(Check out my new digital camera! And by 'MY new camera', I really mean NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC'S photographer's camera who posted this photo on National Geographic's website.)
Despite growing up around the beach, I always envisioned summer as tall grasses waving in the early evening breeze. I'd dream of sitting on a porch swing drinking lemonade or iced tea and holding hands with my beau. That's what Laura Ingalls Wilder used to call boys that would come visit. I LOVED Little House on the Prairie. I wanted a beau too. But my beaus rode skateboards and wore Jimmy'z hats that looked like they had a pair of boxers on their heads. And if I ever tried to call them my beau, they probably would have said something like "dude, my name's not Beau, it's John." But I digress ...
My dreams of summer also ALWAYS included watching fireflies.
I have no idea how I learned of their existence, but just the thought of nature creating its own version of twinkly lights that would come on during my favorite time of day was so compelling , they entered into and remain, firmly planted, in my daydreams.
Despite all of this, I have actually never seen a firefly. Unless of course you count the ones in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. But I'm going to go out on a limb and say that those were PROBABLY fake. I imagine part of never having seen a firefly stems from my avoidance of any place that is HOT and has HUMIDITY. So bye bye any place east of the Rockies during summer!
I did a little Google search today. Somewhere, someone is commenting on their blog "Some TRUCKER Googled 'Are there any fucking fireflies on the West Coast?' and landed on my site today."
BUT Peeps! I learned that there are fireflies in OREGON & WASHINGTON. And I THINK Portland is in one of those two states. I click click clicked my little heart away and learned that the Oregon fireflies reside in Corvallis, OR, home of the Oregon State Beavers and only about an hour and a half south of me! I was JUST about ready to pack my bags and then I saw it ... "though they are the same species of lightening bug, they do not glow."
DAMN IT FIREFLIES OF THE CORVALLIS, OREGON FIREFLIES!
Next time someone asks me the question "Is everybody really THAT into 'living green' in Oregon?" I can say, with one hundred percent certainty, that yes. Yes they are. Even our lightening bugs conserve energy.
