What happens is not as important as how you react to what happens.

NEWSFLASH:
Interrupting the sojourner’s normal single-post per day for this important discovery: Can someone PLEASE tell what this monster is?





As best I can tell, it’s some sort of ant, but sweet JESUS! What kind of radioactive waste did this thing get into to get to such a size?! It’s every bit of a full inch in length, and covered with what looks like bright, rich red and black fur. When upset, it has a very audible squeal. It has mandibles, like an ant. We found it amongst the pond plantings this morning. Granted the dirt there is utterly overrun with ants, but the ones I’ve seen there are quite small – wouldn’t even comprise one segment of this thing’s legs. We do have many large, black carpenter ants here also, but the largest of those I’ve seen have been, at the very most, HALF the size of this beast.

I’ve tried to look it up on the web but can’t find anything like it. I would like to set it free, but until I know what it is, am just not quite sure that I would care to have any more of these critters around here! In fact, I have a feeling I don’t want this critter around, whether I can identify it or not! But it’s just too awesome to KILL! Perhaps we need to take a drive up the road this evening…

[CRAPAZOID. I did a search on Mindsay's tags to see if anyone else out there was into bugs and such, and most of the entries are MINE! What's the matter out there?! Where's all the Mindsay naturalists? Out catching bugs?! Am I going to have to conduct some sort of membership campaigne or something?!]