windy ramblings

The weather here in Colleyville has been up and down the past week.  For me this has been discouraging as I cannot go outside when the temperature drops below 60 degrees Farenheit due to a rare congenital condition called Fuckcoldweather.  I am not sure if the vast temperature fluctuations are confusing our little dragonfly buddies about when to emerge, but I do know that another component of weather, wind, could be doing us all harm.

As stated in a previous blog entry, after a dragonfly emerges and its wings harden, it becomes a juvenile.  These juveniles are not very strong fliers and often if you walk by a pond and startle one it may fly off before it really feels comfortable.  An unsuccessful first flight for a dragonfly can do tremendous damage to its self-esteem.  Doing something for the first time and feeling so awkward is something I am intimately familiar with so I can relate totally--how humiliating is it when you come out of the water for the first time, look around and puff up your wings, only to be scared by an approaching giant.  What do you do??  Think fast--use those new wing things!!  Bzz...bzzz.  But, your wings don't even make sounds, that was just for emphasis, to make it seem like flying.  Before you even know what your body is doing you are in the air, basically hang-gliding; you take off, get a little air and then go in the general direction of the wind and hope for a safe landing.  What a welcome to the terrestrial and aerial world....

what's Latin for tragedy...

Just kidding, I don't care.  Natural selection takes care of a lot of our dragonfly friends, as seen in the following photographs.  Sometimes I wish I would've been disposed of earlier by nature, however, I was born in the 20th century with a lion roaring in the background.  Anyway, someone's loss is our benefit, and these pictures will help us bridge the gap between the very brief period in which a dragonfly lives underwater and in which it takes to the air.

Uh oh...complications emerging!!