#Inktober52, #inktober, "Lunar"

Luna Moths are named for the Roman moon goddess.  Wikipedia says they aren't rare, but are seldom seen because the adults are nocturnal and only live for 7-10 days.  They're big and catch your attention though.

I was pleasantly thinking about Luna Moths when my neighbor informed me he had a homeless guy with a vicious dog living in his yard.  Yeeks!  We spent some time with the cops, who didn't shoot anyone.  In fact, everyone was very polite, but then I live in suburbia.  The squatter was told to pack up his huge pile of belongings and get out or get cited for trespassing.  This obviously deterred my impulse to go looking for Luna Moths in the night and disrupted my peaceful thoughts about bugs.

I talked myself down from all this excitement and tried to get back to moths but a shot went off.  I was unwilling to go outside to see if anyone was dead, spending my time calculating the distance and wondering if a bullet could pierce my steel sided house.  It turned out the homeless guy refused to vacate and threatened someone with the giant, vicious dog.  The threatened man fired a warning shot.  That seemed to finally motivate the squatter to move his microwave and other appliances, a cockatoo, and who knows what else he had back there.

I again tried to fix my mind on moths, but thought about a crazy bumblebee I saw instead.  It was walking around in circles, nothing like usual bumblebee behavior.  A visit to Wikipedia informed me it was infected by a parasite which made the bee leave its hive and walk around in circles before dying.  This earns them the name "zombees".  The parasite lays its' eggs in the bee's abdomen and about a week later the pupae emerge from the throats and heads of the dead bees.  Oh yuck.

How is this my life?  I haven't bothered anybody.  I don't deserve zombees and homeless guys with vicious dogs!

At the same time, I'm not entirely surprised something happened in that yard.  A week or so ago, I called the cops on a couple who seemed to be scoping the property and who tore off as soon as they saw me watching them (twice).  I found an empty pack of cigarettes in my yard in an unlikely place.  I was on high alert, and quite aware others thought I was just a hysterical female to pacify and ignore -- but then I wasn't worried about the cops killing me so I should just sit down and shut up, right?  I'm feeling very sympathetic towards the people protesting police practices.

Watching a zombee walk around in circles may not seem important.  I rather doubt those parasites will breed in my abdomen, but just knowing stuff can be useful in unexpected ways.  An observant artist is a better artist as a general rule, and an informed person is more interesting.

My point is to notice things.  Trust your gut.  If it feels wrong, it probably is wrong.

I ran out of space to actually write about Luna Moths, but if you're interested you can see Wikipedia's info here.

"Blue"

When I was a feral wolf child in the woods, I spent my days really looking at things.  I stared a dragonfly in the eyes while it glared back at me.  I looked at a crawdad's feet, not just the pinchy big claws, but all the little claws on the skinny legs too.  I touched the spiny fur of its shell.  I noticed how algae sways with the river current and how water bugs scamper across the water surface.  I listened to the birds singing and found the softest moss bed in the forest.

Why do we let this world of wonder belong only to children?  Not that kids today have the requisite infinite boredom to explore the world so minutely.  It seems nobody makes moss curl up with a finger touch anymore.

The other day I was entranced by the vivid blues and purples of my snowy world.  I started feeling like I "ought to" paint what spread before my eyes.  Thinking about what I "should do" takes away the beauty and just becomes a chore.  I decided not to paint the colors and watched the fat snowflakes fall.  It seemed like the absolute best way to spend my time.

The snow melted and the sun came out.  In the brief moment of sunshine between weather fronts, I walked to the store, a distance just far enough away to be discouraging, about 1 1/2 miles away.  I saw the word "blue" before taking my walk and decided to pay attention to blue things in my world: blue sky, blue jay, blue signs, blue dumpsters, blue trash on the side of the street, blue cars, blue coats.  Oddly, there aren't any blue houses.  Around here it seems they are only white or brick, except for one gray house and 2 beiges.  Nonconformists.  My house is both white and brick so I've clearly adapted to my environment.

I got up and refilled my glass from my blue water pitcher and noticed my next door neighbor's blue house with a blue appliance repair van in the driveway.  Okay, even when I'm trying to pay attention to my world the obvious can escape me.

I think this is really the point though.  How often do we really look around?  If we're zipping around in cars or glued to our hand-held devices, all those blue signs go by without notice.  Why would we notice blue dumpsters?  How long has it been since they replaced the industrial green, banged up dumpsters in the business parking lots?

I walked past a woman in a blue nursing home uniform.  She didn't look up from her phone.  Hey!  Let's interact!  Join me in the real world instead of just the virtual one!  Of course I didn't say that.  I just felt a little lonely for both of us.  Everybody is endlessly talking, but nobody is really saying anything.

I'm going to make an effort to take daily walks and to pay more attention to the world around me, not because I "should", but because it makes me happier than vegetating in front of the computer.  Who knows what other kinds of things are out there waiting to be noticed?