Alternate View

Hiking a short trail in Boulder's hills with Donna, Roy and Lee there were lots of photo ops for the photographers on the journey. It was a Canon crowd. Roy and Lee were using dSLRs while my choice for this hike was much more compact and could easily slip in my pocket -- the Canon SX230 HS.

The hike was along a very small stream (two feet wide) along a steep sided valley with many species of flora -- no fauna. At least we didn't see any.

Steep sided valley with lots of shade and moisture from the stream was a good environment for moss and fungus and lichen. A career in Information Technology gave me no background to do a proper identification -- of a colorful collection of something.

Random Photo -- Strutting

A peacock in full display...

Bad part is that the background is green. The peacock "struts his stuff" to impress the ladies of the species and not that stupid photographer that has been following him around for about 15 minutes.

Wildlife just doesn't understand pose instructions. There are no incentives for them to pose for the prefect photo. So the photographer requires lots of patience -- and time. Although I have lots of time, I don't seem to have the patience.

Just happy to end up with a pretty good photo of a peacock.

Random Photo -- Sunset

A sunset over the Collegiate Peaks near Buena Vista Colorado.

Recycling Promises

Huntsman announced he is running for the US presidency and providing jobs is his priority. Shucks. If it were so easy, wouldn't the Federal legislatures have already resolved the problem.

No Place to Store

No place to store stuff is a good thing. Remember that storage shed on my lot at the Saguaro SKP park in Benson. Soon it will be no more. It didn't blow over in some recent wind -- or burn in the fires that are burning up large areas of Arizona.

Wondering About Ice Cream

Just wondering.

How come the first ingredient in ice cream is milk. Second ingredient is cream. Sounds like it should be called ice milk.

After searching numerous grocery stores, I finally found an ice cream where the first ingredient was cream. The brand is Organic Boulder Ice Cream. The ingredients are like every other ice cream except for the word organic in front of every ingredient. And for this Boulder Ice Cream, cream is the first ingredient. How unusual.

The ingredients of Organic Vanilla Boulder Ice Cream: organic cream, organic milk, organic cane sugar, organic eggs, organic vanilla, organic guar gum, and organic carob bean gum.


What's the difference when cream is the first ingredient rather than the second. It's about fat calories. Per the nutrition label of the Organic Boulder Vanilla Ice Cream for a 1/2 cup of ice cream, there are 214 calories of which 136 are from fat.

From the web site for Breyers ice cream the French Vanilla Ice Cream where cream is the second ingredient, there are 140 calories for a 1/2 cup -- half of which are fat calories.

For either brand, stick with a 1/2 cup of ice cream and life is good.

Random Photo -- Bald Eagle Pair

During the last year of my employment I took several vacations. One was to Alaska with Camp Alaska. Bring my sleeping bag and personal stuff. Tents, route, stops was arranged with frequent diversions based on the groups desires.

Perhaps No One Cares

After the latest round of exposures via Twitter, I am relieved that I had not gotten into internet social networking (i.e Twitter, Facebook, Google Buzz, MySpace, etc). Just imagine a moment when another organ was overpowering the brain. What could I have posted and later regretted. With my thousands of friends, it would not have been a good day. Okay. So maybe it isn't thousands of friends.

If I had listened to those two dozen "friends" who said I must have Facebook or Twitter, there is no end of problems that a social internet site may have caused. Actually, not sure what problems it would have caused. Since I am not employed and not a government legislator, no one would care what indiscreet messages -- and photos -- I may have sent.

Now there's a downer. Nobody cares.

Random Photo -- Whooping Cranes

From a summer 2005 stop at the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo Wisconsin, a family of whooping cranes.

What To Eat

Two books reviewed here -- Going Primal and Mainlining Butter -- were about eating healthy. The books promoted a diet of meat, fat and vegetables. But how do you really know. There are food and diet studies... and there are tests... and there are conclusions... and there are other conclusions... and then new studies contradict the old studies... and the Food And Drug Admin gets involved... and then no one really knows what to believe due to the revolving door policy and big money influence of government bureaucracies.

Going Primal

Mini book review of The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson.

The Primal Blueprint is about a way of living. Looking at human evolution, and the life of an ancestral human, Sisson defines the Primal Blueprint Laws:

Random Photo -- Buffalo

A tour through Theodore Roosevelt National Park provided many photos of buffalo (bison).

 

There were also some photos of those shaggy beasts as they rambled through the campground where Wandrin Wagon was parked. When I look at those photos today, I question my sanity -- and intelligence -- when taking photos of those unpredictable animals from about a hundred feet away.

Pledge Revision

There appears to be a consensus that the Pledge of Allegiance does not reflect the current sentiments of the US citizens.

Smoky Haze Sunset

The suspended ash from the forest fires in Arizona and New Mexico are resulting in red sunsets along the Front Range of Colorado. During the day, the sun shines through the ash which gives everything a yellowish color.

The major contributor to the ash is the Wallow fire near Alpine Arizona which has already burned over 200,000 acres -- over 300 square miles.


Note: Check out this link for Active Wild Fires. Rarely is this current, but may have been the situation a day or two ago.

I've Been Everywhere

It's a milestone of sorts. Ten years ago this week, I started my nomadic exploring with Wandrin Wagon in tow behind Silver Slug. The morning I headed east on US Hwy 34 out of Greeley Colorado was overcast and rainy. Fortunately those weather conditions weren't an omen of the next ten years.

Random Photo -- Wind Power

Not the usual stuff coming out of the legislative chambers across the country, but wind mills for pulling water out of the ground water a few feet below the surface. Before electricity, the windmill was a feature on the farms and ranches across the rural areas of the US.

This collection of windmills from donations across New Mexico were found on the campus of New Mexico State University (an Aggie School) in Las Cruces New Mexico.

We Are Going To Die

Not a prediction of some god ending the world. We were born. We will die. That is not any different than any other animal species.

For those in their 70s and 80s and with Medicare, when faced with some serious health issues, why medically extend life by three to six months of suffering and feeling lousy. Give me quality of life -- not quantity. And that medical care doesn't come free. For those on Medicare or Medicaid, much of escalating medical care costs are subsidized by the taxpayer.