Spring peepers! Oh, I miss them.

True story: I worked one summer during college for the NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation. One of my projects was updating a set of references on nuisance wildlife that was used by receptionists to answer calls from the public.

One section was about spring peepers. I was a little taken aback by this, so I asked about it. I was told that they'd gotten calls from people asking a) What's that noise? (which, you know, if they're not familiar with it I understand) and then b) Okay, it's frogs--can you get rid of them?

Um, no. No, the DEC is not in the business of coming in and carpetbombing your frogs. Feel free to move away from the wetland anytime now, sir.

Never heard the phrase Spring Peepers. We just called them frogs.

t still giggling at the name peeniewallie like a 12-year-old

There are lightning bugs in Jamaica? I didn't think they existed in anyplace remotely tropical. My husband's never seen them (he's lived long stretches in California and Hawaii) and doesn't quite believe they exist, and there aren't any in Utah.

Are there lightning bugs in Europe?

Spring peepers are a particular species of frog.

I never saw the frogs. They always shut up when we got close, plus the frogs lived where the snakes lived, and one cottonmouth nearly sliding over my foot was more than enough in my lifetime.

There are lightning bugs in Jamaica? I didn't think they existed in anyplace remotely tropical. My husband's never seen them (he's lived long stretches in California and Hawaii) and doesn't quite believe they exist

I don't think of California as remotely tropical, at least not the southern end. Where was he?

But yeah, we've got loads -- certainly more than I ever saw in Michigan, where there were some. I've associated them with warm humidity, myself.

Peepers are teeny tiny frogs therefore difficult to see.

Other frogs where my grandmother live: leopard frogs and bullfrogs.

Your tropical may vary. Anything with a humidity over 40% looks tropical to me these days. He was all over Cali: Big Sur, LA, some inland.

Anything with a humidity over 40% looks tropical to me these days.

The Jamaican side of me is agape at this. For tropical I require an actual rainy season, and non water-conservative natural flora. Certainly nothing officially described as semiarid, as LA is.

We don't get fireflies out here, no. It's damned near the only thing I miss, other than Peanut Butter Tandy Cakes.

(deep breath)

SQUEEEEEEEEE!

We're cleaning out the office, I mean, as in, complete cleanout, including all the stored cartons.

Know what we just found?

Two cartons - FORTY EIGHT COPIES - of the original hardback of "Plainsong", still in the wrappers.

I am seriously considering selling them on ebay, seven bucks a copy, ten bucks autographed, plus shipping.

Opinions?