Speaking of Monsters

Yesterday I was doing dishes and looked up and, holy cow, there was a lizard out on the balcony! I grabbed my point and shoot and went to get a picture but when I got to the door I realized that it wasn't a lizard, it was a GIANT bug. If it had been a praying mantis I would have retreated back the kitchen and finished the dishes cause those things are wicked, but it was a locust (a big'n) so I went out and snapped a couple of pictures. Pretty amazing creature. It didn't startle when I came at it with the camera, but it did do these very slow graceful rotations on the balcony railing to try to evade me. I am now an admirer of the locust.