ZOOO
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Hiking, strolling the beaches, wandering the paths, meandering along
the drying green fields of the terrestrial biosphere, got to sleep
last night at 4:30 AM; there was a deer, an adult buck standing on two
hind legs, reaching up to the loquat tree in the front yard, eating,
foraging around the ivy. In the burbs, nobody bothers the deer at
4 in the morning. Yesterday, I was walking on a fireroad trail back
along the county watershed. Looking down at my feet, I watched some
small black ants crossing the dirt road. There was also this 1/4" long,
off-white, multi-segmented worm-like creature with a reddish round
head and tiny legs. At first he/she/it looked like he/she/it was
wandering around aimlessly, but after observation, it became
apparent that he/she/it was engaged in a specific task: searching
for small seed-like stalks approximately 1/8" long, upon discovery and
grasping with something resembling a mouth, were then transported into a
small round hole in the ground slightly wider than the diameter of
his/her/its own body. This procedure was repeated several times by the
creature, as I subsequently observed around and above the area a 4' foot
long gopher snake, quick lizards, several large black ground beetles,
a horse with rider, a few whizzing cyclists, a helicopter, and a red jet
with silver wings. Elapsed time on the entire walk: perhaps 45 minutes.
It's truly amazing how easy it is for me, sometimes, to forget how
interesting life and 'stuff-in-a-universe' can be. --MT [June 14, 2003]
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