Banneret

Guarding his flooded kingdom.

Please don't call me, "Rusty."

Turning Tail

Someone has been extra peppy lately and hours of play hasn't been cutting it. Maybe getting a solid 19 hours has something to do with it.

The Domesticated Long Hair confuses its prey

So we meet again, snake on a stick

Drying Out

It was pushing 60˚ today but is supposed to snow again Thursday. I went to check the condition of one of my favorite bike trails (closed) and the town swimming around it (drying out).

As I slowed down to look at the roadblocks by the trail parking lot a guy sped by shouting obscenities after I presume spitting out his wad of chaw while feeling around for his car gun (covered in porn and open cans of Old Mil).
Looney Tunes revenge scenarios ran through my head and it could have ended badly, but it didn't.

Then I really slowed down to take a look at things while remembering that no matter how serene a day you're having some dangerous idiot could be just around the corner.

Has its own stories to tell. Mostly involving hay

But a few other things caught my eye and I continued to bask in mother nature's bipolar high. 

Eye Witnesses

Year-Round Slightly Terrifying Santa

Trail Map

My mother didn't feel like going out today so we sat around and snacked and gossiped while I played with my new pocket camera. I've had no luck taking photos lately and was complaining that the harsh light coming from her porch would ruin the shot. Turns out this is the only photo from today's batch I liked.

Taken with the new pocket PNS, I'm guessing my mother would not appreciate this shot

The other sign says This Is Not A Trail (Taken with the new Canon, it's a less sucky photo from today's Photo Suck Fest)

Floody Sunday

It's been an interesting month for weather and I'm looking forward to a calmer week. I'm itching to take more photos with the about where I should be Canon 7D Mark II and has yet to impress me but let's give it a chance Lumix TS30K Tough camera.

Seeing how close I could get to the flooded Monticello taking Hwy 69. (Not very.) (Canon 7D M2)

Do you not have anything else to do? (Lumix)

Using the Lumix Tough camera at the park down the road

Honey, Did You Leave The Hose On?

Last Sunday things were melting here while towns were flooding nearby. A crazy five days of rain, melt, freeze and more melting followed.
I didn't make it to my favorite little village which was saturated by the Sugar River at the beginning of the week and I'm now picturing encased in ice ala Frozen.
A county cop stopped me on my way there yesterday so I took some photos and called it a day. But I am curious to see what happens to a place once it's flooded then frozen. Maybe I'll go tomorrow and take a different route.

An ice rink for the birds

I needed some serious wellies for the Falk Wells Wildlife Area

This can't be good for anyone

How I got there in the first place never came up

New Camera Same Cat

I don't know exactly when my cousin started letting me take care of Dexter, but according to this post, it was around July 22, 2016.

This is the earliest photo I can find of him, but there have been so many more. He doesn't like it when I take a picture of his big ol' butt.

Oh joy, another camera

I got a new tough point-and-shoot yesterday and decided to bring it with me everywhere. Yes, everywhere, which I'm sure Dex is thrilled about.

I'm not sure when he began regarding the bathroom as his den and even less sure it's a good thing.

Welcome, prey, I mean looking for your toothbrush?

The Other Side of The Coin

Or is that corn, we didn't know. Hard to believe this photo was taken the same day a few miles away from the last post. I had to look for spots that weren't going through a meltdown, but what we noticed most were flags at half mast.
Lots of water everywhere here today, but nothing like one of my favorite little towns, Monticello, which flooded over.

We never really know what we're looking at, crop wise, but I find guessing "corn" usually works out

What A Way To Go (To Talk About This Photo)

My parents took my sister and me to a movie called, What A Way To Go when we were kids which apparently offended my mother because she said, "Clarence, this is not appropriate for children."
Shirley MacLaine kept marrying the likes of Dean Martin, Dick Van Dyke and Gene Kelly, all of whom I adored, and save for I think Paul Newman's character, met 60s madcap comedy deaths. I remember her husband Pinky (Gene Kelly) going nuts over the color pink and eventually being painted to death. I found it both haunting and kind of pretty, like yesterday's sunset.
And you wondered how I'd bring it around.

The entire neighborhood was painted in an eerie shade of pink yesterday

A Little Sunshine

A little sunshine can keep a lot of people very happy for a long time and this photo from across the pond—ha— reminds me how little it takes.
Dogs were walking, people were playing broomball, skaters were whisking around long ovals and my good lens went wonky. But this shot was enough to remind me of sunshine, crisp snow and red cheeks.
No, not those cheeks (but maybe).

Everybody needs a little sunshine, in your life

Sometime, to brighten up your day

Everybody needs a little sunshine, in your life

Sometimes, if it's only but a ray

—From A Little Sunshine by Sunshine Anderson

Cheeky

One of the upsides of having a cat is that they don't seem to care about anything. Dexter has his schedule like my dog pals, but his needs are few and frolicking on a frozen beach during a snowstorm isn't one of them.
My dog buds would give their last plush toy to dive into the snow blanketing this beach.

Miss Vickers, Snow Queen

Although Oliver (front) lets me tuck him into my coat, these guys are poised to run around in the snow unless it's ridiculously cold but that's why God made labs

Dexter could give a flying flake.

As if.