Twig Adventure

I finally satisfied my curiosity about those sticks that covered the sidewalk last night. Sticks--you know, the thin, gnarly things scattered and clumped along the path as far as the eye can see. They appeared with the leaf-buds and the flowers that were torn from the trees by the hail and rain.

Let's say that you are walking down the sidewalk (or rather, running) in pouring rain, treading sticks and buds with your shoes. Out of the corner of your eye you see a stick begin to vaguely move and before you can stop yourself the same stick squishes under your shoe. You come to a halt right under the thickest part of the downpour and gradually realize that all the sticks and clumps of sticks on the sidewalk are in motion. They weren't going anywhere in particular until you sent them to stick heaven by trampling them underfoot. You curse the moment of insanity when you decided to wear your good running shoes for the entire day.

When an inanimate stick begins to move there are two (and only two) explanations:

(1) this is a new kind of stick that you've never seen on the sidewalk, in Audubon, or even on reality tv, and you are incredibly behind the times;
or (2) (most likely) you are crazy.

For most of us, regardless of the truth, (1) is the way to go. We simply have never encountered these delightful little things before. I've decided to call them rainworms because they magically disappear when the sun comes out.

Don't get your hopes up. There's little hope for sunshine any time soon. I have heard, however, that fish find rainworms incredibly tasty. Let's get some fishing line and head down to the river...

..On second thought, maybe we can just release some fish on the sidewalk instead.