Once upon a time, long ago and far away, I read some children's book that had something to do with chasing nightcrawlers. Big, fat, juicy worms. I'd heard of them, but I'd never seen them. Oh, I'd seen the regular ol' earthworms - usually dried up on the sidewalk from a sunny day after the rain. And just recently I've become slightly fascinated with the red wiggler worms we have in our class worm bin/composter. But those guys are tiny.
Nothing prepared me for the sight I saw last night around 10pm when my friend Trudy and I left her house to get a movie. It had been raining most of the day, and was still drizzling a little bit. We noticed on the sidewalk that there were these weird stick things coming out of the grass. Immediately we realized that they were worms, but good golly, these were the biggest worms I'd ever seen in my life. And there were DOZENS of them.
So we did what anybody would do... we poked them! And Zzzzip! They disappeared into the grass. But FAST! Holy smokes those things move quickly.
Well, that just became in invitation to try to catch them. After some girly squealing about "Ewww! They're sliiiimy! Eeeeek!" we set out trying to pick them up. Well, Trudy tried to pick them up. I just poked them to watch how fast they'd zip into their little holes. I can handle holding hte little ones, but worms this big? Holy heebie jeebies, batman!
It was then we noticed in the damp, cropped grass and the glow of the streetlight that they were EVERYWHERE! Hundreds of them - all over the top of the grass, all over the sidewalk, all over EVERYWHERE. The fattest, longest, quickest squirmy wormies I'd ever seen!
Trudy commented that it was little like a sci-fi movie, and that very likely she'd have nightmares. Invasion of the Killer Nightcrawlers, anyone? Worms, multiplying all over the grass, poking their little wormie heads up, waving them around, sensing out their next victim! Run! Run for your liiiives!
Ahem.
Trudy decided she needed something better to grip, so I gave her a Safeway receipt. "Cause if I squish too hard, I won't get worm juice all over my fingers!" She got one, but only cause I think she pulled it in half.
Ummm... or maybe he was just really short. Heh.
We did eventually get our movie - Lars and the Real Girl. Oh my word, hilarious and sweet and so very, very aaaaawkwaaaaard - but not until we'd hunted worms for at LEAST 20 minutes. In the rain. Soaked jeans and backs. Most likely more than one passerby who thought we were slightly crazy.
And then we ate mass quantities of chocolate peanut butter cup fudge ice cream with topped with strawberries and bananas.
Life is good. :)
4 comments:
Ok, I DO have nightmares like this!!!
Not worms necessarily but squishy things of some sort all over the sidewalk and grass and they're all around and I'm trying to get past them to a "non-squishy thing" area and I don't want to step on any of them. Mostly I don't want to kill/hurt/injure any of them, I also do not want to "squish", and trying to get past them TOTALLY freaks me out. It can be lots of worms or fish or slugs or whatever. But they're squishy and they're suddenly everywhere.
Not once in these dreams did I ever decide "Hey let's pick them up!!!" :oO
According to my friend Wikipedia, those nightcrawlers are worth $25-40 per thousand. Your friend has a goldmine in her yard...If you want to pick them.
Whoops, the above delete was mine. What kind of editor would I be if I left my mistakes laying around like so much flotsum?
I LOVE this post! You have such an effervescent spirit, girl--the joy of the simple, the adventure in the ordinary--it's AWESOME.
I'm not afraid of worms, either. Nor do I mind spearing 'em on the end of my hook and throwing them overboard, hoping to snag a fat old trout. But I can't treat a cricket the same way--they have faces, for goodness sakes. My husband gets to spear the crickets.
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