Friday, July 8, 2016

Ant Man

Once in Texas I was hanging with some friends on a dirt bike riding excursion, which became apparent meant Mark and I watching Tim hog the bike and ride laps around a field someone had been riding on before. I saw some large ants trying to live in a subterranean nest right in the dirt bike path. Idly I saw a tiny pebble just slightly larger than the main ant hole, the size of a peppercorn, and I picked it up and gently lodged it there, with a feather light tap of my finger just to make the bugs work for their salvation.
 

The big returning ants became excited when they returned, unable to enter, and crawled ineffectually around and over the tiny pebble. Then, I saw the most interesting thing: one ant carried a tiny splinter of wood, and lodged it under the pebble and began worrying it. It seemed the ant was literally using a lever. This so contradicted my view of the universe that I shouted a curse! My companion glanced my way and as I began to explain the unbelievable, Tim decided to roar through on the motorcycle at that moment, obliterating the entire tableau permanently, ants, pebble, hole and all.
 

It's not the sort of thing you forget.