Imagine All The Mantises

May 16th, 2011

This morning my imaginary psychiatrist tells me, "So let me get this straight, the reason why you are depressed is because its 11 days after May 5th and you haven't been able to find a praying mantis named 'Polly Jr' to be your insect friend for this year? I don't think I have a drug for this particular situation"

My favorite East Coast pen-pal replied: You're not depressed. You are just not in the mood to kick my butt in our mantirace this year....hoping to find my babies on the deck this week!

[The 'mantirace' that she refers to is supposedly a competition between us that she started to see who could be the first one to find a praying mantis for a pet. The plural of mantis is mantises and I was reading the wikipedia article about John Lennon yesterday, so that is the origin of the blog post title]

My reply: Yes, its just imaginary depression to go along with the storyline. I am enjoying getting my wood posts put in place for the grapes and hope to string up the wires later this week. We are just busy in the middle of so many things, this isn't even CLOSE to being retirement, more like re-tired-meant. Coopie is pretty much doing fine, being silly every once in awhile, just like his royal servants E & T.

I did have a dream later in the day during my afternoon nap where I laid something green on the kitchen countertop and right before my eyes it slowly turned into a giant praying mantis.

Update 2011.05.18

I found this year's praying mantis to be my 'Coffee Companion in the Mornings", meet Polly Jr !!! 

(My pen-pal from the Northwest wants the name 'Pollyanna' - my reply, "How about 'Polly Ester' ?")

This is the link to last year's blog post of my adventures with my praying mantis named Polly

Update 2011.07.08
Yea! I finally got to play with my praying mantis who lives indoors, he/she came out of hiding yesterday, and I taught him/her how to play "Infinite Stairway" walking up my hands. He/She has tamed down considerably today, readily transferring from my hand to a leaf and vice versa calmly. There are a couple more that I have seen on my outdoor plants, one on a tomato plant, and another on a grape vine. I didn't have much luck training them just yet.