I Learned Something Today

Huh.  I always thought that worms crawled out of the dirt and onto hard surfaces like driveways during rain to avoid drowning when the air spaces between the dirt particles fill with water, but I guess I was wrong.  I just read that worms breathe through their skins and actually require water in the soil to do so; what's more, evidently they can survive being fully submerged in water for several days.  I gather that the current theory, or at least one current theory, is that earthworms surface during rainstorms for migration purposes, because they can move longer distances across the surface without drying out during rain.  It had occurred to me to wonder why there were worms in the middle of my driveway today--surely just getting up on the edge would have been sufficient to keep them from drowning?--and I guess now I know the answer to my question.  I also know that I am a raging dork, had there been any doubt.  Who else spends any time whatsoever voluntarily contemplating the motivations of earthworms???

And of course, the fact that there are worms on my driveway at all means that it is once AGAIN precipitating at my house.  We're getting rain this spring like we got snow this past winter, which is to say by the bucketload.  Somewhere, not too far from here, Noah is building another ark.

Speaking of flood stories, I find it absolutely fascinating that so many world cultures have them.  Who could read these stories (some listed here and here) and not see their striking similarity to the later Biblical versions??  The Sumerian story has been dated to about 1600BC...proof that there is truly nothing new under the sun.

Yours from the land of pouring skies and pruny fingers...

Mama D