Random Bug

I just liked the way it looked.

Pictures of the 4th of July Tea Party at Oklahoma City

Some of us can spell Washington. This guy isn't one of them.

I know this flasher, so I didn't leave his face in the shot.

Somebody keeled over from the heat before the rally started. It was hot and muggy at the beginning, but got better as the day went on.

I'm not sure who this kid was, but he was a pretty good speaker.

My youngest in front of the State Capitol. We had an impromptu civics lesson while we were down there.

Before the actual rally by about 30 minutes.

This last one was actually from when we first arrived. The crowd was much smaller this time. Having it on a national holiday probably wasn't a good idea and it didn't get the same kind of advertising that it got last time. I'd estimate the crowd at around 2,000 tops.

I still feel good about getting out there.

Missing Dog Story

This is my dog Charger. He's a 10 year old Chihuahua. A couple weeks ago he disappeared. Fireworks are legal in my town during the week before the 4th, but that doesn't stop the idiots in the neighborhood from starting early. When I got home one afternoon the dog was acting spooked. He ran into my garage when I went to get a project out. My hands were full so I let him be until I could put the stuff down in the yard. When I came back, he was gone. I only took my eyes off of him for about 45 seconds and that was all it took.

I looked everywhere. In the yard, up and down the street, in the backyard and in the park next door. He'd vanished like a doggy rapture had occurred. Thanks to my buddy Don for putting that picture in my head. I was really attached to the little idiot so it really put me into a blue mood. We called the animal shelter and gave them a description. We put up some posters in the neighborhood. We prayed that he was okay. He's getting up there in age, a little blind in one eye, maybe early dementia too. He just wasn't the kind of dog that would do well on it's own.

A week later I was assuming the worst, then my wife found a message on her cell phone from the animal control officer. They thought they might have the dog. Somebody had dropped off a little brown Chihuahua that might be ours. It was after hours so I had to wait until after work to check on him. The next day I got a call on my phone asking me if I was the man missing his dog. It turned out that the lady from animal control had seen one of my posters, got my phone number off of it and had brought Charger back to my house for me. She recognized his picture and wanted him to go home sooner because he wasn't doing well down at the pound. He's kind of spoiled, kind of crazy and I think wandering the streets during a straight week of 100+ degree days might have made him a little confused.

When I got home he looked skinny, dirty and his feet were burned from walking around. Even his claws were worn down to the quick. He could barely stand up. I gave him a bath and some of his favorite food. Then we both took a nap with him sleeping on my chest for an hour. Over the next week I was able to get him to gain some of his weight back and his feet are starting to heal up. He's not as bouncy as he used to be, but he is getting closer to his old self. I'm just glad I'll be able to spend some more time with the little guy. Not knowing where he was or what had happened to him was horrible. I took this picture the day he returned.

Corn snake feeding

We got a corn snake the other day too. It's doing really well. Very active and eating frozen pinky mice. We defrost them first of course. Here's a few pictures of it eating. Next time we're going to feed it in a different tub so it's got less chance of eating some aspen shavings in the process.

Her name is Lucy.

Apparently they're supposed to eat them headfirst. Nobody told her about that though.

Haitian Curly Tail Lizard

We got the lizard last weekend. He's been kind of moody so far. I'm not even sure he's eating. He's still fat, so apparently he's putting some food away, but so far I'm not sure how well he's doing. Hopefully he'll settle into his new environment soon.

We named him Baby Doc.

Big Lizard in My Backyard

Not too big, but he was still kind of cool looking. This is a Texas Horned Lizard, commonly called a horny toad. I nearly ran over him with a lawn mower a couple weeks ago. I put him in a 5 gallon pail just long enough to take some pictures and then moved him to a field next to my home. They aren't endangered, but they're on the threatened list. They mostly eat harvester ants which makes them kind of hard to keep.

This is the first time I've seen one in 29 years and coincidentally the very first time my daughter got to see one. She is now the same age I was when I use to collect them near my grandparents' home in Cedar City, Utah. She wanted to keep it until I explained how difficult it would be to keep it alive. It wouldn't be fair to the lizard knowing it had almost no chance of surviving if we kept it.

We're going to buy her a Haitian Curly Tailed Lizard pretty soon. I've been making a wood and glass enclosure for it and setting up the special lighting needed. We're going to name it Baby Doc.

Terminator Salvation

We just got back from seeing the new movie. My wife and 12 year old daughter gave it an A. My 17 year old son and I gave it a B/B+. I won't go into detail, but I thought it was a pretty good way to spend a couple of hours out.

This is getting ridiculous

It almost seems like satire at some point.

http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090509/NEWS01/305090016

Marla Anderson wanted that Barack Obama picture.

So much so that Wyoming police say she walked into a Grove Avenue home Friday to take it.

She struggled with the owner, who called police for help.

Anderson lost and ended up in the Hamilton County jail – without the photo.
Officers arrested her getaway driver, 31-year-old Tamika Cornwell, of Colerain, about 10 hours after the crime.

It's not like they can't get a picture of the guy anywhere else. Hell, I saw two Mother's Day cards with his idiotic smile on them yesterday at Target.





He's the one on the right.

Pictures of Canadian County, Oklahoma

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours shooting at Banner Road. It's real name is Canadian Ranges, but nobody in Oklahoma calls it that. Banner Road is the nearest "major" road nearby. The range is actually over 1 mile west of Banner Road. That's the way we do things in Oklahoma, it doesn't have to make sense.

It looked like it might storm, so I brought my camera with me just in case I saw something exciting.

Waiting for one of these barns to fall over was about as exciting as it got.

The high ones on the middle were me trying to hit the "12". The smaller targets are from shooting one handed, some left, some right. I used both hands for the main target. It was only about 10 yards, so not too impressive. I guess I'm safe if I'm ever attacked by a piece of paper that stands perfectly still. If it's further away than 10 yards I'll let it live.

Weeds

I call them weeds because they're getting mown soon.

KFOR in Oklahoma City

This is the poll question on their local website:

Miss Cal. USA says she took a moral stand when she said she's against gay marriage. Now nude photos of her have gone public...so racy N-B-C can't broadcast any portion of them. Is she a hypocrite?

I've seen one of them. It's no more racy than Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue and certainly no more racy than the crap the local news drags out for every sweeps week. They're smearing her by claiming that what's she's done is so horribly bad that they can't even show a little bit of one of the pictures. What a load of crap.

For those wondering, she's topless with her back to the camera and her arms across her chest. You can see the side of her breasts. Apparently Christian women aren't supposed to have breasts.