School Bus

This is a film picture that is composed of 3 exposures from a school bus I found parked in a neighborhood. Often after scanning, I would prolly dodge and burn (lighten and darken) parts of the image to bring out or subdue items, but the idea was to leave this untouched from digital tools.

My friend and I shot two rolls of film that day, one color and one b&w where we did multiple exposure by stopping down the exposure or covering a part of the lens. Many turn out noisy and chaotic, but I thought this had some interesting structure to it. Film is a fun adventure after being in digital. In fact, I've been toying with the idea of revisiting film. Ultimately, it slows you down and helps you visualize.

Athlete with Scraper

Well I suppose this is a good time to not run. My treadmill is broke, the desert wind has been in psycho rage mode for days now, and I've been hacking with a persistent cough since Tuesday. I haven't had any food guilt though! Liz made one of the best key lime pies ever yesterday. We finished that off tonight. Fresh fruit rules! I also made a trip to Denny's this morning. Oh Supreme Omelette with hashbrowns and a half a plate of nachos going in mah belly maka me happy! I know... nachos at 9:30 in the morning with black coffee and tabasco sauce. Have I completely ruined it for you?

A friend called me this morning asking about a time and place we went to years ago on a photo trip. I figured out we had gone to a place named Jasmine Gardens. We just kind of stumbled on this place. It was very cool as gardens go, but we got there so late, we kinda rushed through it. I would like to revisit this place sometime perhaps. I'd be more willing to absorb all the art in the gardens for what they were rather than just looking at them with the camera eye. The Greek theme was very interesting. Here's an infra red pic I took while there.

Hmmm just dark enough in the right spots no? Apparently, the athletes back then would scrape the sweat and dust off themselves. Is that a new running gadget I hear in my brain? A sweat scraper slash squeegee that attaches to you via velcro for the modern ultrarunner? Wait a minute... can you drink sweat? We'll see now, Answer.com just told me I can, because it's delicious!! It's electrolyte recycling!

All right them , I'm going to make some popcorn and watch Bear Grylls cut up a seal and make a wet suit out of it.

Limitless

There is a movie coming out called Limitless where Bradley Cooper plays a writer who takes a pill called NZT which unleashes his brain power. In the preview, they put out that old saying that 'we only use ten or twenty percent of our brains', think if you could use all of it. Man! That line just bugs the crap out of me, but hey it's a commercial right. Another statement in the commercial is "how many of us ever get to know the perfect version of ourselves?" Now there's an interesting thought. Is there a perfect version of ourselves? Well probably not, but there's no doubt that many of us are searching for it in at least some area of our life.

I was talking with a friend a few weeks ago and he was poking at me in a friendly way saying, "Dude what happened to you? You used to be into this and that and now it's like 180 degrees." I jokingly said back "Well I guess I got married and had a kid!" So we explored the idea of whether 'family' inhibits artists abilities to produce good works. It seems to make sense for many things. This band , this writer, this artist...we still like their earlier works, but the new stuff after having families just doesn't interest us and in many cases their original audiences.

However, there is some dynamic going on here where our tastes change as we get older which still allows us to enjoy old items, but perceive the new content in a different way. Why? Well simply because they are growing to, the artists that is, even without family in some cases. And of course my experience and logic doesn't apply to everyone either. There are plenty of Rush fans out there that I'm sure find their new albums just as moving.

Back to the idea of the perfect self though. I think artists have no choice but to evolve and change their work over time striving to better their work and build on their experiences. An artist may finally make his best work, the most meaningful only to find that no one is really interested. I pointed out that Anthony Burgess didn't like A Clockwork Orange very much at all and yet it's what he's most known for. My friend told me that Mellencamp hated Jack & Diane and didn't want it on the album. Yet it's one of his most popular songs.

In high school I was in art class and did a charcoal still drawing. It was a picture of fruit, some gourds, and a blanket. When I went to the county fair, I was shocked to see my drawing in an art booth representing our school. I was appalled that my name was attached to such a boring drawing. I remember marching into my art teacher's office and demanding to know why I wasn't told ahead of time. My art teacher was so nice though. She said in the sincerest voice that she thought it was really good and that she thought I would've been happy. I felt bad for being so rude. How was she supposed to know that normal looking me, was really trying to define himself as a new age cyberpunk?!! People came up to me though and said, "Hey I saw your drawing at the fair. It was really good!! You are awesome!" I simply said thanks, but deep down I was like ughhhh, just call me gourd boy!

So my silly high school story aside, here's the idea. Is it likely that the more you become your ideal self in art, writing, engineering, or even running...the less people will notice you or notice the things you see as important. As you approach that ideal self in you, the further you become from everyone else and suddenly no one can relate to you anymore.



I just re read this post and it's kinda confusing I think. But ya know what, I'm just too lazy to edit it. I don't feel good, and I just wanted to get this out of my head since it's been rolling around there for a couple of days. Oh and another thing. The other day I saw a horse playing soccer with a huge green and yellow soccer ball. Dems some weird chit going on out here Fred!

Groinus Painus

I am quite bummed this morning. I took 3 days off of running because I've felt a slight soreness, not pain, in my left groin area. It started last week or so and has been intermittent. My thought was that I'd recently taken my core workouts/stretching up to 3 times a week and maybe I'd overstretched something? Seems doubtful since these things are supposed to prevent injury, however it's really the only new variable. The other new variable is an increase in outside running, but since I'm not pounding concrete in vibrams, I don't think that is it either. Sunday, I felt fine with no soreness.

A running log is a funny thing btw. This year I started putting in commentary per run in my log. My run yesterday felt easy and slow, whereas 2 weeks ago, the same run/time felt fast and fresh. It's fascinating how the brain interprets things. Anyway, I did feel my left groin yesterday running. Can't say it hurts, but it lets me know it's there if that makes any sense. This morning it is also clearly there. If I stand straight and lift my left knee up as far as it will go, I can feel a tight soreness right where my thigh meets my body.

Reading online about groin injury is a depressing subject.

" had this pain for 21 months, spent thousands on rehab and it's still here!"

"Doctors can't find/ misdiagnosed/ keep searching/ just told me to rest."

and plenty of forums questions about the pain that are only answered once with someone saying, not sure, try this.

Course you have to take this with a grain of salt as the internet is clearly a place where worst case scenario often makes itself the most visible. Perhaps I just need to rest a bit more and this will all heal up and I can move on? Maybe I should try stretching it out before and after and reduce mileage to see how it goes? Maybe I should go see a sportsmed doc?

I really don't know at this point. I think I will opt for more rest and see what happens.

Tule Springs

The other day I went over to Floyd Lamb State Park which isn't far from my house. It's a nice change going here since it has plenty of real grass, large trees, some small lakes, and lots of birds. It's a good place to take some lunch and walk around with the dog. There are also signs in several places stating your dog must be on leash at all times. While I don't take a hard line stance with this, there's always someone who chooses to let their dog off leash.

Rudy was such a dog. He was your typical spirited chocolate lab. He finally decided to ignore his masters and run full speed at me, the stroller (my daughter is feeling cruddy), and Finley. As soon as he got near us, Finley quickly strutted right into his face. Rudy immediately backed down. Then sniffing ensued. You could tell he was probably a pup still because most chocolate labs I see are big dogs. In my head chocolate labs are supposed to be like my friend's dog Bisbee who is probably 130 pounds. Rudy quickly rejoined his pack with his master saying, "you're supposed to listen!"

The park has a lot of interesting items. There's a herd of peacocks that live there including a whitish one. They will often just sit in clusters in the bushes. There are sometimes large numbers of geese and other waterfowl.The park still has housing structures that were used for 'out of state couples' to reside in so they could take advantage of Nevada's easy divorce laws. Supposedly, movie stars would often stay here. A sign also tells me that Tule Springs in the park is one of few places in the world that has evidence of human visitation going back some 11,000 years. Also giant sloth and mammoth bones have been found at the springs. Eleven Thousand Years! I like to let that one roll around in the noggin for a bit.

At one point, Asa asks if I can take the stroller down a hill off the paved trail. She wants to go to the bottom where three wooden benches are placed in a semi circle facing a stone plaque of some sort. Going down the hill, I notice flowers on one tree in the distance and also another with what looks like Christmas tinsel. Then I notice each tree has a small cement rectangle with a name and dates, obviously of people who have passed away. Asa insists that she can read the stones. As we go by the big stone in front of the benches, she asks what it says on the big white one. The plaque is kinda dusty and the contrast of the lettering was hard to read so I read it aloud slowly. These names, this place, it is a memorial for victims of murder! I stood there looking around me at all the stones. Murder, murder, murder. I took a deep breath, and we moved on.

I wasn't expecting it, and at first was mildly creeped out. Such an intense space though, I could not help but wonder. So I googled. I read that the survivors of these victims would meet there once a year. This was a healing time, a time to celebrate, and a time of peace. This little space of woods in this park, out in the middle of the desert, it suddenly seemed like the perfect place for such a memorial. It's an oasis for the land and the heart. I wonder how many people will come through here and not even know this memorial is here. I've been to this park several times and just discovered this.

Moonpie in The Sky

I have run outside 8 days in a row now that my treadmill is kaput. That's a record for me. The other day I ran with a stroller in heavy wind. It's been almost a year since I've used the stroller. Yay! It feels easier. Tonight I ran in some chilly gusty wind staring at a really cool full moon. I really don't like running in crazy wind though. I'm certain the last couple of days would've been treadmill days had it been working. Interestingly, I've kind of found some reward in roughing it so to speak. Seeing the moon so large over the mountains was great. Also, I recently read about Geoff Roes running like an animal through knee high blown snow in Colorado. Granted he's a pro and that's extreme, but maybe I should welcome the elements more. It's supposed to rain this weekend. We'll see how that turns out.

The treadmill repair guy called me back today and good news. He can fix my treadmill for 200 bucks cheaper than the first guy I called. Awesome! Order those parts. But it could be ten days before they get here. Going to be a lot more outside runs this month.

Also the other day while I was running with the stroller, a car zipped past me and the passenger screeched at me. Yes, they screeched. Anyway, I startle easy it seems ,and it made me jump which results in a very odd, probably spastic motion while running. At first, I was like you son of a boooop, but then I just laughed at myself. Ok , you got me I thought. I told Liz this and she says, "well at least they didn't throw a moonpie at you!" Indeed, certainly I've already paid for that action.

Many full moons ago, I was in a blue Toyota Corolla. Funny, have I been in two blue Toyota Corollas? Anyway, driving down the street one night, I got nosy and looked in the center console of my friends car and found a melty old moonpie. I took it out of the wrapper and tossed it at a guy walking along the street. This poor innocent guy took a mushy freaky moonpie to the back of the neck traveling at about 40 miles per hour. Again, I'm pretty sure I've paid for that one by now.


and dang it's hard to find a pic of a 85-ish Corolla , let alone the metallic blue kind. I seem to recall this model would run without any oil for a long period of time. hahahaha

<=>

Less Is More, that's what the title of the post says. It's the new slogan for the New Balance Minimus shoe line. Pretty clever. I came across this today reading runningandrambling.com's review of the road shoe. The author says it looks like the shoes are texting him since it's written on the sock liner that replaces the removable sole in the shoe. That cracks me up! I'll be very curious as to how these feel sockless.

Been a while since I posted so I'll just throw some stuff out there.

First off, I turned 40 on Saturday. Yay! I'm almost half way. Was a good birthday. Had a good 15 mile run on Friday and topped off the tanks with plenty of steamed crab legs at Joe's Crab Shack. Liz tried to embarrass me by getting them to do some sorta birthday craziness, but it was not to be! muhuhahahaaa. Thanks to all of you who sent me birthday wishes. I'm not big on birthdays but it was nice to feel the love.

Sunday brought on the low grade sickies which are still hanging around with all of us. It's nothing too serious.

Liz made a soup on Sunday with navy beans, garbanzo beans, kidney beans, and barley! We called it 4B soup. It should really be called "Don't go into public" soup!

Watched some movies. Watched 'Kick Ass' which was a lot of fun. We really liked the young girl (Chloe Moretz) in the movie which prompted us to watch 'Let Me In' starring her as well. 'Let Me In' was a pleasant surprise for me. With all the glam that vampires get these days, it was great to see it done so differently. Who would think that a horror remake would be so good? Not an easy feat imo.

Aww Hit Girl is so cute and innocent!

Brawwwwhh!

Feeding time in Let Me In

And finally, I started reading a new book called Tinkers. I'm enjoying it so far. The author Paul Harding actually had a lot of rejection for this story when he first showed it to publishers. Funny that it recently won the Pulitzer for fiction. I say pretty impressive!

Clopper Lake

I had some good times going around this lake. Walking around it in the winter time was excellent because it was dead quiet with no one ever around. The fall was simply gorgeous with the colors. I think this is where they filmed The Blair Witch Project. That reminds me, I have to find my picture of me in Burkittsville.

Crows and Ravens

I was recently walking near a large power sub station out in the desert, and the wind was simply blasting away. It was so windy, my 50 pound dog was walking in a diagonal with his tail completely pointed to the side. I was having fun spreading my arms and letting my jacket catch the wind which would push me a good bit. Reminds me of those days on the beach when a hurricane was approaching. It would've been a great time to have a sail connected to a skateboard with caterpillar tracks so I could surf the desert!

When I got near the power station, I could hear this eerie high pitched whistling coming from one of those big electrical towers. I love hearing strange and odd sounds , so I just stood there for a bit and listened to the wind play the tower. That's when I heard the gurgle of a chicken like noise nearby.

It was a crow or raven flying overhead. He wasn't flapping his wings, just floating along and slowly riding the wind. He got lower as he neared Finley and I and made another cawrrrh cawrrrh sound. I said "Hey crow!" thinking of all the mystic associations assigned to such birds. He continued to float on past eventually going out of sight. It was a cool moment. I recalled seeing 2 crows about a month earlier flying in the same area. They both did these amazing dives that dropped them down seemingly almost to the ground with a quick movement back up say ten feet and then straight again only to float away after that. I'd never seen a bird fly in a such a rigid angled way before. My thought was that they were following a heat draft.

Today I was running out past the gun range on my way back. I was feeling a burst of energy and really trying to just pick up my pace which is much easier with the Cascadia 5s btw. Anyway, I'm running along and I hear the now familiar cawrrhhh cawwrrhhh. I stop and turn around. I see 2 crows and a hawk all floating/flapping off in the distance. Now they were prolly just saying, hey look, there's a human out there. Maybe they were laughing..who could know. I had stopped running and the wind in my ears and rocks crunching under my feet were gone. Then, slowly one crow flew right by me and in the dead silence of the desert, I could hear his wings going whooosh- whoosh- whoosh-whoosh. I could tell he was looking right at me. I smiled, put my hand up and said "Hey Crow!" I was hoping he would cawrrh back. He just kept flying slowly away though catching up with his companions.

Maybe these days, I'm more open to putting a spiritual spin on these experiences, but I found these two events to be very heart warming and refreshing. I don't think they are harbingers or omens of death, but perhaps rather God's way of letting me know he's watching me.

Treadmill Is Broke

Aye Carumba!!!!!!!!! Talking to the treadmill guy on the phone sounds like my belt is worn out.

I had some soup tonight. It had beef stock, garbanzo beans, red and orange peppers, and tofu cubes. Sounds kinda gross I bet, but it was pretty good actually. The meal was definitely not lacking in the fiber department. Whew!

And finally tonight, for real, two loud gun shots in my neighborhood. There were two hooded guys walking down the street very quickly right after the shots too. No cop cars or helicopters though. Gets the heart rate up just a little bit.

Happy Birthday Finley

I have no idea where Finley was born. Cold doesn't seem to bother him much, so I've always envisioned him being born outside a decrepit barn or drainage ditch in the late winter in the hills of West Virginia. I picture him being a scared and confused puppy sitting in a cold box in a cold truck bed. Along comes a woman who volunteers to help rescue dogs. She can only take so many dogs with her to the adoption center. I can not even fathom such a job. What characteristics does she look for in choosing? How often does her heart and gut override practicality. I was told by this woman that Finley was the last dog chosen that day. That there was just something about him. I'd already adopted him at this point, so it seemed genuine, almost as if she wanted to tell me more things that were too sad to say.

I was completely deflated in the days before we decided to drive 30 miles into Virginia for a dog adoption. Liz and I had spent weeks on deciding and looking for a dog. Then we found one at a shelter in northern Maryland. He looked like your typical golden retriever. But like many adoptions, we just clicked from the start. There seemed to be something special about him, about this dog named Max. All we had to do was get an 'ok' from the apartment complex manager. The shelter gave us his paperwork and that's when it fell apart. Whoever dropped this dog off said he was a Pit Bull Lab Mix. I argued that there was no way in hell this dog had pit bull in him. They insisted that legally they could not alter it.

Our complex saw 'Pit Bull' and said NO! We pleaded with them, showed them several pictures of the dog, paid a professional dog trainer to test the dog for his temperament and write a letter of her findings for the complex. Evil Melinda, the iron fisted ruler of the complex, would not budge. I was so frustrated with all of that. I hope Max found a good owner. I'm certain he did.

So I really didn't want to go to an adoption center a week later, but we went. We found Finley pretty quickly. A little girl said if I adopt him, I should name him Super Precious Fluffy Princess or something similar. And to think I wanted to name him Little Corn Sausage!

Liz must have carried Finley around for about an hour straight since we didn't want to put him down for fear someone else would scoop him up in the frenzy. Then a week or so later he was brought to our apartment at age roughly 12 weeks. So I just counted back, and it ended up on this date Feb 5th. And so it's his birthday.

Liz was making a soup base today with a ham hock and so we saved some savory parts for him as well as a small bone. This was his birthday dinner and he even gave us his rare, always cool, gro-dle ( a half growl half yodle) after eating his meal.

Here's a silly pic that my daughter took with her camera. She managed to get her elmo hat to stay on him. Funny. Btw he's 6 now.

Wheres the slot canyon?

It's easy to forget how much of the country is struggling with cold weather right now. Here in da Vegas, things are nice weather wise. Weather station said 44 degrees out today. Maybe I'm still wearing a thick hide from Nebraska, but today felt like 60 to me. I was outside in short sleeves and it felt great. I'll prolly take advantage of the weather and get in a good long trail run tomorrow. Where I'm not sure.

A couple of weeks ago I had a blah kinda run while looking for a slot canyon trail. I ended up on a long series of 4 wheeler trails. I found a bright green bandana. I'm always finding clothing accessories! Is it gross that I blew my nose in it? Anyway, the views were pretty spacious out here so I took some pics.




This hill was a lot easier coming back on that I thought it would be




There were a lot of birds in these shrubs.

A friendly cactus!