That’s what I said to a visiting praying mantis.  I will have to tell you the story.  It all started yesterday when I went in to talk to the bookkeeper at the local hardware store. I had a mistake on my bill and I wanted to get it straightened out.  So the bookkeeper is this woman who I have known forever and she is really a people person but she works hidden away in the backroom of the store.  So, when you go into see her be ready for some conversation.

So after we got the work done she asked how I was and I said that I had just been stung by four hornets so the conversation headed off toward insects.  I added that there had been a pic on FB of a praying mantis appearing on Vashon recently.  She tells me of this praying mantis that she had a conversation with once.   Yea, yea, OK.  I said that I never had seen one anywhere before much less held a conversation.    So, that was that and walking out of the store I was thinking really is it possible to have a conversation with an insect?  Sounds crazy but who knows.

So I drive back to the ranch and I am still thinking about this as I go into our wood shop and I am dinking around there for a few minutes straightening up when what do I run into?  Yea, a praying mantis.  What?  I had never seen one before in all my years and all of a sudden there he was bigger than life.  He or she was perched on a piece of weathered wood and the same color, a light grayish brown, and I thought they were always green.

So I sit down on the next bench about four feet away.  I’m on one bench and he is across the way on the other.  So what do you say to an insect really?  And I open up with, ” Well it is just you and me and Saint Francis.”  And I go on telling him about my day and he is moving around a little bobbing his head like he is listening.  And I’m telling him about getting into the hornets earlier in the day and all of a sudden he takes to the air and flies in my direction and I move over quickly since I already had my bad runin for the day.  He lands on my bench and walks across the bench toward where I am now sitting and climbs up on my hand and just sits there  bobbing his head as I continue to talk.  Yea, and after maybe ten minutes he evidently got bored with me or had other business to take care of he turned a hundred and eighty degrees and flew away back to the other bench.  So, I left it at that and walked away a little wiser and happier.

So I thank my friend Molley the bookkeeper for putting the idea in my head and for the opportunity to try it out.  That was the high point of yesterday.  Today later we are off to see Pink Martini on the mainland, high times.  Maybe I will get a chance to talk to them.  Alperfect, love, Felipe.