Waving Goodbye to the Dinosaurs and A Prickly Proposition

Three more photos that can't stop talking. Listen to their blabbing and see what you learn (or would that be hear what you learn?).

Head to the beach and munch on some fries and watch a wave. It didn't last too long did it? A few seconds and the wave was gone. Dogpiled by a few dozen other waves from behind. But take a gander at the photo.

The mountain we are on is about a 10 hour drive to the closest beach, but those there be waves in the stone. That rock used to be a nice sandy shoreline with gentle waves lapping at its grains. All those ripples were then trapped underneath some gush of more sand or mud from a flood or storm. Keep adding more sediment on top and all that weight plus a whole lot of time turns that bumpy beach into a rock.

So how old are these frozen waves? I'm not too sure. It's hard to do research here even with Google (amazing I know). It could be 1000 million years old. The last dinosaurs said bye bye about 65 million years ago. Think about that. The wavy rock is like a thousand year old man compared to a 65 year old man. That's a big difference.

Hairy be wary! Not only does that little saying help you to avoid poison ivy vines in the woods and very old leftovers in the fridge, but it also can keep a sleeping moth from getting the better of you. Some caterpillars are plump smooth and wrinkly little buggers. And some have a full head (and body) of hair.

The hairs aren't for looks. On some caterpillars, the hairs are for fightin'! Caterpillars are tasty little treats, but being tasty can end badly. To keep from being a juicy appetizer, they surround themselves with bristling hairs of DEATH! Ok, not really hairs of DEATH! More like hairs of annoyance. Some caterpillar hairs are full of a mild venom that can make you or a hungry lizard quite itchy. The hollow hairs have special tips that break off and release the pesky poison.

Other hairs have nasty hooks on the end that poke right into an enemy's skin, but they don't poke back out. All great ways to keep off a dinner plate, but what happens when the soon-to-be-moth finds a cozy little place and starts its metamorphosis? Those hairs won't do a whole lot good on the inside of a soft and silky cocoon. But they would make a dandy barbed wire fence. Some moths pluck or pop off their hairs and weave them right into their silky cocoon to fend off famished foes as they pupate their days away.

The photo shows some of those hairs still standing guard even long after the moth has flown away. And do they really work? Ask my wife who was still picking the hairs out of her skin 5 hours after this photo. See if she ever eats a caterpillar again! (Don't freak out. My wife doesn't eat caterpillars. At least not that I know of.)

Hey, where's the popcorn? Think about the last time you went to the movies. Think of all the lights and posters and candy and popcorn and soda. Think of the 18 other movies playing in the theaters all around yours. Well, this little wooden shack is not a storage shed; it is the local cineplex. And there was no popcorn at this movie theater. There wasn't even electricity at this movie theater. Well, sort of. They used a small gas-powered generator to give the little TV and DVD player some juice. People sit on skinny little wooden benches or just stand. It may not sound like much, but it is a bargain. A ticket costs only about 15 cents.