"big, big, big"

The company we work for provides us with a couple of light stands with two "construction" type lights mounted to each stand. I turn these on every evening and off again every morning and they light up our little world here in South Texas. :-)
The last few nights the moths have been really bad swarming around the lights. I'm not sure where they have been up to now but of course like every thing else "Texas style" they are fairly large.
The biggest moth I ever saw was in Indiana though. That was way back when the kids were small and we were camping in our little pop up camper. We were at a State Park spending the week end and had set up one of those cheapo shade canapies that you put over a picnic table. You know the kind that are just a tarp with a pole on each corner with an adjustable center pole. The ones that are a huge pain to set up and no matter how you tie and stake the poles down the tarp always sags way down between them. Well we did our best to get this saggy, floppy tarp up to provide us with a little shade and some protection should it rain.
One night we decided to play a game with the kids so I rigged up the laturn for some light and we had some good quality family time :-). The moths were attracted to the lantern but were not too big of a problem until "moth-zilla" showed up. This thing had a wingspan of at least 6" and I thought it was a bat. Mothzilla flew under the canapy towards the laturn and I guess changed its mind because as it tried to fly back out it got caught in the sagging part of the tarp and that is when it got interesting. The kids started yelling, the moth was flapping against the tarp and we were all trying to untangle our legs from beneath a wooden picnic table! All I could say was "big, big, big"! :-)
We all got out from under the tarp including mothzilla and were none the worse for the wear. The kids, all now grown and on their own, still like to remind me of my heroics that night in the campground when all their brave father could do was "duck and studder". :-)

We seem to be in a weather cycle here in Texas. We have 2 cloudy days and then a day of rain followed by 2 more cloudy days and then more rain. Last night was our "rain night" and it started around 10 pm. There was several times it came down so hard that we lost the signal on the sattelite. The steady rain continued, mixed with some heavy down pours, until the wee hours of the morning. Once again we are slogging through a mudhole here at the gate. :-(

The local bobcat made another appearance just before the rain started and Rudee got a chance to see it too. There used to be a lot of bobcats in Indiana and I remember my Dad telling me stories about seeing them when he was younger. I'm not sure there are any still around there.

Rudee's Mom is having a stint put in her heart tomorrow morning in Indianapolis. Rudee has been keeping in close contact with them and even though it sounds fairly routine there are always risks involved. We'll keep you posted.