Great Black Wasp

The Jax update:  he was very restless and whimpering during the evening after we got him home.  He was hungry and would have eaten way more than we gave him - but the vet said to keep dinner small so that's what we did.  Finally, around 9:30 we decided to get him out one last time and then see if we could get him to settle upstairs in our bedroom (he has his own bed there, the spoiled beast).  After a bit of restlessness and whining, he settled down and slept peacefully all night.  And this morning, he was pretty much back to his normal self.  Soft diet for the next few days and antibiotic/pain meds for 5 days.  

Today's blip is probably my favorite wasp, although for many people they would be terrifying.  Sphex pensylvanicus is a large solitary wasp who started showing up on our property 5 or 6 years ago.  Now we have good numbers nesting somewhere on the property (no idea where and haven't spent any time looking) and spending their days in the mountain mint and milkweed.  Adults primarily eat nectar but the females hunt and subdue katydids and grasshoppers to provision their nests.  Eggs are laid on/in the paralyzed prey and then the larva feed on it as they grow.  Like the Great Golden Digger Wasps, the larva stay underground until next summer so there is only a limited time that the adults are around.  They are gentle creatures and I never have any fear of being stung as you'd really have to put some work into irritating them enough to attack.  Unlike social wasps who have the "hive mentality" that programs them to defend their nests, solitary wasps have no such instinct.

When I took my scleral lens out last night, I noticed that my whole right eye was very red and irritated and it didn't look much better this morning so I made a trip to the local Urgent Care where they ruled out any sort of corneal abrasion and put me on antibiotic eye drops for the next 5 days.  I have a backup appointment with my eye doctor for Friday (the soonest they could get me in) but will cancel it if things are on the mend by then.  The nice thing about the drops is that they also control the scratchiness and burning sensation I was having, so bonus!

My parents now have 2 offers on the condo although neither are straightforward. Dad is evaluating the pros and cons and I think has reached a decision to go with the less risky of the two offers.  Now we keep fingers crossed!  

We are having our very long driveway sealed tomorrow so have moved cars and trailer out to the street.  We will be able to drive our cars back up to the garage after a few days but they truck/trailer will need to stay on the street for about a week.  Fortunately, this isn't a problem.

Jax thanks you (as do I) for all the love!

xoxo
Debbi