Fly Another Day

Dragonflies spend a lot of time flying over water, but like helicopters they don't do very well if the try to land in water. Helicopters sink, dragonfly wings become adhered to the water surface and they become stuck. Their only hope is to make it to shore before a lurking muskellunge takes a fancy to them.

Last evening I was floating on the lake in my nattily appointed yacht; five feet of inflated made-in-China plastic goodness. In the middle of the glassy Washademoak I spotted something struggling on the surface of the water (note: it wasn't Julian....he does quite well on the stand-up paddleboard!). As I got closer I could see that it was a dragonfly. I love dragonflies. They have to be the coolest of all insects, though praying mantises are also quite fascinating for their sexploits. Dragonflies look cool, make nice accents to Tiffany lamps, and fly better than any Apache attack helicopter ever could. Plus they eat mosquitoes, for which I am eternally grateful.

I scooped up the beleaguered dragonfly from a near certain death and offered her a ride back to shore. she looked up at me with her gorgeous green eyes and said "cncusgabbykln ruiavb  vjrgabbyv urbvvb jckjvk jsbirgittenv  nnviawnibzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz". I blushed.

I transferred her from my hand to the plastic gunnel of the H.M.S. Mootha but she couldn't seem to get a proper grip and kept falling back into the boat. I then let her rest on my finger but it quickly became apparent that it was going to be really hard to row the boat with a knuckle-duster insect ring. I transferred her to my big toe where she happily watched the shore grow closer while I rowed.

Now, here's a dilemma. How do you get out of an inflatable boat with a dragonfly on one foot. Under the best of circumstances it's a challenge to get out of that thing. Self-levitating reminds me of mom struggling to stand up when she used to go cross country skiing. Lots of hilarity and radical body Scottish. I knew I couldn't get out of the boat without crushing my four winged friend, so I enlisted Julian to help. He took the dragonfly from my toe and place it on terra firma. I grunted and groaned while managing to extricate myself from the boat.

My pet dragonfly needed to dry her wings before she could fly another day. I hope that she's back in the air today, free from bondage, and fighting evil (mosquitoes).