I'm a Dumbass

Not this little guy - me - I'm the dumbass.

I'm in Oregon at the moment and just after arriving, looked through my bag for a pair of sweatpants and other warm layers and found none.

I must have been sleep-packing, because I packed t-shirts but no sweaters, no fleece, nothing warmer than a sweatshirt, and nothing to lounge around the house in.

Clearly, my vitamins aren't working or they can't stop my brain from dissolving and running out my nose with every sneeze.

On a positive note, the opening at the museum was a big success and that night I was commissioned to get more wildlife shots. I spent some time there yesterday watching a lively river otter swim all around his pond - otters have the coolest paws - and getting new shots of the lynx and bobcat. It was hard not to get in there and snuggle with them.

Off To a Quick Start

2007 is getting busy. I'm heading up to Oregon at the end of this month to meet the other volunteer museum photographers & sync up on the show.

I still need to finish my submission prep and send that up. Then I have another shoot for the food bank. And I need to remember to keep showing up at my day job.

It will soon be time to disengage from the corporate teat. It's nice security, but at this point, I'm not sure the security is making up for the soul-sucking despair.

I could always go back to waitressing. Tips AND a square meal - not too shabby.

Travelogue - Friday (8/4)

Lazy black eyed susans in the front yard - lazy, cause all they do is stand there in the sun, doing nothing. Kinda like me this week.

Happened by a Pierce Arrow convention... one of many gorgeous cars we saw on our way into the High Desert Museum.

A bobcat resident of the High Desert Museum - not so much a musem as an animal rescue/rehabilitation and educational institution. They take wild animals injured or confiscated from dumbasses who thought a bobcat or lynx would make a good pet, and if they can rehabilitate them back into the wild, they do, and if not, they create an optimal environment for the animal to live out a healthy, comfortable life, while teaching anyone who will listen how to live as one with nature. They have lovely historical exibits, too, but the best part about them is their work with animals.

This guy was taken from a dipshit who thought a bobcat would be a swell pet. There's another beautiful cat there, a lynx, who was found out in the wilderness starving to death, after another asshole had removed its canine teeth and had it declawed. The lynx is now healthy & enjoying his days at the HDM.

The job I'd really like to have is that of hunting down these morons & shooting them full of incredibly painful things - bullets, nails, razor blades, really any sharp, harmful things, then maybe pouring gasoline all over them & lighting them on fire.

This is Moki - Moki was found as a baby otter without any sign of her mother. After some time trying to find her mother, she was rescued & brought to the HDM where she spends most of her time playing or sleeping.

One of the amazing birds of prey at the HDM. Some of their birds sustained injuries (hit by car, power line, etc.) that prevent them from being released back into the wild, others were confiscated from idiots who thought they could keep a red tailed hawk as a pet.

A beautiful boy - can't remember the type of hawk - ruffled hawk, perhaps? I was too distracted by how gorgeous he is & wasn't listening.

A giant lava flow, now used as an informal firing range and we think is the same place where every New Year's Day, the locals find an old beater car and tie the steering wheel in place all the way to one side, throw a cinder block on the gas & let it go, then they all shoot at it from the top of the surrounding ridge. I love country entertainment.

Dinner at 38 Degrees - one of the best dinners I've had.

Fantastic vino, from the other home country.

I don't remember the rest of the night... lots of fresh air, wine... Zzzzz