Yikes!

Last night was the night that the full moon was supposed to appear to be the largest, something about the rotation of the earth in relation to the moon and other junk. I was determined not to miss it. Unfortunately. Because in my unimpressive moon watching I nearly stepped on one of these buggers. It scared the bejeezus outta me (I know, I need to toughen up on my fright level for ferocious and freaky looking insects). I don't think the larger-than-usual-looking moon was worth it.

Clif put it in a jar to show the kids in the morning. Everett didn't really care much, but Simon carried it around all day until finally deciding that we needed to "take the beetle to the mountain." He was very concerned that the thing had nothing to eat in its little jar. So we let it go far away from our house.

After some internet searching I found that it's a prionus californicus or prionus root borer. Yes, they bite. And they only come out at night. Nasty. I'm staying in.