I enjoyed this piece thoroughly being somewhat superannuated and pushing the upper limits of that biblical lifespan. I too used magnifying glasses in mean ways as a child. Never knew the exploding ant technique, but did use my sisters' hair spray to flame throw ant colonies (sorry, Walter T.). Birding came late, after fifty when I started slowing down. Beetles. Not yet, but I dont rule them out!
Loved this one. It reminded me of something my daughter-in-law said last night. We were standing on a balcony looking out over Port Susan (actually, a bay in the Puget Sound) and a bird flew by below us and she said, “I wonder what that is?” “It’s a Belted Kingfisher,” I said, and Abbie laughed. “When I first met you,” she said, “I used to think you were making up these names, but now I know they’re actually real.” I thought that was pretty fun. (And by the way, check your last paragraph for a typo: you wrote “out waking” instead of “out walking.”)
Pretty fun indeed ... and thanks for typo discovery. I am not an accurate typist and usually my wife (who long ago was a scientific proofreader) will catch them ... I should have run it past her first.
I enjoyed this piece thoroughly being somewhat superannuated and pushing the upper limits of that biblical lifespan. I too used magnifying glasses in mean ways as a child. Never knew the exploding ant technique, but did use my sisters' hair spray to flame throw ant colonies (sorry, Walter T.). Birding came late, after fifty when I started slowing down. Beetles. Not yet, but I dont rule them out!
Loved this one. It reminded me of something my daughter-in-law said last night. We were standing on a balcony looking out over Port Susan (actually, a bay in the Puget Sound) and a bird flew by below us and she said, “I wonder what that is?” “It’s a Belted Kingfisher,” I said, and Abbie laughed. “When I first met you,” she said, “I used to think you were making up these names, but now I know they’re actually real.” I thought that was pretty fun. (And by the way, check your last paragraph for a typo: you wrote “out waking” instead of “out walking.”)
Pretty fun indeed ... and thanks for typo discovery. I am not an accurate typist and usually my wife (who long ago was a scientific proofreader) will catch them ... I should have run it past her first.
I always regret when I don’t pass mine through Sara, former editor