New Thing #203--Pay Attention

Sometimes, New Things need to be little, particularly on a day like today. At noon the temperature was 88°F, but the heat index was 98°F. Today was Errand Day, with lots of stops. At every stop, when I stepped out of the car it felt like a sauna. I couldn't wait to get home and hibernate in the air conditioning.

After I put my car in the garage, I walked down to the mailbox to retrieve the mail. I saw this in the middle of the driveway:

The worm was at least ten inches long. I'm not sure how or why it decided to travel across the driveway on a hot sunny day, but it was definitely moving to the other side. I was concerned that it wouldn't make it, so I picked up a worm, moved it to a flowerbed, then watched it burrow into the ground.

When I set the worm down, it laid on top of the mulch for a couple of minutes, then it slowly started moving again. It burrowed into the mulch by contracting its muscles. Soon half of its body had disappeared:

All of a sudden it stopped, then backed up so that it was back above-ground! It moved about six inches further into the flower bed, then started burrowing again. Two minutes later it was completely gone.