The Cricket

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Here's a story I wrote several years about an actual encounter with a cricket.

About a week ago, I was sitting in my family room watching TV when a chirping sound started coming from inside the room. Now it's not that unusual for me to find crickets in our garage. And some do squeeze under the door and enter the family room from time to time.

This cricket had an incredibly loud chirp that made it hard to hear the TV. After about a minute or so, I decided that it either didn't like the show I was watching or wanted my attention.  So I slowly got up and starting looking for it. It took me about a minute to find it.  It was about four feet off the ground on a small ledge of a wall ornament. I could have squished it, but I didn't.  I then grabbed a tissue and trapped it inside. I carefully carried the tissue outside and released it on our deck. Besides its great chirping ability, this cricket had one additional unique characteristic.  It only had one back leg. Amazingly, it hopped away as if it had two good hind legs.

About one week later, as I was letting one of our dogs outside, I saw the same cricket again. It was hopping across the deck and almost got eaten by our dog. I was really surprised and happy. It was almost like this little guy came back around to say thank you.

You're probably wondering where I'm going with this cricket thing. My point is that everyone at some time or another feels like a wounded cricket. I know it sounds a bit odd, but I think we all can learn something from this little guy. No matter what life sends you, try to figure out a way to not dwell on things for too long and get on with living. Also, if you see someone wounded, provide that tissue or keep the dogs at bay. You just might be surprised how it helps that person or how good you feel after doing it.

Pssst. My name's Alexander.

Sometimes you just have to sneak into places so that you can see what's going on and introduce yourself. Tonight I crawled into Ken's garage and under the door into his family room. You see, his cats and dog might not take kindly to me trespassing so I waited until everyone was asleep. Now he has a habit of leaving the computer on all night so I didn't have to turn it on. I quietly walked by Calvin, sleeping in his dog crate, the basement door where their three cats, Oreo, Benjamin, and Leo sleep and into the computer room where Ken writes all his stories.


You're probably wondering how and why I decided to write this post. My name's Alexander and I'm a special kind of spotted salamander. I have the ability to understand human communications and I like to talk. Okay, I love to talk. I live in a beautiful forest called Brianwoods. Something very special happened in Brianwoods that allows me to do what I'm doing right now-communicating. But I don't have time to share any more because it's getting late and I still have to get back outside before everyone wakes up.  I also type really slow so it took a while for me to write this message. But I'll be back.


Bye for now.


Alexander

Writing Momentum

My Merriam-Webster dictionary defines momentum as a property that a moving body has due to its mass and motion. I imagine my college physics book has a very similar definition. Anyway, I've been lacking motivation to write lately. I definitely have mass, tipping the scales at about 168 lbs. I also have been in motion plenty since I run and walk a lot too. But I lack writing momentum. How is that possible? Well it's quite simple. I need to simply write.  And then I need to find those things that are an impediment to my writing and find a way around them. I really enjoy writing and I believe I just have to keep at it. Doesn't this sound like a pep talk. Perhaps I needed one.