Two in a Row

I didn't feel like waiting until December.

The two pictures here were taken last Saturday. I was hiking in the Cabe lands area of Eno Park, near the quarry.

Both pictures feature distant relatives of ours. One an insect the other a spider. While the two are both in the phylum Arthropoda, they're in different classes (Insecta and Arachnida).

The hornet pictured there on the left was crawling on my leg after I put it there. I found it on a rock. I had it in my hand for a while but every time I tried to take a picture of it, it fell off my hand and back onto my leg.

The hornets movements felt kinda funny because the wings never stopped moving and that created a slight tickling sensation. Because of the cool temperatures, the poor thing was moving a mite sluggishly so it was early to pick it up. But not so easy to get it to stay put.

I had an eye exam yesterday morning. I really hate those pupil dilation drops. It was a rainy overcast day so the sunlight didn't bother me but the oncoming headlights sure did. They appeared huge and freaky looking. As a result, the drive in to work after the exam was very interesting.

On Monday I have a doctor's appointment and the vision exam was in part to satisfy my doctor. She's been after me to get a vision test for nearly 18 months.

One odd thing resulted from the visit. While my eyes checked out fine, when I went to talk to the woman who does the eyeglass fitting I found out something interesting. I was wearing glasses that I'd gotten in 2004.

That probably explains why my vision seemed to take a dip around 6 months ago. Apparently I must have switched the glasses I got 2 years ago with the ones from 6 years ago. Oops. When I get home from work today I'll have to figure out where my more recent pair of glasses is...

Comments

srp said…
I can tolerate the grandaddy longlegs and I guess it is colder and the hornet was not predisposed to sting... but... still. I was stung by a hornet on some peaches in a grocery store once... it flew up and got me right in the neck and boy, did that sucker hurt!

Hope you find your glasses!
6:46 PM
kenju said…
Oh, Lord, Dave. Maybe you should make a definite change in the frames, if you can't tell them apart!
11:51 PM
Naquillity said…
hello~ been awhile since i dropped by. sounds like i'm not the only one that's been visiting doctor's of late. glad your eye exam went well. mine did too. had one earlier this month. i've also been sick (anemia). been trying to get my blood back up. i'm feeling much better now though.

love your pictures. i've been stung by a hornet before and i have to say it hurts A LOT...

hope all is well.
3:27 PM
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