Sharkarosa After Action Report

• It was OK- not great as I assumed it would be. Alright- it was very OK. The kids loved it and it didn't break the bank so I'm not going to complain.
• Noticed a lot of people with children whom it appeared obvious were foster children. There were multiple families and none of them seemed to interact, so I don't think it was a group thing.
  
  
  

  

  Zac gets high fived by a Joey.

  
  

  

  This guy got smashed in the face by a car when he was a baby. Sheesh, I thought I had it hard.

  
  

  

  Mom was not impressed with this red tailed boa's antics but she seemed like a good sport overall about it.

  
  
  
  
  

  

  I asked the kid where this type of snake was from. From Peruvian was his reply.

  
  

  

  Two cel phone just laying around- not in their natural habitat.  I'm sure a kid ditched them out of a stroller.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  I hear people talking about camel toes all the time. I don't get it- but here is some if that is your thing.

  
  

  

  Smooch!

  
  
  
• African crested porcupines are one of my favorite animals. They get eaten by humans in their native land.
• They have an albino spectacled cobra. The handler said it had been defanged.
• There are probably 10-12 camels there. All are dromedary and all but 1 female. 
• There were only a couple of birds on display and no reptiles.
• One of those teacup pigs got aggravated at me and snapped at me in the petting zoo- right after I commented on him looking delicious and saying something about bacon.. Everybody laughed at me.
• The driver of the safari tram was named TJ.
• I noted very few wild birds flying around. It would have been a logical assumption I thought that they would be everywhere snagging the dropped feed.
• Mike Rowe did an episode of Dirty Jobs there. He fed baby kangaroos and stimulated them to poop with a wet wipe into his hand.
• Every animal there appeared to be healthy and happy.
• The snack stand was pretty good, especially their hot dogs and the lady running it was a sweety. She and her husband were working it together. They have been married for 25 years.
• I was surprised there wasn't a sign prominently placed telling the story of how they arrived at the name Sharkarosa.
• The US flag was displayed incorrectly. It was to the right of the state flag as you enter the grounds.
• They have 2 Pere Davids deer there- a male and a female. Sadly there are none left wild in their native China. The species is sometimes nicknamed sibuxiang (Chinese: 四不像, pinyin: sì bú xiàng), literally meaning "four not alike", which could mean "the four unlikes" or "like none of the four"; it is variously said that the four are cow, deer, donkey, horse (or) camel, and that the expression means in detail:
  • "the hooves of a cow but not a cow, the neck of a camel but not a camel, antlers of a deer but not a deer, the tail of a donkey but not a donkey."
  • "the nose of a cow but not a cow, the antlers of a deer but not a deer, the body of a donkey but not a donkey, tail of a horse but not a horse"
  • "the tail of a donkey, the head of a horse, the hoofs of a cow, the antlers of a deer"
  • "the neck of a camel, the hoofs of a cow, the tail of a donkey, the antlers of a deer"
  • "the antlers of a deer, the head of a horse and the body of a cow"^[4]

Saturday's Situation

They literally look like evil henchmen.

• I'm still surprised when people die or are severely sickened by mushrooms they've picked themselves. If you don't know anything else about them you should know to leave them alone if you don't know for sure what you are dealing with. And really, honestly- that should be shortened to leave them alone.
• Travis Barker the drummer for Blink182 was in a horrible Learjet crash that killed four and put him in a Georgia burn center. I don't know how to feel when people get worked up over a tragedy involving a celebrity. We don't know those people and never, ever will.
• I knew a guy once who nearly died in Colorado on an Elk hunt when he got separated from his group. I'll write out what I remember of his story another time. It would be great if he'd let me interview him for a post but, he won't talk about it- the mere mention of it angers him because of embarrassment.
• A headline earlier indicated a Texas politician wants welfare recipients to pass a drug test. Ignorance, prejudice, waste, probable corruption, impotence, stupidity... were among the first thoughts to cross my mind.
• Whenever I'm through with a piece of floss I almost always throw it outside so a bird could find it to use in building it's nest.
• Why do we say "dental floss", are there other kinds?
• Watch for the news reports to be about police drones locating lost children, wanted pedophiles and finding forest fires before there is loss of life and homes.
• Drats, I ruined my new water bottle by forgetting it in the freezer.
• We add a t to forget to spell forgetting but don't add a t to vomit to form vomiting. American is a crazy language.
• We're outta here. Sharkarosa Wildlife Ranch beware- you'll never be the same again.

Thursday's Thoughts

This lady was fishing early St Pat's day morning. I had never seen  her before in my life but she called out, Hey, where is your green?

Yikes!

I don't have a thing for gulls- they're pervasive, predictable and accessible and I'm trying to improve my wildlife photography skills.

• There is a kind of famous pic that goes around of American soldiers in battle rattle looking hard with the sun setting behind them while they stand on a dirt mound in Iraq. That is another platoon of my company. They are behind the latrine and on their way to the chow hall on a base just inside of Iraq.
• Yes, I know there are a bunch of different similar pics floating around- I have just happened to see the one of my guys in several different formats- blogs and tributes etc. multiple times. I can actually identify two of the soldiers by name.
• We had lunch at Dos Gringos on University Saturday 03242013. The food was mediocre, the service terrible and the place was filthy.
• I'm off today. Thank you Cesar!
• I have never owned any type of wheeled vehicle that had whitewall tires.
• Those Twilight movies and books are literally horrible.
• Yes, I've tried both.
• The lens I want for my camera costs over 6000 dollars so yeah, that will pretty much never happen. However, I am constantly saying, Man, I wish I had more lens! There are off brand lens of the power I want that run about 600-900 bucks. I know, how could something 1/10th the cost do the job even half as well and my pro photographer friend has warned me off, telling me there is no way I'd be happy with it but it is tempting. 
• The Walking Dead is one of the best television shows ever. I suspect they won't but, I hope they don't ruin it. The third season is wrapping up. I presume they'll make 5 seasons and the fifth will literally be mind blowing. Regardless, I hope they have sense enough to quit on a high note.
• I'm drinking coffee and watching Ridiculousness. I feel worthless. 
• Maybe I should nap.
• I seem to use the word literally often.

If You Don't Have A Switchblade

one will be offered at the door.

Best Of Craigslist

best of craigslist > ann arbor > The Streaker Tripper - m4w Originally Posted: Sun, 1 Mar 03:26 EST
The Streaker Tripper - m4w
Date: 2009-03-01, 3:26AM EST
I was streaking through the Diag Friday night at 2:15 am. Coming around the corner of State and Liberty, fast as a naked blur, I bumped into you and we both fell to the ground. I was a little upset with you at first, cuz I scratched my right butt cheek pretty bad, but I knew it was my fault. You said, "Nice New Balances," And all I could say was, "Thanks," with the adrenaline still rushing. In less awkward circumstances, I would have liked to talk to you. I had never run into a girl that fast or naked before... I didn't know how to respond so I helped you up quickly and kept running. Since my friends paid me $100 for making it to Kerrytown with just my socks, shoes, and a big smile, I'd like to take you on a date. You looked pretty fit so maybe you'd like to go for a run sometime. Hit me up! Bye!
Location: Corner State+Lib
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interestsPostingID: 1055162350

Wednesday's Digressions

Bois D' Arc apple left in another tree after a squirrel dined on it.

Found to side of trail headed toward primitive camping are at MWSP.  I assumed if I touched it I would be jerked off my feet and left swinging upside down from a snare. Go ahead and laugh but if my years of movie watching experience have taught me nothing else, it is to not mess with natural objects that have been arrayed in unnatural ways on or near a foot path.

Below is this in better focus.

Here it is focused out of the picture.

A tube sock full of aluminum cans. Don't ask me.

• Seasick Steve- It's All Good. Great- great blues guitarist.
• This morning (03172013) one of the stories is about a Swiss acupuncturist who infected 16 people with HIV. That is one more reason, beside the fact it cannot work for people to abandon that odd, dangerous practice.
• Still kind of funny to me- multiple people have registered surprise when we've caught up and I've mentioned still being a nurse. They will say, Oh, I heard you were a chiropractor.
• I'm not OCD about it but it isn't unheard of for me to turn a toilet roll over so it feeds out from the top when I notice it has been improperly placed to feed out from the bottom.
• With the new Blogger if you edit a draft it defaults up to the top of your drafts page.
• Hammocks are one of mans great inventions. Europeans were introduced to them by Christopher Columbus who brought them back from what we know as the Bahamas.
• Friend-girl just asked me sit in her lap. Eew I said, No way- that is just wrong. Can I sit in yours then? She asked. So we sat there that way for awhile.
• A patient has what I would call moderate to severe psoriasis. She was prescribed one of the injectable drugs (Enbrel I think). It is an expensive and potentially dangerous drug. Without any drugs, her lesions clear up to almost nothing with swimming in chlorinated water, a little sun and light use of one of the old creams used to treat psoriasis.  People and doctors need to think more about what they want and why.
• Ha, I just realized I misspelled Blogger as "Blooger" in the fifth thought above.
• I've noticed a lot of obviously real and not made for decoration ship wheels in antique stores over the past few years. They must have filtered their way into the resale stream after being scavenged from fishing vessels destroyed by Katrina.

Just A Tuesday

Well, there is hope. The class of 2013 can spell.

I loves this view at Holland Lake and must take in visually at least 5 times a month and have probably photographed it 50 times.

It is hard to look hard with a day glow orange bolt block in place but here I give it my best. The next time you see Isabella she will be wearing a laser and cornea scorching flashlight combo.

Soil and water conservation pro tip: Don't allow any woody plant to root near erosion control structures. They will damage the structure (here Gabion basket) and actually promote erosion by providing a channel for water to flow down into the soil.

• A local physician has been trying to get on the floor the panties of a hot married acquaintance who is friends with my friend-girl. He recently brought jewelry back from a trip to Asia and offered her some. She took a few pieces and gave them to her friends. Friend-girl took one and deciding it wasn't her asked if I knew anybody who might want it. Knowing my flashy Latina nursing buddy would dig it I took it to work and gave it to her.
• That was a local tangled web of deceit that became a convoluted international supply chain.
• Unless there is  a spoon already available requiring the barest effort, I never stir my coffee if I add creamer and sugar. I just dump them in the coffee and swish them around a bit.
• Probably odd: I don't have to have cream and sugar nor do I have to have my coffee black- I switch up from day to day. I'm not sure I have ever seen anybody else do that.
• A recent headline was, "Drones are coming but our laws aren't ready." Thanks Sherlock. Somebody should have had at least an outline ready for that scenario the minute they saw them being used in our recent wars. If America is complacent on this issue those things will be mailing us speeding tickets, breaking cities budgets, colliding with piloted aircraft, scanning homes for excess energy loss and mailing out bills, further eroding privacy...
• It isn't a conspiracy theory- any technology that can be abused will.
• Argo is on the counter to be watched.
• I have heard and tend to believe The Hobbit is terrible
• Chinua Achebe died this week. I first read Things Fall Apart after it being loaned to me by a Nigerian Ibu friend. It was his boyhood copy and his introduction to literature. It was yellowed, brittle and taped up and held a million different foreign smells. When we talked about our dreams he would say, I will continue to study for the MCAT and God willing and I become as smart as my good friend Kevin I will be a physician- and you my friend? 
• He is a local emergency department physician and I'm still looking for that roadside rattlesnake ranch and bigfoot research center to buy.
• Gravity Kills- Guilty

Monday's Missives

My new hiking boots gave me a case of toelio

Found on kitchen counter

I don't know what this piece of metal with a tree growing around it is (other than a workers comp claim for a future lumberjack) but I know where 2 are nearly exactly alike that are 4-5 miles apart.

Peek a boo I still see you, you idiot human.

Green brier shoots that grew up 2+ feet under  bark of tree then popped out.

The world famous Scottie dog tree of Holland Lake Park.

• Staind- Fade
• You are awesome! You rocked my world babe- the last text message I received.
• Bubba Ho Tep and 3000 Miles To Graceland: 2 of my favorite movies.
• Found a bulletin board for veterans of the Cold War who served in 11 ACR in Germany a few years ago. One guy posted a memory of someone blasting an air raid siren siren which was featured as an effect in a song by Def Leppard and cited another guy as the culprit. It was actually me and it was a Triumph song. It is interesting though, that someone else would get the blame/credit since I went to great lengths to disguise my involvement in such delinquency. When the halls of the barracks were empty I would open the door to my room after already opening the window and blast the siren effect on my awesome stereo and at the right moment ease my door closed and hop in bed. Within oh, about a second the CQ (charge of quarters) would be hollering Alert! and pounding on the doors.
• Leppard is hi lited by spellcheck- good grief. What has this world come to?
• 03152013 at 0337 and I'm wide awake. My back is hurting something fierce. 
• Multiple times a year I dream about getting ready to go train with the Guard at Fort Hood. It always involves rain, fear of not being ready in time, forgetting a combination to where my gear is stored, being pulled off by somebody to do something else, my figuring out a way to get away from them and then finally I almost always train for a very short time and then I get hurt and go to the hospital. It will often have a sequence entwined where I'm on a work study detail with another student at a college. They will often be a foreigner. Someone will hassle us and attempt to assault me then the dream switches back to the Hood sequence. Details vary every time but I have been having this basic dream for years.
• Most people probably don't consider back lit keys when they look at laptop features but it is practically a necessity for me.
• I think the name of my new Bushmaster is Isabella but I'm not sure. It will be necessary to spend more time with her and get to know her a little better.
• I read somewhere about 4 guys working at a post office in the US who quit and went to work as PMCs (private military contractors) in Iraq together. I hope that story is true.
• My nursing buddy and I disagreed recently about the preferential way more attractive people are treated and how we all do it whether we would like to admit it or not. Somewhat testily I said, You can't know what it is like- you have always been pretty. She didn't look at me the same for days.
• Giving a sideways compliment is an old Southern standby of a term. Sideways compliments can actually be negative or positive in nature, for example one woman may say to another, Those are nice shoes- they make your feet look smaller... A positive example would be the aforementioned compliment used as a statement of fact while making a point. It was truthful and nice but also meant to disarm to gain an advantage- a sideways compliment.
• Molly Pitcher never existed, it is shameful the way our history undermines the French contribution to the winning of the US independence and the mythologizing of the actual contribution of the colonists guerrilla tactics during the Revolutionary War are all things I was aware of but I had never seen these points made in a clear concise way until this morning. 
• Multiple politicians have changed their views on same sex marriage when they learned their child was a homosexual. How could they do that? They didn't already know their stand would hurt people far flung from them in ways they couldn't comprehend? Do they make any of their decisions rationally based on the facts they have at hand or do they work at a purely emotional level? What would they change their mind about next time? If a relative lived in a country where the US makes drone strikes would they suddenly stop their support for those strikes? What would any other group have to do to get their attention?

Saturday's Situation

From a search for pictures

• I'm listening to Kasabian Club Foot this morning. There are worse ways to start your day. Even their not so great stuff is OK.
• We're still trying to make it to Sharkarosa. I won't link to it but you can look it up. Their site locks my computer up (no matter which I use) and when I get it rebooted I have to stop and dump a million cookies off it. 
• It thunderstormed like mad last night and I didn't hear a thing- very rare for me.
• I once slept like a baby 50 or 60 meters away from the firing line of 6 Howitzers when they fired 9 rounds on a suppression mission and later fired a few ilum rounds to light a target area. Honestly, I had no idea and only found out when I commented on the bleary eyes of the gun bunnies in chow line the next AM.
• Have a great day. We're going to find some trouble to get into.

Next Blog Foray

" The legendary Rutles have been anthologized on this collection which presents many of their most well known recordings. The influence of The Rutles (The Pre-Fab Four) can not be understated. The lesser known Beatles were, in fact, a spoof band who spent their entire career poking fun at The Rutles by virtually replicating many of their songs. The Rutles' world-wide smash "Hold My Hand" was answered by The Beatles with "I Wanna Hold Your Hand", "Please Please Me", "She Loves You" and "All My Loving". Such was the influence of the Rutles.



A Millstone in Rock History." from blog called remkabel

Best Of Craigslist

Yea, lousy sex but it was your fault - m4w

Living room, ice clinking in our drinks, your lips glistening in the dim candlelight, a soft scent of fine perfume, a silent thunderstorm of desire. Then you did the unimaginable. You poured the rest of your vodka&7 into the small plastic aquarium where my seamonkeys live. I panicked but tried to look calm. You slid down the zipper of your slinky black dress but I had one eye on the seamonkey village as the vodka infused their magical little world. Fine satin underwear, you tossing back your long silky hair, but I couldn't turn away from the turmoil they were now experiencing. Stumbling through their little seamonkey village, singing Firework loud and offkey, yelling "I love you man" down the streets of Seamonkey Village. I was distracted, I couldn't focus on what we were doing. I know it wasn't good. Can I get a do over? 

Wednesday's Digressions

Another one to add to his book of serious personal injuries.

A boy can't get enough of chunkin' rocks into the water.

I told you...

Found lying off the trail in the middle of nowhere (literally a mile+ from a park road) it must have fallen from a guys pack or back pocket. I carried it to the trail head and placed it over a marker.

I like this big, boxy looking truck. It makes no pretense to style or whatever- it is supposed to carry fuel on a flight line so they put a ginormous tank on top of a frame that had a motor and steering gear under it and dropped a big box on the front, called it a cab and then called it good.

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• Sarah Brightman Dust In The Wind. A terrible- awful cover (I mean an absolute abortion) of the Kansas classic. Here's Linkin Park with a very passable cover of same.
• Anyway, here's LA Guns with Never Enough.
• Somebody close to me got a tattoo in Chinese that says Good Luck or something inane like that. Good grief
• I found a very good salsa- Zoni Salsa at the Weatherford Farmers Market. I literally just ate half of the jar with corn chips.
• I hardly ever eat chips.
• 0200 on 03182013 and I'm wide awake and watching The PJs a very underrated stop motion show from the 90s created by Eddie Murphy.
• Here, one of my favorite characters Smokey the crackhead kills What AWonderful World
• I still like the beard and it gets a lot of compliments. Oddly, I don't think Zac has ever mentioned it.
• If you placed a hot flat stone under a piece of butcher paper under the chips of your chips and salsa the chips would stay hot.
• See, I'm more of an idea man...