For those of you on the wild side of Intrigued, you might be thinking Bri’s been slacking off this month. That is understandable as that little post calendar in the left navbar is pretty bare – the one day that is highlighted was technically from the last day in February. Truth is. I’ve been pounding the keys like crazy up on the mothership. What started out as a quick break from birds to clear out my overflowing “fail” folder spiraled into a flurry of activity that I now refer to as “The Haunting of March”. My first post this month was a long comedic (eh, at least an attempted humorous) post on “Things that make me go Hmmmmm” as our blogger friend Cedar Journal (link here) has coined. Basically things that catch my attention and either make me cringe or burst out in laughter (view latest fails here). While compiling the images for that lengthy post, noticed there was a a few props from last year’s Haunted Trail of Tears still in the queue. That had to be remedied. While at it, went ahead and added a walkthrough for a recently completed decoration. That’s when the sledgehammer came down. Went to reference the 2021 trail event and it was missing – my signature event for the year, the spectacle that consumes me year-round, the very essence of my being (so says Linda) was completely null and void. As much as I enjoy all things haunt, that gap immediately brought a wave of dread – those posts are massive and require days in the digital darkroom to compile/fix/filter all the shots taken leading up, during and after the event. I put everything aside and pushed through (didn’t help last week I had an hour plundered from me!!). So, for those who enjoy all things Halloween, feel free to check out all the releases on the mothership – warning, the trail posts will definitely burn a hole in your browser’s cache!
’21 Haunted Trail of Tears Prep and Teardown (link here)
’21 Haunted Trail of Tears Day Walker (link here)
’21 Haunted Trail of Tears Night Terror (link here)
’21 Prop: Gargoyle Sentry (link here)
’21 Prop: Mini-Me Fire Breather (link here)
’21 Prop: Injection Freddy (link here)
’22 Prop: Toxic Spidey (link here)
Although a bit exhausted and still waaaayy behind on reading the great posts of fellow bloggers, I didn’t want to leave you hanging any longer (at least right-side up). Continuing the “comic” theme that started March and then tying into the Halloween topics that followed, I bring you this…
Hit the jump to read the background on this spastic Bat.
I was going through the pictures taken while on our trip to Lake Tahoe back in May 2019 – our nephew was getting married there giving me a valid excuse to slightly bend my “Hell No” rule regarding the state of California. It was for a good cause and Tahoe is like a sum total of 15 steps across the Nevada border. Saw these Bat shots and noted the perfect theme fit. Since I was there, went crazy and processed all the good shots I could find from that trip – even added another +1 that I didn’t even know I had (making +5 for that minimal incursion into CA). Heads up, several Tahoe/Reno posts heading your way.
I happen to personally like Bats. We often have a number of them patrolling the gap between our house and the woods during the summer/fall months. They come out at dusk and slurp up Mosquitoes and other pesky creatures as they perform their bombing runs. Linda and I will sit on our porch enjoying the aerial show while keeping an eye out for visiting Owls.
You probably noticed these shots were not taken at night and that is exactly what grabbed my attention. This tiny creature was out in late afternoon patrolling the area near our rustic hotel. As the wedding was later that night, I couldn’t dismiss the vision on account of the wedding’s whiskey bar (nice touch by the way). Nope, this was definitely a real Bat and I just happened to be standing there holding The Beast.
I discretely looked around trying to see if I could spot anyone I knew while hoping those few people I did see were not from the other side of the wedding party. Recall me mentioning the “comic” them tie in? This was going to be funny as hell for people watching, but it had to be done – it was a BAT in the daylight, how many chances am I going to get a similar opportunity. One last glance and then committed …. possibly being committed to a psych ward in the process ha. Brought The Beast up to my eye and comedy commenced.
For the next hour plus I waged an epic battle trying to keep The Beast focused on one of the most spastic mammals in the animal kingdom (yes, for the unfamiliar, they are indeed mammals). Up, down, left, right, hell, diagonal and maybe even upside down, this damn Bat was making a mockery of the local Flycatchers. Thank god for all the time in the gym – The Beast got its name in reference to the size and weight of that F4 end to end glass. There I was for at least an hour, cussing like a drunken sailor, nonstop laughing out loud while jerking my camera around like I was being electrocuted. Likely no one at any distance could have seen the Bat – just me miming pants full of fire ants.
Observer: “Hello, is this 911 – can you please send an ambulance to my phones location… might consider bringing a straightjacket!”
Dispatcher: “Ah crap, did that mime get loose again?!?.. be right there. ”
You are looking at the only shots that came out of what must have been 500 attempts. All soft for sure, but I’ll take it. Arms were reduced to noodles and without question camera videos destined for someone else’s “fail” blog. I got back to the room and immediately told Linda she might want to distance herself from me during the wedding – no sense in people questing her sanity just for being around me ha! To her credit she shirked it off apparently conditioned to it by now.
Curious, I did some digging. Apparently this is called a Little Brown Bat (or Myotis) – the Bat naming consortium doesn’t embrace the level obscurity cherished by the bird naming body. Found a very good webpage at the Tahoe Daily Tribune with a lot of info on our winged mammal (link here). Learned that Bats are protected in California and Nevada. It is illegal to kill, poison or even “exclude” them from dwellings during breeding months (May-Aug). Now thinking someone could have thought I was trying to bazooka this Bat and called the cops on me being we were there at the start of the breeding period. They usually sleep up to 19 hours a day – this one was bucking the norm. Now for the kicker – they are only 3.5 to 4″s long with an 11″ wingspan. I would like to add to their bio that they can be easily located by the Pixie Stix wrappers they rudely toss to the ground after sucking them down for inflight fuel. Then there was the topic of Histoplasma Capsulatum. I think the world is now all too familiar with Bat related infections and will leave that out.
Hope you enjoyed a change of pace from our usual winged subjects and a quick laugh at my expense. Check out the other fails referenced earlier for additional comedic fodder.
Take care everyone, time for me to get some rest!
Life Intrigued 