For the 3rd time on a walk I "saved" a praying mantis crossing in a place where such insects should not dare to go. For some reason I feel a special sort of contentment when I pick up a mantis and deliver it to safer grounds.
This is the 1st one I saved, 082612. I didn't have much of a photo op. this round. That's all I have to say.
If you're old enough to remember the television series Soap (ABC, 1977 to 1981), you might also recall a string of episodes where the character Burt Campbell, played by Richard Mulligan, believed that he could make himself invisible by snapping his fingers. I'm not sure what mechanism activates my invisibility but it is clear to me now that I have this power. It might simply be my smiling and saying hello to people as I pass them on my walks that triggers it. I get nothing back, not even a nod or a wink. It doesn't always happen but it seems to happen more and more. Today I was 3 for 3, each time I passed a couple. The first two pairings were male/female and the last was female/female--not that this has any bearing on my invisibility, I'm just pointing it out. Sigh... I wish I could harness this power for good.
The full cast of Soap, 1977.
By the way, if you've never seen Soap, I highly recommend it. The episode where Bob Campbell gets drunk with the guys in a bar is hysterical. Although it is highly probable I was smoking copious amounts of cannabis at the time.
Bob Campbell is the short guy on your left.
Onto the walk.
Sorry if this spider is getting boring but I liked this picture for one. It's a 4-image focus stack. Two, I wanted to show how much more robust the spider has gotten. Here 's a shot from the 1st day I found it.
Besides, I don't have much stuff to offer today.
I suspect this might be in the Rose (Rosaceae) family. It was just in front of the spider so I did a 4-image stack on this too.
This is definitely a rose (6-image focus stack). I see a lot of rose bushes are already rebounding from the summer heat. By the way, it hit 93.7ยบ here today. I hope that's the last of it. Right now we have a forecast of 30% chance of some rain for Wednesday. That would be groovy.
One more rose. 3-stacked images.
Onto the sunset. This is where I saw one of the couples. The guy was already taking pictures when I got to the top of the hill. I said something to him about it always being a nice place to catch the sunset or some pleasantry close to that. He had a look on his face as though he had been startled by some sort of apparition. No, it was only me... invisible.
2-image stack.
Another prog-rock band I like out of Germany, RPWL and a song called Roses. It's a simple, pop-catchy tune but I like it.
I've got too much going on with my computer right now and 8 GB RAM is not cutting it. There's so much going on in the background I'm crawling, which means I'm cutting this short.
Briefly on the walk. Nothing much going on.
Now pitching for the Ravens...
Most of my images today, another very windy day by the way, flew away from me before I could get a decent shot. This includes the crow (no, it's not a raven) in the image above. Shooting through the chain link fence behind the 1st base line, I barely got that shot off.
This guy wasn't flying off but it also wasn't very cooperative. Fortunately it moved slow but it was quite aware of me and my camera and kept moving away from me on that cactus.
I'm pretty sure this is a Euthochtha galeator but definitely it's in that group, Leaf-footed Bugs (Coreidae).
I did a "best of" the hummingbirds awhile back and I think the primary motivation for that may have been the same as today's. There just wasn't anything happening on my walk. It was very windy with Santa Anas blowing gusts up to 50 mph. It has also been one of the driest years in over a century. What this adds up to, unfortunately, is a high probability for fires. What I experienced out of it was not much in the way of photo ops. No birds or insects and we're at the tail end of dry weather wreaking havoc on plant life.
Over the past week I've only seen maybe two or three butterflies from my office window so that got me thinking why not a best of butterflies walk report. It's going to be a bit skimpy on variety I'm afraid to say. There just isn't the kind of butterfly activity there used to be in this valley but here goes.
In no particular order and quite honestly without a whole lot of effort going into sorting through images...
Monarch caterpillar (Danaus plexippus)
Adult Monarch on Narrow-leafed milkweed, along with a lot of milkweed aphids, aka oleander aphids.
Cabbage White (Pieris-rapae) on lamb's ear.
Marine blue (Leptotes marina) on Callistemon.
Cloudless Sulphur (Phoebis sennae) on red mountain sage.
Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) on lantana.
Another Cabbage White, this one on manzanita.
Male Grass Skipper on lantana.
Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae), this one back in April. One of the 1st butterflies I saw and chased down this year.
Another close up, Grass Skipper on lantana. It's hard to get this close to a butterfly.
Butterfly in a bubble, CG. This is an illustration for a children's story I "wrote" in 2009. Without giving away the entire story I will tell you the bubble is actually a crystal ball.
I spent 8 hours today toiling over paperwork last updated in 1981 by the California State Controller's
Bureau of Tax Administration. I was retracing my parent's residences and workplaces plus a bunch of other crap from 1945 to 1961. I came into exsistence for the outside world in April of 1956. That makes this a daunting task. I won't get into details but I'll explain that my father was killed in an automobile accident in 1961 and there is property which is still in both my parent's names to this day. My mother passed away in March of this year. I have to provide due diligence trying to fix this.
The 8 hours didn't start with my 7 A.M. rise either so I ended up cutting into walk time. I hate that but I'm so glad I went out and walked even though it was about 7 P.M. and dark. I plowed though a modest 6 km pretty darn quick and it was really nice to get the tension out of me and into the pavement. My day was dissonance my walk, perfect consonance. I believe there is a right exercise for everyone's head and walking is it for me. I wanted to stop and play air hockey... my arms are long enough to play by myself but it's so slow without electricity.
Seriously, I smell weed ALL THE TIME out walking now and it's almost always coming from passing cars. In the 70s I rode a bicycle all over this valley and I never smelled weed like I do today and let me reiterate, that was the 70s! Everybody smoked weed in the 70s. Perhaps it was more clandestine then and probably for good reason. Today I rarely have to 2nd guess where it's coming from so I suppose people don't care how "traceable" the oder is? I don't mind people smoking weed, I just find it odd how often I smell it in the surrounding neighborhood. I'm not too sure about my comfort zone with anybody's driving sober or otherwise so basically I watch everyone like they're out of their minds.
How California voters rejected Proposition 19, which would have legalized possession and cultivation of marijuana (something I voted for and think is long overdue), is a little beyond me unless people were too busy getting high to get out and vote. Register to vote and vote people.
"Medical Cannabis," the label reads, in compliance with CA prop 215 SB 420, Section 11362.5 and 11362... etc. Why they have to litter the street I'm not sure. Dude, let me tell you... everyone within 500 feet knows you've been smoking weed in your car.
I don't smoke marijuana or anything else by the way. But I have and I'm certainly not opposed to anyone doing so especially if it helps you deal with anything in your life and makes you feel better or perhaps makes you a better person. I don't believe alcohol does that for the most part and I don't see other drugs having anywhere near the number of beneficial attributes that marijuana can have. I just wanted to point out my surprise over how much of it I smell during walks... oh and I learned a new term tonight: hotbox, or hotboxing. According to Urban Dictionary, The practice of smoking marijuana in an enclosed space (e.g. a car or a small room) in order to maximize the narcotic effect. We did this too in the 70s but again, it wasn't so upfront and for the most part, I think it's pretty stupid--just smoke the shit, or better yet, eat it--you don't need to reek of it. Also, legally and otherwise marijuana is not a narcotic. I gave you the 1st definition for hotboxing or hot boxing supplied by Urban Dictionary. Here are some definitions for urban dictionary over at Urban Dictionary.
You see them often in the street, the ones that don't make it to wherever runaway socks are trying to go. Perhaps it's just a fantasy, a Utopian dream of a place where odd socks believe they can go and live in harmony. Sadly, these two didn't get too far from the nearby homes, run over and over again in the street. They were only about 2 meters away from each other, I wonder if they tried to escape together. What makes them want to leave the flock? Is it bromidrosis, is it that they feel they're continuously being unfairly matched? The world may never know.
