Friday Night Lights

It was good for a while...

And then it was down to the wire...

Bummer on the ending, but when I got home there was a cool moon dog.  Unfortunately I could only capture the moon, not the dog. 

Friday Night Lights

Solstice 2012

Here is to the change of the seasons, the return of the sun, and the days once again getting longer. 

Friday Night Lights

Rain drops on the branches, like nature's own Christmas lights:

My favorite tree, barely lit:

The moon at my door, in the porch screen light (and rain turning into snow):

Poodle Chasing

Rest In Peace, Spidernaut

Farewell, Little Space Spider | PBS NewsHour

more Friday Night Lights

Neighborhood Stroll, Christmastime Edition

Christmas lights and familiar sights from a typical walk through the Sugar Hood

-$50

doorway

Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world...John Muir

bring it on

Lions, and Tigers, and Bears

...the mountain lion sizes me up and down, closing the space between us. The face says nothing, while the tail twitches like a lie detector.

A powerful voice in me says, Run, before it gets closer! Find shelter, safety, hide! The voice wants the lion magically gone, it wants to flee to my pack and bunch into a tiny ball. The lion is pushing my button, scrambling the innards of my instinct. Never have I felt fight or flight like this. My only choice, the message going to the thick of the muscle in my legs, is to run. Get as much space between me and danger as possible. The animal is too big, too wild. I've got to get out of here before it's too late.

What I do, instead, is not move. My eyes lock onto the mountain lion. I hold firm to my ground and do not even intimate that I will back off. If I run, it is certain. I will have a mountain lion all over me. If I give it my back, I will only briefly feel its weight on me against the ground. The canine teeth will open my vertebrae without breaking a single bone, like thumbing between pieces of paper.

Some of the larger animals push their faces toward an attacking lion. It can't get anything at the face. It has got to have a clear shot at the neck, from behind or the sides. It tries to intimidate and push the panic button with this kind of doubtless approach so the prey will turn. When the prey runs, the kill is sealed.

The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild, Craig Childs

And yet, and yet . . . Denying temporal succession, denying the self, denying the astronomical universe, are apparent desperations and secret consolations. Our destiny is not frightful by being unreal; it is frightful because it is irreversible and iron-clad. Time is the substance I am made of. Time is a river which sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger which destroys me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire which consumes me, but I am the fire. The world, unfortunately, is real; I, unfortunately, am Borges.

Other Inquisitions, Jorge Luis Borges

What looks playful could be desperation. So late in the season, the bear is diving deep for one of the few remaining salmon carcasses at the bottom of the lake.

Treadwell keeps filming the bear with a strange persistence.

And all of a sudden, this.

Is Amie trying to get out of the shot? Did Treadwell wait till his last tape to put her in his film?

And what haunts me, is that in all the faces of all the bears that Treadwell ever filmed, I discover no kinship, no understanding, no mercy. I see only the overwhelming indifference of nature. To me, there is no such thing as a secret world of the bears. And this blank stare speaks only of a half-bored interest in food.

But for Timothy Treadwell, this bear was a friend, a savior.

Amie Huguenard was screaming.

Grizzly Man Script, Werner Herzog

Birthday Wisdom

From 2012-01-15

I must not fear.

Fear is the mind-killer.

Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

I will face my fear.

I will permit it to pass over me and through me.

And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.

Where the fear has gone there will be nothing......Only I will remain.

40 Days and 40 Nights

In this presumably apocalyptic year of 2012, I planned to spend my seemingly apocalyptic 40th birthday in some kind of apocalyptic fashion. Originally I had my eyes on something involving explosions of some sort, shooting machine guns, wild end-of-the-world type romps. But a little research led to the realization that those are all POST-apocalyptic type scenarios, and better suited for next year's birthday celebration (stay tuned). This year, as I complete one decade of life and move in to another, is much better suited to the pursuit of apocalyptic dreams and visions. Because the number 40 itself is associated with periods of significance from a variety of religions and folklore (often involving dreams and visions), it also seems appropriate to incorporate the number 40 itself in my celebration(s). So I have decided that this year I am going to spend 40 days and 40 nights in the desert (like Jesus), on the mountain (like Moses), or in the wilderness (like Ilyas). However, since I am really not an old-school prophet type dude, my 40 days and 40 nights will not be consecutive and luxury accommodations may or may not be included. Perhaps this will somewhat dilute the significance of any dreams, visions or wisdom received, but at the very least I expect a vision of how best to enact my mid-life crisis now that I'm in my 40's.

The Year in Pictorial Review

Paths taken in 2011, and what I found there...

From 2011-01-19

From 2011-01-19

From 2011-01-19

From 2011-01-19

From 2011-01-20

From 2011-01-20

From 2011-01-20

From 2011-01-21

From 2011-01-21

From 2011-01-21

From 2011-01-22

From 2011-01-22

From 2011-01-22

From 2011-01-22

From 2011-01-22

From 2011-01-22

From 2011-01-22

From 2011-01-22

From 2011-01-22

From 2011-01-22

From 2011-01-22

From 2011-01-22

From 2011-01-22

From 2011-01-22

From 2011-01-23

From 2011-01-24

From 2011-01-24

From 2011-01-24

From 2011-01-25

From 2011-01-25

From 2011-01-25

From 2011-01-25

From 2011-01-25

From 2011-01-26

From 2011-01-27

From 2011-01-27

From 2011-01-27

Dad's camping beef stew, middle of the road Green River style...

From 2011-04-16

From 2011-04-16

From 2011-04-17

From 2011-04-16

From 2011-04-17

From 2011-04-17

From 2011-05-01

From 2011-05-01

From 2011-05-06

From 2011-05-06

From 2011-05-08

From 2011-05-08

From 2011-05-08

From 2011-05-08

From 2011-05-12

From 2011-05-30

From 2011-05-30

From 2011-05-30

From 2011-05-30

From 2011-05-30

From 2011-05-30

From 2011-05-30

From 2011-06-03

From 2011-06-10

From 2011-06-10

From 2011-06-10

From 2011-06-10

From 2011-06-11

From 2011-06-11

From 2011-06-11

From 2011-06-12

From 2011-06-12

From 2011-06-12

From 2011-06-12

From 2011-06-24

From 2011-06-25

From 2011-06-26

From 2011-06-26

From 2011-06-26

From 2011-07-02

From 2011-07-02

From 2011-07-02

From 2011-07-02

From 2011-07-02

From 2011-08-27

From 2011-08-27

From 2011-08-27

From 2011-08-27

From 2011-08-27

From 2011-09-01

From 2011-09-01

From 2011-09-05

From 2011-09-05

From 2011-09-18

From 2011-09-23

From 2011-09-23

From 2011-09-23

From 2011-09-24

From 2011-09-24

From 2011-09-24

From 2011-10-20

From 2011-10-20

From 2011-10-21

From 2011-10-21

From 2011-10-30

From 2011-10-29

From 2011-10-31

From 2011-10-31

From 2011-10-31

From 2011-11-03

From 2011-11-03

From 2011-11-03

From 2011-11-04

From 2011-11-05

From 2011-11-24

From 2011-11-24

From 2011-11-24

From 2011-11-24

From 2011-11-25

From 2011-11-25

From 2011-11-25

From 2011-11-26

From 2011-11-26

From 2011-11-26

From 2011-11-26

From 2011-12-27

From 2011-12-27

From 2011-12-31

From 2011-12-31

From 2011-12-31