Dinosaur Days

Bugs and I have a mutual understanding. It is as follows:
* Don't come in my space and I won't bother you
* If you invade the area around me I will try and catch you so you can be released back outside(so that you can come back in and we can do it all again or terrorize others) as a last resort if you are uncatchable you may be terminated
* If you fly or crawl at or on me I will bob, weave, scream and cry like a little school girl (actually sorry small children probably handle bugs better than me)

Today it seems that one insect particularly wanted to test point three. On my way to grocery shopping while passing a noisy group of trees, I started seeing the cicadas flying around. Those of you who have never had the pleasure of seeing a cicada let me tell you all about them. They are a huge, noisy insect that flies. It does not bite or sting but like all bugs still scares the living daylights out of me. I am also fascinated by them and their size and enjoy watching them from afar, please note the word AFAR though. They annoy me in the mornings as they often wake me or R-Rex up. So it is a love/hate relationship with us. Here is a picture for your viewing pleasure but gives me the willies.



Anyways back to today and my walk past the flying cicadas. I was keeping one eye on the trees for any stray ones coming my way. While low and behold out dives one for my head, I do the standard bob and weave in which it then bounces off my thigh and lands on the stroller. Now I am in a state of shock and have stopped most of the people around me by the spectacle. They decide to move on while I dance about trying to figure out how to get this huge bug off the stroller without touching it or have it fly back up in my face. People are still passing me with odd looks at this gaijin bouncing about with her sweat towel waving around in the air saying "shoo, shoo". Not actually directed at the monster on the stroller as of fear of it coming at me. At one moment I started to push the stroller again thinking that I would just travel with it riding around on the back like our new pet. However I then assessed it would be even more likely to fly up into my face and stopped. Finally the cicada, bored of terrorizing me, flew up and off. Not without taking one more dive in my direction to watch me flinch. As it flew off one of the bicycle patrol guys who was watching this looked at me and said "kawai" = scary. Yeah, thanks for the help!! I traveled to the rest of the way to the store without incident, though was shaking like a leaf. I think I was even more of a spectacle going past the trees again as I walked past them crouched down and looking fearfully up at them. Tomorrow I am going everywhere in a bee suit, lol.

PS - A big congratulations to Sara and Ryohei on the birth of their beautiful baby girl!!