View with a restaurant

as seen from the wooded river path in the park
What you don't see is the river and cliff between the restaurant and these leafs in the forefront. There is no back entrance.

from inside the resaurant, you get a restaurant with a view, though a bit obscured. This is Curly's, a small place where Pop 'n' Fresh has played many times. They taut Irish lineage or homeage, who am I to argue. It reminds me, while I'm on the path, of about how far along I am. There are a few markers like this, but the shot is neat, showing the windows, which are quite large, offer little precision from their lofty height.

I guess I'm enticed to go there again to eat, drink, listen to music and see the colors of fall and part of the river.

pictures of the walk (since MR reminded me that I didn't post them)

the leaves are just starting to turn color
found on the underside of a log
looking East on the river
monarch
unknown species of mushroom, but interesting to me
for clarification, this is a heron
one of the park's patches of seasonal flowers
along the golf course
shade adds to this shot
trees are always redder on the other side, which doesn't have a path

filth and mire

videos on the net, ever possible, but some leave you with the qeustion, "why" or more appropriately, "who would ...". Amy was at Monkeyjack's last night and introduced us all to a website with hundreds of videos -- many of which panders to the sick. I wonder why MR mentioned Videodrome the other night, it's relevancy now comes into focus. I only saw one video that I hadn't seen, while tasteless it wasn't sickening. It was, however 'R' rated material. What Lori, Monkeyjack's wife, told me was that one they (Monkeyjack, Lori, Amy) watched while I was battling the boys, was "tossed salad"+ and more. I'm glad that my time was spent playing rather than watching the sad, sick, twisted nature of people.

I would have thought, sometime within you seeing what was going on you would: kill the video, kill the page, turn off the sound and monitor, or escape the room as though it were on fire. They did none of these and watched it. Amy was introduced to this by a co-worker. She works in schools -- you think about that! I was told about it and won't see it and won't tell the website. For me ... it is the better part of valor not to carry the message at all.

Even more so than the TV, monitor what your family watches -- you may undo all of your work, by enabling curisoity that doesn't kill the cat.

+ I had mentioned that I recently had typed in the term to find out its menaing and was grossed-out to find the preversions of people, but shouldn't have been shocked. I think this sparked a memory in Amy's veiwing with the co-worker (notice I didn't use, "friend")

disembodied

I was on one of the three bridges that cross a local river, each within a few miles of each other. The bridge is very old -- 40's, I think and rocks with wind and seems to support only the weight of three persons. I walked from end to end and back, then heading back to the car, I heard, "bye" from a child's voice. Now ... who said it?

There are two nearly-parallel paths, one in the woods, one out. There were people out in the park, but when I listened for more, I heard no voices at all. I don't believe in ghosts and won't, until one bites me in the arse, but I found it strange. "Bye", by whom? I'll forget about it, until I experience it again. Still, it was worth the eerriness of the moment.

Swordfight at the OK coral

I was at Monkeyjack's, invited to dinner, and was greeted by the hounds of the baskervilles (not so terrifying if you know that they are rambunctious puppies -- large as they are). They are still teething and when a toy isn't around, furniture or people work just as well. With my return there, the behaviors returned as well ... some good, some bad. They are, afterall, dogs that can imprint information and make associations that last a lifetime. Humans think too much to do this.

Cheyenne has taken more to going belly up for chest rubs, while Echo prefers a back and rump scratch -- devilishly difficult to reach. They have difficulty being calm around guests, it appears, or perhaps just around me -- the upright dog. Should I have been in the Shaggy Dog? They are very lovable.

Charlie wanted to battle, the moment that he knew I was there. It started with swords then moved to wrestling. With Jared's arrival, I was the evil one, General Grievious, wielding two swords against my opponents who had armor that doesn't break and had force fields, and could walk on lava, whereas I had none of those things -- hence, my continually slaughter at their hands. Later, they developed the ability to become invisible and I was swinging in the air for targets that continually slashed at me. It was my disappointment that early on, while Charlie alone was battling me, that he bears a scratch by my random swinging.

The boys together were formidable, but agreeing on rules was their downfall. What to play, ground rules, who I was, what weapon I was to have all were difficulties. After dinner, the boys battled me, but older man me requested that we switch gears to video games, where digitally, I was crushed, shot, pushed felled and in all manners slain in a Mario fight game.

The dogs, singly and together pawed and cried at the door to be with the boys and I. There were no distinctions. Kids, canine or human should play together in harmony.

Charlie had one last fight -- sleep, but to this enemy he fell.

Park walk

On Sunday, while the weather was nearly perfect -- enough so for me, I went for a simple park walk, 2 or 3 miles tops. I saw many a thing there, nature not too afraid of humans, the tinge of color in a few leaves, the murky river and I smell ed the aroma of autumn. The largest animal I saw, but was too fast for my camera and myself was a woodchuck that scurried along the path to its wide burrow.

Something I didn't expect to see, teen boys throwing their bikes off a stairwell to the bridge. I merely stepped by, not asking a thing, for I remember as a youth, pangs of physical energy -- needing to move, destroying was more fun and I had not concentration on creating. Therein, the preference for destruction -- mindless, mostly with some benefit. I later saw the four guys; three biking and one walking. Guess which one was throwing the bike off the stairwell. They bade me only a, "hey" while I passed, they knew full well what utter asses they looked like, but who cares what an old man thinks, right?

There was a family getting photos in the flower garden, though they weren't in a wedding party. Rather than the typical, "cheese", they all chimed in with, "buttfly" with each shot. I was getting some shots of spiders lying in wait on flowers, but heard them in the background, later seeing the group finish and move on. It appeared that there weren't very many 'apparent' adults there.

I found a section near a bridge where, the last several times I've been there, a strong odor of death. I looked and searched, but couldn't find the dead thing. I haven't smelled an unprepared dead person before and wonder if it smells much like most other dead animals. I believe that there were markings near the area, as canines and other predators tend to mark areas and locales of food. Still others hide their larder, but I believe a small patch of underbrush and loose twigs covered a body of something. I suspect a fairly large animal, like a raccoon or the like. Dead fish smells like dead fish, but this smell mammalian.

Apart from a long-winded and sickening tale of dead, I continued from there to a spot under the nearby bridge where I could almost cross to the other side of the bank from stones littering the bed. I chanced upon a hawk -- first I heard it, then saw the dark shape in the wonderful blue. A minute later, a heron was in the air, long, magestic and not wanting to be around humans.

I got back to my car and the family next to my car looked peeved that I should do something as vulgar as want to leave with it. From one angle, it looked like they were continually banging the baby carriage into the side of my car. I said nothing to them and left.

It was great to be out in the open, though I'd like a job. I'll go again when I get the chance, which may not come soon.

Grading Flickr

I give it a D. I would give it an "F", but as it's taking about 20% of what I'm giving it, I cannot outright flunk it, but it is close. I do hope that sometime they get it running better, you know ... where when you load pictures it actually loads them. I tried a few times, gave up rather than use profanity and punch my monitor.

Somewhere, there's a puppy crying

While walking through the woods on a leaf-covered path, I found this ... a lonely tennis ball, without its dog. The pair will not see each other again. Poor little puppy lost a good toy, friend.