The Wooly Alder Aphid

A few years ago I saw a bug that I had never seen before in my whole life! These cute tiny white fuzzy looking insects were floating through the air at Sandy Pines in Michigan. We would catch them in our hands. I looked through a magnifing glass at one and saw how beautiful it was. It's wings looked like little fairy wings and looked like it was wearing a little angora coat. At that time, I looked through the internet trying to find out what it was called. There were a lot of notes from people stating that they had never seen them before all over the United States. One person actually thought that we had a plague in the United States. How funny is that.

Anyway, we had some little cottonlike seeds in the yard today and it reminded me of those cute little bugs. They don't bother anyone. They suck the sap from trees. And bugs don't like to eat them because they have a sticky bad taste to them. No, I didn't test it!

Well, what I thought was very interesting is the following:

Almost every aphid you see is female. They reproduce parthenogenetically, without the need for males to fertilize them. Only under stressful conditions, such as the approach of winter, are males produced and reproduction takes place by mating between the sexes. The aphids born with wings are both males and females, and this last generation can reproduce sexually. The advantage to sexual reproduction is that it leads to genetic mixing, producing new combinations of genes that might be naturally selected for by the changing environmental conditions. This is the stuff of evolution. Under stable conditions, the parthenogenetic clones are already best adapted to their environment and need not bother with genetic mixing, for a large percentage of the offspring produced by mating will be poorly adapted to the environment and will die.

It just goes to show you that the female sex can do very well on their own. I know, I know! We're talking bugs and humans. Here's a picture of the cute little fairy bug, as I call it.

May Flowers and Butterfly

Please check out the pictures on the side board. There is a picture of a butterfly that I took this week in my garden. And all of the flowers that are in bloom at this time. More pictures as they bloom. And O'Ley's Garden is in with the pictures. It's my beautiful O'Ley's garden that I planted for him.

Surgery on my eye

Tuesday I had a cataract removed from my left eye. Amazing! I can't believe how I wasn't seeing things in good color before. My right eye doesn't qualify for surgery yet. I wish it did. What a difference! When I look at things with my right eye, it's like I'm looking at an old photo where they get kind of yellow. And with my left eye, things are so white and bright. I made a comparison but I wasn't able to copy it into my post. Anyway, the colors are fantastic.
I had no pain with the surgery and my eye is doing great. In three weeks I have to have it checked and will probably have to get new glasses because a lens was placed in my eye. Funny this is that this morning I read the paper without my glasses! I've never been able to do that!

Memorial Day and Anniversary

A few things to remember tomorrow. It is our 46th wedding anniversary tomorrow. Wow! Long time.
And Memorial Day. Time to remember all the men and women who served for our country in all of the wars. And, let's not forget the unpopular war in Viet Nam when our soldiers came home to be greeted by protesters. It must have been terrible to fight in a war that they didn't volunteer and to come home to jeered, mocked and called names. God Bless America and God Bless all of our enforcements, Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guards and the Reserves.
God Bless all of the families of those that died. God Bless all of the troups that returned with injuries, not only to their bodies but to their minds. It's a hard life for them to live. But, ask one of them and they'll tell you it was worth it. Again, God Bless America!

Denny and Jordan and Dallas

My Flowers From Danielle, Randy and Ashley

Danielle and her Mother's Day Gift From Ashley

Dallas Goes to the Dentist!

Dallas had a few cavities! She went to the dentist for a checkup. She bit the dentist's hand. Ouch! Today she went back to get her teeth filled! Everything went great. Watching her after they gave her an injection to be sure she was settled down before they gave her the anesthesia gave me the willies! She reminded me of O'Ley when they put him down! Her eyes were open and glazed. But she won't remember anything. They gave her an amnesia medicine. She won't even remember going to the dentist today! No more candy or goodies but more toothpaste!

Eyes and cataracts

I went to the eye doctor today. I knew I had cataracts because the moon, stars, headlights, streetlights and even our nightlights have halos around them! I don't dare drive at night. So I went today to the dr. They dilated my eyes at 9:30 this morning, it's now 4:13 and I still can't go outside in the sun! I went to the mailbox and thought I was going to go blind! I'm having the cataract removed from my left eye on the 26th of May. The day after our 46th wedding anniversary! OK, don't tell me that I should have had the surgery 46 years ago...two days earlier! No, I should have had my head examined. Just kidding.

We're getting ready for our garage sale Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I hope it doesn't rain but it wouldn't be bad to have it a little cloudy.

How Can We Pray For an Evil Person?

Today I'm in a serious and thoughtful mood. My thoughts are on how we're supposed to pray for someone who we know is bad. When someone is truly evil, how can we 'hate the sin but not the sinner"? I've heard that my whole life but never understood it. Today while I was on my way to my sister's house to clean, I was listening to a great story that I got from the library. In the story, a woman was teaching the children that she took care of that when we hate someone, the devil is happy. My thoughts have been on Denny's boss the last few days. The man is really an evil person. He was brought to the U.S. from India by Denny's boss to be the CEO of the company. The company hasn't been doing good and the business has gotten worse since this man came into the company. He is mean, belittling, uses foul language when he talks to them and had made all of the workers hate their jobs. He know they can't quit because of the economy. He's made pay cuts and took all of their accumulated vacation time away, cut their health care. He questions the workers to find out things about the other workers and what they think of him.

One day this week, he asked a worker how the people feel about him. The man told him that they all hate him. He asked for an example of who hates him. The man told him that he and his wife hate him. He asked who else. He wanted names. The man told him that everyone in the whole company that works under him hates him. He smiled as though the thought of everyone hating him is what he wants.

A woman was upset and talked to my daughter-in-law. She said that the job was her life. She had no family and she was so afraid that when she lost the job, she would not know what to do to keep her apartment. She cried. Sue tried to comfort her. The lady told Sue that her heart was beating so fast now and she is under so much stress. She said that the CEO has made her life miserable. When they walked out of the building, Sue had her arm around her and tried to make her feel better. The next morning, the poor lady was found in the bathroom, at work, lying on the floor. She had a heart attack and died. Everyone was so upset at work. The 'evil' man never came to the building and said that if anyone left work, they would lose a day's vacation.

This is only an example of the things this man is putting the workers through.

My point is: How can we pray for this man with all the hurt he has done to others?
This I don't understand.

My Latest Friend on Facebook! And Birds

Adam Lambert, the great singer on American Idol is my friend on Facebook. He has almost 800 friends so I'm sure he won't answer my notes to him. Now I'm being pressured by Bruce (just kiddin' Bruce) to check out Twitter. After Dallas wakes up, I'm taking her to McDonald's to play. She loves it there. I'll bring my knitting with me.

I put out some bird feeders last week. There are birds in my yard for the first time since our house was built. Cardinals are feeding. I was told to put sunflower seeds in the feeders to keep out the crap birds. That doesn't work. I had sparrows today and a couple of the big black birds. Oh, and a rabbit was in the yard again today. Dallas chased him all over the yard until the rabbit found the only spot to get in or out. He made it! I bet his little heart was beating fast when he got out! Dallas is so fast and she was keeping up with him!

Today, May 5, 2009

Happy Cinco De Mayo everyone! The celebration in Dallas was postponed because of the flu. A lot of people took the day off from work for it!

It's a wet day today. I took my friend Mary to have her eyes operated on. We went to McKinney. I dropped her off. She would call me after the surgery. They postponed her surgery until next week. Two postponements.

Facebook

Facebook is amazing! I have the three girls that were friends of my oldest son, Denny when he was in high school. The three girls, Caroline, Beth and Cheryl would come to our house and visit us, whether Denny was home or not. I just loved those girls! Now I'm friends with them after all these years! And they're still looking good! And I have Dawn as my friend on Facebook. I worked with her at Meijer and forgot about her over the years! She's a sweet girl and I'm so glad to be friends with her again! Go, Facebook!