{"id":37424,"date":"2026-07-12T05:00:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T09:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=37424"},"modified":"2026-07-11T23:00:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T03:00:34","slug":"books-and-bugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/12\/books-and-bugs\/","title":{"rendered":"Books and Bugs"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, today\u2019s post is about nothing.\u00a0 I\u2019m involved in a bunch of random things right now.\u00a0 I\u2019m reading two novels.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got Jim Butcher\u2019s latest Harry Dresden book \u201cTwelve Months\u201d and I\u2019m also reading a very old book called \u201cBuddenbrooks\u201d by the German author Thomas Mann.\u00a0 And you couldn\u2019t hope to find two more completely different stories if you tried.\u00a0 But I have an interest in reading both.\u00a0 But the Dresden book flies by while Mann\u2019s description of the 19th<\/sup> century events in the lives of the merchant family Buddenbrook is a task that I peck away at a few pages at a sitting.\u00a0 The translator saw fit to preserve the large chunks of French that Mann incorporated in the speech of some of his characters.\u00a0 And the religiosity and the local customs of Northern Germany are curiosities for a modern American reader.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m also involved in a microscopic inspection of the flora in the fields.\u00a0 I mentioned in an earlier post that I couldn\u2019t find any preying mantis egg sacs in the yard this year and assumed that the mantids that I introduced into the yard in the last couple of years weren\u2019t capable of surviving New England winters.\u00a0 Well, either that isn\u2019t correct or the native populations are making their appearance this year.\u00a0 In two different areas of the yard on two different species of flowering plants (cone flowers and day lilies) I found the specimens photographed below.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, these critters are infinitesimally small.\u00a0 And considering my old eyes, I\u2019m shocked I found then at all.\u00a0 And as things stand now, I haven\u2019t been able to locate them again on the plants where I originally spotted them.\u00a0 But this doesn\u2019t discourage me.\u00a0 After following some of the mantids around the fields last year I know that they get around and move quite a lot to find the diet of tiny bugs they need to fuel their substantial growth potential.<\/p>\n

And I don\u2019t mind saying that finding these little monsters cheered me up considerably.\u00a0 I really do enjoy hunting them around the fields and watching them go about their work of stalking, killing and eating tiny flies and other arthropods.\u00a0 Their skill is considerable and their appetites remarkable for something so small.<\/p>\n

And the other thing keeping me busy is preparation for an upcoming birthday party for one of the grandchildren.\u00a0 I found out that the propane cylinder I was trying to get refilled was too old.\u00a0 Apparently after five years it\u2019s considered unsafe and has to be recertified for use.\u00a0 So, the Tractor Supply folks sold me a new twenty-pound cylinder for eighty bucks and now I have both.\u00a0 I wonder how much they\u2019ll charge me to \u201crecertify\u201d the old one?\u00a0 I\u2019m guessing something like eighty bucks.\u00a0 After all, we\u2019ve got to do whatever we can to discourage the use of evil hydrocarbons!\u00a0 But it\u2019s fine.\u00a0 The burgers and dogs will still taste just as good cooked by the new propane.<\/p>\n

Well, that\u2019s enough for now.\u00a0 I\u2019m watching my Amazon account today.\u00a0 I sold 613 pages of \u201cThe Sniper\u201d on Kindle Unlimited today.\u00a0 That\u2019s almost three books worth and that is pretty good for my sales output so I want to see if it increases before I go to bed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, today\u2019s post is about nothing.\u00a0 I\u2019m involved in a bunch of random things right now.\u00a0 I\u2019m reading two novels.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got Jim Butcher\u2019s latest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[241,3366,1263,237,242],"tags":[1485,351,1486,1265],"class_list":["post-37424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-life-in-dunwich","category-stuff-that-personally-interests-me-miscellaneous","category-reviews","category-sff-book-reviews","tag-harry-dresden","tag-preying-mantis","tag-the-dresden-files","tag-thomas-mann"],"yoast_head":"\nBooks and Bugs - Orion's Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/12\/books-and-bugs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Books and Bugs - 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