It is all about location! Choose your home wisely!

  The other day, I was cleaning a bunch of crabs when Son walked in to help.  He picked up one crab and let out a quiet "Hmmm."   This was not a "yum" since he does not eat crabs and definitely not a "Ho hum" as in a yawn.  It was just a "Hmmm" as if he was pondering some deep question.  I looked over at him to see him staring at the crab he was holding.  Yep, deep thoughts were milling around that brain so I questioned what he was thinking.  Maybe a mistake on my part...I suppose.

  "If a barnacle attaches itself for life to some surface and it attaches to a crab, what happens if that crab sheds and becomes a softshell?"  We pondered that fact for a bit.  Barnacles are steadfast once they cement themselves to a surface and they live up to ten years (or longer).  Once cemented in place, they cannot move other than the feathery apparatus that they use to catch food.  A crab, on the other hand, eats tons, gets fat and molts.  Once that old shell (with barnacle attached) comes off, it falls to the bottom and deteriorates rather quickly.  The barnacle is just in a fine fix.  If it does not die due to the fact that its backside is now vulnerable, it is at the mercy of the elements.  The tide can brutally batter it and wash it ashore.  There the barnacle is nigh on cooked by the sun and can be attacked by birds and other critters.  Its life would be deemed over, through, kaput.  Without some sound surface, the barnacle does not have much of a chance of survival.

  Son and I discussed the unwise decision of the barnacle and how its choice of living arrangements led to its early demise. Had that crustacean cemented itself to a pier post it would have still been alive. Latching onto a crab shortened the barnacle's life tremendously.  Even if the crab had not been caught and cooked, it would have surely molted and left the barnacle to sink beneath the mud.  Either way, life was cut short for the barnacle all because its choice of  a homesite.