THE BUG WITH TWO HEADS

(JULY 26, 2010) This morning Sadie and I got to the Riverwalk at about 6:30 to beat the heat. It wasn't as hot today as it has been over the past week, but it was very humid, and the Riverwalk was quiet.

We did see the white-beige sparrow we have seen during the past few weeks near the bridge at the Public Works department. There was a heron in the water near the bridge that goes to the train station. I crossed the bridge to get a better shot, but when I got above where it had been, the heron had left.

It wasn't until I got about a half mile from the car when there was Jim Bob Billy Ray Numbhead running toward me yelling, "Come, see! Come, see! There's a bug over here with two heads. I think I found one of them Siam twins - you know those that has two heads."

Now, Jim Bob Billy Ray isn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but he was so enthused about his find that I had to take Sadie and go see this freak of nature (the bug, not Jim Bob Billy Ray).

Just as a side note, Jim Bob Billy Ray got the first and second names of his two grandfathers. His grandfather, on his daddy's side was Jim Bob Smith, but when Jim Bob Billy Ray's father joined the army between the two wars (Korea and Vietnam), he changed his name because there were too many Smiths in his platoon. He changed it to Numbhead because "it sounded French."

Now back to the story. As you can see from the pictures above that the bugs all have one head. These are, according to Jim Bob Billy Ray, "normal bugs." But he saw the "Siam bugs" and had to tell someone, so Sadie and I were there, and we were the lucky ones.

As we walked over to the bushes where he had seen the "Siam bugs," he kept talking about how he might win the "Nobel Prize in Insects" and become a "gazillion-aire." He went on and on about how proud his daddy would be of him, and that with the money he got from this discovery, he could now afford to get married to the woman he had been "courtin'" for nearly 25 years; her name is Betty Jo Smith, and they may be related, but Jim Bob Billy Ray says, "I don't mind that. She is a purty woman."

As we got to the bushes where he saw those "Siam bugs," I started taking picture of the orange and black striped bugs, seen above. I snapped away, and Jim Bob Billy Ray looked and looked, but he couldn't find those "Siam bugs" to save himself.

He said, "I bet one of those other walkers might have snatched that bug, and now my future is bleak." He walked away mumbling to himself, "The only good break I've ever had in my life, and someone has done snatched it away."

I stayed there and took some more pictures of the bugs. And then I saw a very large bug and took several pictures of it. As I got closer, I said to myself, "By golly. Jim Bob Billy Ray was right. There is a bug with two heads."

I took several shots before I realized that that wasn't one bug with two heads, but two bugs mating. I took a few more pictures and then felt I was intruding upon a private moment and left.

Now, some of the story above is true (the first two paragraphs), but it was still a very good morning on the Riverwalk.