A Rather Unusual Worm Rescue

Number of worms rescued so far:  76

Yesterday the weather forecast predicted light rain for today, but if rain there actually was, it must have been very light and taken place very early in the morning hours because by the time I got up (admittedly late) there was no trace of it.  I had decided to go and buy art supplies today so I went down to the subway station and took the train to the HongDae neighborhood;  it should have been a reasonably short trip, but whaddayaknow, I'd forgotten that this particular subway line splits partway down and the two branches lead to widely divergent areas -- and I only belatedly realized that I'd boarded the wrong train.  So I got off at the next stop -- to a station that was completely empty and actually had a desolate feel about it (decidedly rare in Seoul;  if tumbleweeds grew in Korea they would have been rolling over the tracks to a melancholy harmonica tune playing in the background), and only after consulting the subway map on my phone did I realize that, by an odd coincidence, this station bore the same name as another, very busy station in central Seoul and I had mistaken this little-used and underserved station in the suburbs for that other station.  After over an hour the train finally came and took me back to the diverging point, where I gratefully boarded the right train that took me to HongDae.  All in all, the (would-be)simple trip took over three and a half mortal Irish hours.

O.K., now for the main part of the story.  So I came home, and as I trudged up the pathway toward my apartment I encountered an unusual sight ahead:  a large earthworm (one of the extra-large kind they've got here in Korea) on the path, slowly and laboriously crawling along the cement surface.  It was obviously exhausted, and worse, it was dangerously exposed there in the middle of the paved path -- from both the desiccating air and the humans walking by -- and I didn't know how it came to be there, as there was no sign of recent sprinkler activity, and yet its "head" was covered with muddy soil, but the rest of its body was quite naked.  But in any case, my first thought was to moisten its drying-out body;  fortunately, this was just steps from the strip mall in the apartment complex, so I picked it up (unlike last time, I managed to overcome a certain amount of aversion to do this, as this worm was extra large as I said), nestled it in my cupped hands and hurried over to the restroom in the strip mall, where I gave it a (probably welcome) splash of water from the faucet.  The worm actually reacted fairly vigorously, writhing and partly crawling up my hand, which was a positive sign of reserve strength.  Then I came back to the spot where I picked it up and looked around for a place to return it to the soil.  A lady came by just then, and seeing the little passenger in my hands, she asked me -- without a trace of revulsion -- what "that thing" was.  I told her it was an earthworm, and she said "Ah, you're saving the worm!", then she asked where I'd caught it, bless her!  I told her I just happened to find it there on the pathway, and she smiled and went on her way.

The surface of the flowerbed by the path looked fairly dry, but as I dug a little shallow hole with my finger I reached wet soil underneath, so I let the worm down in it and partly covered it up with debris.  I hope it was able to dig its way back in.

Related post:  Worm Rescue Update

Presbyopia Creeping Up On Me

A welcome (always) day of rain the other day.  While on a walkabout around the wet neighborhood I came upon this sight on the sidewalk.

Without much ado I started to dig a little hole in the rain-softened earth with my knife to deposit the worm in,

only to realize after a second look that the "worm" was a twig.  Dang this "age-related farsightedness".

Number of worms rescued:  still 71

EDIT:  Today I came upon another worm -- a real worm this time;  it was writhing as if in torment on the sunny dry sidewalk, so into a damp shady hole it went.  A job well done.

Number of worms rescued:  72

Worm Rescue Update Of The Day

Today it rained.  Walking home from a short walk in the rain, I spotted this worm on the path just in front of my apartment.  It seemed rather sluggish and weak, but when I picked it up it resisted with surprising vigor and tried to wriggle out of my grasp, and I had to take a quick shot while having my phone rained on (I had to put down the umbrella) and getting my hand covered in slippery slime, which is why the photo quality is out the window.  Here the closeup actually makes the worm look almost like an elver^^ 

Number of worms rescued:  71

Worm Rescue Update

Today on the way home from grocery shopping I came across this worm drying out on the sidewalk.  It was a bit of a surprise, because the day had been sunny and warm, with not a hint of wet.  Anyway, I picked it up and placed it on shaded soil under some shrubbery.

Number of worms rescued:  70

Another Worm Rescued

Just came back from a short walk in the rain.  While on the way out I came across a worm slowly inching along, right in the middle of the sidewalk.  Overcoming a certain apprehension -- this guy was Really big -- I tried to pick it up, but as I did so it violently writhed and wriggled out of my fingers and fell back onto the sidewalk.  This happened several times but I finally managed to pick up the slippery, slimy creature and put it down on the rain-softened earth over the adjacent retaining wall.  Before resuming my walk I waited until I saw it start to dig its way into the soil.  This was my first worm rescue since moving to Korea.

Number of worms rescued:  68

EDIT:  I just came back from a quick trip to the supermarket, and on the way back I found another (not nearly so large) worm on the sidewalk.  I removed it onto soil as well.  Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo.

Number of worms rescued:  69

Beauty. And Earthworms

Number of worms rescued :  67

Oy

It drizzled throughout the night and early morning today.  In the parking lot at work I found a bunch of stranded worms, all within a short distance of each other.  I took them and duly deposited them in the wet earth, then on the way back to the office I came across a bunch more.  I took them and duly deposited them in the wet earth, then on the way back to the office I came across a bunch more.  I took them and duly deposited them in the wet earth, and thankfully on the way back this time I didn't encounter any more for the time being.  I think there were 14 in all, though I can't be certain.

EVEN I WAS A LITTLE SPOOKED BY THE BIG FAT ONE AND THE REALLY LONG ONE

 Number of earthworms rescued:  61

Another Rescued Worm

This one is actually from several days ago.  I forgot to upload it amidst all the holiday distractions.

Number of worms rescued:  47

Another Worm Rescue!

Yesterday it drizzled/sprinkled/misted off and on -- mostly on -- all day long.  I appreciated all the wet, and I guess the earthworms did too;  there were three of them within a few feet of each other in the parking lot at work.  I dug a little depression amidst the grass and dumped them all in together (I was a little pressed for time) before lightly covering them with damp soil.  I hope they didn't fight.

Number of worms rescued:  39

Magic Hour

RAINBOWS, EARTHWORMS AND NIETZSCHE

After five days of rain, including nearly four days of more-or-less continuous drizzle (which is pretty amazing for Los Angeles -- I have jokingly said in the past that walking through my downtown neighborhood makes me think I'm living in 'Blade Runner', but for a few wet, gray days it actually did look kind of postpunk-dystopian), the weather finally cleared up late yesterday. And then it rained again some more after that, but it was just a light misty rain and it looks like there isn't any more rain planned for a while. When a co-worker informed me that there was a rainbow in the sky, the afternoon was already lapsing into evening. Even so, when I ran outside with my camera, thanks to the rain-washed air and the clear sky the lowering sun was illuminating the world with a beautiful golden glow. Combined with the clean scent of the wet grass and the cool, ionized air, the light imbued the setting with a strangely nostalgic, otherworldly quality -- melancholy yet somehow exciting and expectant at the same time. It made me think of the wistful, fairyland-like landscapes of Watteau's paintings, lit by the golden sun of Claude Lorrain (these photos, however, remind me of old Dutch landscapes -- especially the second one). I couldn't get the whole rainbow in the frame, so I took partial shots and later did the mosaic thing again. I found that if I didn't try so hard to match everything up and just let the incidental details end up wherever they might, the resulting composite image actually became more interesting.

Worm Rescue Update: After so much wet weather, it stands to reason that there would be lotsa worms out and about where they shouldn't be. And sure enough, yesterday I repatriated 4 worms -- 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. I think one of the morning worms was an adolescent, because it was a good deal smaller than the others but bigger than the baby one from a couple months ago. One thing -- at one point I was in a bit of a hurry to get back inside and I didn't stop to save this one worm I passed in the parking lot. I feel a little bad about it, maybe a tad disappointed with myself, but I'm not exactly wracked with guilt and remorse, either. To exercise magnanimity and compassion, and also to be randomly callous or destructive, just because one has the power to do such things and not be affected -- it's the prerogative of a superior being who acts on his own will and recognizes no other rules. Hmm, I sound kind of Nietzschean... [Note to self: start using 'Nietzsche's Worm' as a satirical label for someone who is prone to philosophizing grandly about matters of trivial consequence] I suppose if there were a nuclear holocaust or some such cataclysm, and some superhuman being were to look down and decide that some of us would be saved but not others, he might feel similarly as I did about not being able to -- or not wanting to bother to -- save everyone. Number of worms rescued so far: 20

Synchronistic Event (#4)

Just now I was over at my cousin Tami's blog, reading her account of how her young daughter and her school friend had found a stray kitten and the three of them had taken it to a vet. I was listening to music as usual as I posted the comment that the kitten in the photos was so adorable that I wished I could adopt it. Just as I typed the syllable *싶 (her blog is in Korean) Soyeon of the girl group T-ara sang **싶 in my ear.

*From 내가 기르고 싶어 -- Wish I could raise (the kitten)
**From 다시 시작해 말하고 싶지만 -- "Let's start over, though I want to say (to you)" from the memorable song 'Time to Love' (recorded with members of the male group 초신성 / Supernova)

P.S.: A light, misty drizzle had come down earlier this morning; I expected many worms would be tragically misled by the wetness, and I was right -- I was able to repatriate 3 worms from the sidewalk back to the soil in the course of a single short walk!


After the triple dose of worms, all sorts of curvy things on the wet ground started to look like worms.



[From now on I'm going to post worm rescues as co-features rather than as separate headings, because there would be too many of them and I don't want this to turn into a worm blog. And the synchronicities, too, probably]