I Love To Go A Gardening
Growing Our Life in Northern Michigan
There And Back Again
JJ starts college this coming Monday. We have been teaching him the route to the college by having him drive us there and back again several times over the last couple months. The last time he drove us to the college, I wrote down each road and turn he needed to take. We had him drive us to the school for the last time today following the written directions to verify that I had written the directions down correctly and to ensure that he could follow them. He was able to get there and back again ok.
EJ very rarely gets lost. If he drives somewhere just once, he can remember the way–even years later. I am the complete opposite. I have a horrible sense of direction and I can get lost anywhere. Even if I say to myself, “I think I should turn right but I am always wrong so I will turn left,” I am STILL wrong. I even took a wrong turn in the theater the last time I went to see a movie with a friend, and almost took the exit out of the building instead of into the hallway to go to the bathroom. My lostness even affects seasoned travelers and a GPS. My sister-in-law offered to drive me to Parents’ Day at my son’s Summer Camp a few years ago. She has traveled alone all over the country, but we got lost and what should have been a one hour trip took three hours. The GPS got all messed up and directed us into a cemetery. It was crazy. So, anyway, if I have to go to an unfamiliar place, EJ has me drive the route with him the day before to learn the way.
I often laugh that I have a super power. My super power is that I can find lost items. I am always finding things that EJ and JJ misplace. Often I immediately find what they looked everywhere for. If I can’t find an item, I sit and think a bit and then I suddenly know where the item is and I retrieve it. I guess every superhero has a super power and also a super weakness. I can find lost items, but I cannot find myself. That’s the way it works.
JJ has not really had to drive alone to unfamiliar places, so I do not know whether he will be more like his Dad or more like me. I do not think he is as adept at finding his way as his Dad or he would have been able to drive to the college after being shown once. I just hope he isn’t as directionally challenged as me. I will be concerned about him driving to the college until I know he can make it there and back again by himself.
I spent my afternoon getting stool samples, cleaning out the kitty litter boxes on the back porch, and cleaning the back porch.
I think the medicine is helping Yafah with her diarrhea, but now Luke has diarrhea. I have been concerned that it is some contagious disease and all our cats will get sick with it. That would an absolutely awful thing. I kept Yafah on the back porch and put Luke in the bathroom so he could go in the special kitty litter and we could get a urine sample. Several times I found Luke out of the bathroom and the bathroom door open. I thought someone in the family was just forgetting to latch the door and I was going to remind them that they MUST make sure they keep him isolated. Then I remembered that Luke has always been skilled at opening doors and, yup, I saw him open the bathroom door and walk out. He didn’t urinate before EJ had to leave for work, but he did have diarrhea, so I scooped it up into a sandwich bag and EJ dropped it off at the vet on his way to work. Our vet’s associate called me later to tell me that she didn’t find any parasites. That’s good. She said we can pick up some medicine for Luke on Wednesday. It’s probably the same meds Yafah is taking. I hope it works, and none of the other cats get diarrhea. I’m getting a bit tired of dealing with it, and I worry about the pets.
Photo: bugguide.net
Early this evening I was outside and saw a small little bit of fleathery fluff flying with purpose. I remember seeing this beautiful tiny insect a few years ago, but I haven’t seen it again until tonight. I took pictures of it, but my pictures didn’t turn out so well, so I will share a picture from the Internet. I researched what it was, and learned that it is a wooly aphid. Their common name is “fairy fly,” which I think suits them. The Journal News website said that “Wooly aphids have special glands that produce wax in very long, thin streams. The wax covers the insect’s body and gives it the fluffy appearance. If you could wash a woolly aphid in something that dissolves wax, you would see an ordinary-looking aphid underneath. Wax protects the delicate aphids from predators while they feed.” I know that aphids aren’t really good for plants, but I still think these are very pretty.
I Love To Go A Gardening 
Cute bug even if it is an aphid! In 2011 I has some weird stuff growing on some of the honeysuckle on the fence. It was this white stuff, looked like cotton, along the stems with these small pure white as snow butterflies all over it. Upon closer observation, I noticed the little cotton balls were moving. I put one of them in a baby food jar and went to the agriculture experiment station (just a couple of miles away) and found out what it was. It was a scale. It bites into the plant then produces this sugar which turns into these cottony balls. The butterflies were eating that. When the scale wants to relocate, they just jump off the branch and the fluffy sugar helps them fly through the air. Weird!
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I had never heard of a scale before, so I looked it up. There are some incredibly weird and interesting, things in the world! I love learning about them. I think the white butterfly experience sounds cool. Thanks for sharing!
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I should have taken a photo, and maybe there is one lost somewhere in the files… GEEZ!
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Well, if you find a photo, definitely share it!
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