The Loss of a Friend... sort of

I try, while the weather is still pleasant, to enjoy my balcony and sit outside at least for a few minutes every day. Usually in the morning for coffee. Side-note I also seem to attract grasshopper-like creatures into my world. I've even blogged about it before (that 2004 post can be found here). The other day I was driving home and looked into the passenger side mirror as I was going down the road and noticed one of these guys had hitched a ride. He stayed there all the way to my condo and into my garage.. so I snapped a photo of him before I got out of the car.



So anyway a while back while I was enjoying my coffee on the balcony I also watered my plants and felt like I saw a leaf moving out of the corner of my eye. It wasn't a leaf but rather another grasshopper. I'm not a huge fan of bugs but this thing was actually pretty cool because he looked exactly like a leaf with his markings. It was remarkable that he matched the plant he was on nearly identically, so I took a picture. I had to wonder.. how on earth does a grasshopper end up on a balcony 33 stories above the ground? Either way I figured it to be a one-time sighting, took my paparazzi pictures of him and went about my coffee drinking.



The next day that I was sitting out there having my morning coffee, I looked over and there he was again. This time he crawled out from inside the plants and made his way across the glass table by the wall. When he got to the wall he slowly started crawling up it, poking around with his antennas. I must be the pied piper to these insects, I swear. A sexy talent, I might add, attracting bugs.



"Crazy grasshopper" I thought, and went about my business. Well, it kept happening. Every time I would go onto the balcony in the past few weeks I found myself looking around in the plant and feeling a little comforted when I would discover he was still there. I should just break down and get a dog, is what you're thinking. Well this week several days went by with no sign of the grasshopper. I figured he must have moved on to greener pastures or to a neighboring balcony where a resident takes better care of their plants. A couple days ago it started raining and I decided to go out onto the balcony and move one of my potted plants so it could be in the path of the rain to get some water. I moved the pot and it was suddenly like the opening scene to CSI Chicago. The thunder practically boomed and lightning struck (not really) at the very moment I moved the pot and discovered the lifeless body of my old friend the Grasshopper. Natural causes, I assume. I still felt sort of bad.. it was like if your cat had been missing and then days later you found he had been hit by a car who-knows-how-long-ago. Well, sort of like that... but a cat you only had for a couple weeks and that was really really small and green and had antennas and showed no affection towards you as an owner. Either way, I have to mourn the passing of yet another grasshopper that made its way into my surroundings. I'm sure there will be more.. riding on my car mirror, living outside my front door(as one did in College for a week), or hiding in the plants of my balcony. R.I.P. Grasshopper. I still haven't decided what to do with the body. Maybe I'll bury him in the flower pot.

G'night,
M.db