then go back to the front cabinets. Over the period of the evening I think that spider grabbed at least a dozen of the insects. Normally I would have caught the spider and put it outside, but in this instance it was so fun to watch that we allowed it to stay.

Over the time that we have been traveling there have been several times that we have had spiders that would make a web from the windshield wipers to some convenient location. When we started to drive the spider would run to a location that was safe from the wind, sometimes it took up to fifty miles for the spider to seek shelter. When we would get to a new location it would come out and rebuild the web. At least one spider traveled with us for several relocations. I did not know that we had a spider web built on our wiper here until the insect hatch happened. We opened the curtains at the front and saw a spider web with most of the radials and the spirals marked with insects that had been caught by the sticky web. I have been tempted to try and count the insects that have been caught on the web, but I think I have other things more valuable to do. I will just say that there has to be several thousand.


INSECTS CAUGHT ON THE SPIDERS WEB
(Double left click on the picture to get a bigger view.)

In the week that we have been here we have not done a lot of sightseeing. It has been nice to be able to catch up on some of the computer work that I needed to do. For the first time in (likely) over a year I have all my pictures labeled and have written the description of them in the word document that goes with them. Now I have time to write other things, like a posting to Uncle Ducks Tracks and even put out another POTR. One thing that I noticed is that over the last almost five years is that my word processing descriptions of the pictures has made a rather subtle change. In the beginning I might write, "This is a building on the Jones Farm." Now I might write, "This is the cantilevered barn that was built by William Jones in 1893 to protect his cattle ---------- and it is the -------- which is the last standing ------. In other words I have graduated toward a much more informative dialogue. I have to wonder if the writing that I do will ever be read or appreciated by someone besides myself. It is enough to be written for me. It has given me solid information to support my beliefs about travels that we have done when there is a disagreement with my wife. Also it have proved me wrong a time or two. But then it has sharpened the memory of both my wife and myself.

Before I close here I want to thank all of you who have left comments in the blog or written me e-mails with a comment. I enjoy sharing with you and it increases my pleasure when I know that others are reading my offerings. I have been told that over two thirds of all blog are laying fallow and I do not doubt the authenticity of that statement. I also saw a tee shirt that says a lot about blogs. It said, "More people have read this shirt than your blog!" He was probably right.

Till later this is Uncle Duck