Category: Observation

We’re Here for You Marmots – Rocky Mountain National Park

What does the Puss ‘n  Boots and the tiny rock creatures in Galaxy Quest have in common?  The answer is they frighten me.  No, I know they are not clowns, but they have the ability to be charming and cute while they are scheming to kill you.  Puss ‘N Boots would take off his hat, expand the eyes to capture his victim off guard and the pounces on them with saber in hand.  Those cute looking rock creatures are all smurf like until one shows a weakness and they pounce on it and tear it to shreds with their fangs and claws.  Why am I bothering to tell you this?  The reason is I encountered a new creature on visit to the Rocky Mountain National Park that creeps me out in a similar manner.   Here it is in stealth mode:

Yellow-Bellied Marmot

Did you find it?  Here is a hint:

Yellow-Bellied Marmot

According to my National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Rocky Mountain States, this devious creature is a Marmot.  In my opinion he looks like a groundhog or possibly a beaver with a furry tale instead of the paddle.  Apparently, it is a member of the squirrel family which puts it in the Yosemite Sam Varmint category.  There is an error in this guide as it states that the Marmot’s habitat is below 11,000 feet.  This picture was taken at 12,000 feet on the Tundra trail.

Upon first look, it is all soft and cuddly like.  He would probably curl up in your lap and softly chirp (straight from the guide) away.

Yellow-Bellied Marmot

But there is definitely a demon side to this creature.  Take the jump to see a couple more pictures of the Marmot

Continue reading We’re Here for You Marmots – Rocky Mountain National Park

Listen Baby You Really Wouldn’t Understand

Guess who Linda and I saw last week?  Do you need a hint?

Theatre of Death

As a surprise to some, I actually have a slightly darker side when it comes to music.  I say slightly, because it does NOT include any death-metal or “Look at me I’m so cool because I can act moody” crap.  Nope, I prefer old school theater with smooth riffs and lyrics with a catch.  At the heart of this genre is Alice Cooper (by definition I am referring to the band even though Vincent Furnier has since assumed this alter ego himself).  Somewhat as a confession, this interest came about when I was in high school.  I ran around with a slightly older crowd from work who used to drag me out to cruise the Springfield strip after work.  One of these friends (ironically named the same as a famous comedian for those in the know) would always crank  Alice as we drove around – we know all the lyrics and passed the time singing along.  Ever since then, I’ll pull out a Cooper album and catch up on old memories.  A few years back Linda and I actually saw them at the Peoria Civic Center Theater and totally enjoyed the performance.  Surprisingly, my wife ended up enjoying it as well (her first time) but she is a huge people watcher as well so it was probably a natural fit.    So when we heard he was going to be at the Mississippi Valley Fair (Davenport , IA) we jumped at the chance.

I need to explain something that made this night a little more intriguing that usual.  This fair runs their concert tickets a little different that most places I have been at.  The event goes on for about a week with a different band/singer each night.  The acts tend to vary with a lot of country, a lame 80’s reject (this year it was Kenny Loggins filling this role) and then a rock band (we have seen Poison there twice now although some people would put them in the lame 80’s reject category).  So you would expect the older crowd buys the tickets for the country, the George Michael fans gather for the lame act and the rockers hit the show geared for them.  But this has a drawback in that the specific entertainment for that particular night is responsible for the draw/gate revenue.  The clever men and women on this fair board figured you can charge everyone for a high priced fair card that gets you into all shows (actually the only way to get into the shows).  This means no matter how much the act sucks or how bad weather is, the fair still has guaranteed money.  Since Alice Cooper was the only band we wanted to see, we paid the full fair ticket price and just let friends and family use them when they wanted on the other days.  All shows ticketing like this has an interesting side effect in that people tend to check out shows they normally would not attend because they basically paid for it anyway.  Having experienced this from the Poison concerts, we were wondering what would happen at this particular concert because both my wife and I agreed Davenport was not ready for an AC performance.  Sure enough, the gray hairs were standing in line when we got there along with a a number of families I am guessing did not do any Wiki searches before agreeing to take their kids.  The goths were out along the usual mix of rockers making the lines a true mix of cultures.  Linda and I were busy calling out numbers representing the amount of songs it would take for them to get disgusted and tear out of there.

I recommend catching an Alice show if you get the chance.  Just be sure and keep an open mind and take the time to understand what is actually happening and more importantly why.  If not, you will likely jump to some incorrect conclusions (especially if you are overly sensitive to the perceived improper treatment of the women on stage – for the curious fans out there, note the last time he was in Peoria his daughter was playing the role of the evil nurse which made it even creepier).

I did manage to take some crappy pictures during the concert.  It was too much of a pain to take the expensive glass, but I had slipped the Stylus in my pocket to capture some stills – original thought is there would be interesting activity in the stands.  Keeping with the more classic material theme, they opened the concert with shortened version of School’s Out.  At 61, Vincent still sounds great and he is still sporting the leather.

Alice Cooper Concert

He ripped through the songs building up the tortured soul storyline.  Again, if you do not understand the songs, you will be struggling to understand the actions on the stage.  Slowly you are brought into the nightmare playing out in his mind until the sanity starts to slip.

Alice Cooper Concert

The fair stage did not leave much room for all his props and gadgets, but he did his best along with his ghoulish stagehands to bring out the required equipment on time and drive the show.  They actually backed a semi truck up to the stage right before the show started to have an additional place to store the balloons and other contraptions.

Do to the number of pictures (yes, they are crap) you will need to take the jump to read on
Continue reading Listen Baby You Really Wouldn’t Understand

Another Medal for the Collection

Bix 7 MedalTo complete this month’s quota, I figured I would mention I recently earned another medal for my running collection.  I basically train year round for one key race a year and that race is the Bix7 held in Davenport Iowa.  For those who have never experienced it, the event is 7 miles  (actually 2 miles if you choose to do the QuickBix) in some difficult hills.  The first 7/10ths of the mile is basically straight up followed by ~2 miles down and then the smaller but definitely harder hill short of the turnaround and then reversed.  This year I finally lined up at the start without much injury for a change and that coupled with favorable start temperature led to a P.R. for me.  Usually the temperature and humidity are through the roof due to the late July start, but thanks to Global Warming (smirk) we starting the morning at 57 degrees (yes, I was shivering when I got out of the car) and warmed up to around 87 by mid race.  I’ve ran it in the past over 90 with 23 people going to the hospital that year.

The best part of this race is all the spectators that come out to cheer you on along the road.  Lots of bands are also playing around the route to help cheer on the 15K or so runners.  Of course there are also those participants who sacrifice themselves (at least their dignity) to run in costumes.  Standouts this year included 2 young men running in diapers with pacifiers, the annual appearance of the Elvis’ and the Oscar Mayer Wiener.   The wiener cracks me because he is in full costume and I can’t figure out how he actually makes it around the 2 mile Quick Bix.  If you want to get a dig on my wife, mention the fact she lost to the wiener one year.  There was a valid reason for this, but I am not going to reveal it because it is my favorite thing to kid her about.  For the record, Linda also had a P.R. in the Quick Bix but I am contributing that to performance enhancing drugs.

Almost forgot, similar to a site that has been burned into my retinas last year, this time I was subjected to a 6’4″ or so guy running in a bright blue spandex wrestling outfit and as far as I can tell, that was it.  While working hard to make it up the return hill, I took a brief look up the hill to see how much further I had to go.  Expecting to see some key landmarks I was instead met with this guys butt about 3 feet in front of my face.  Imagine if you will what this site consisted of about 5 miles into the race.  I had to mentally poke my eyes out just to keep from puking on the spot.  Fellow male runners, please stop the spandex on long runs or minimally put some shorts over it.  This warning does not apply to hot looking ladies.

Tomorrow starts the 361 days of training until next year’s race!

Yellowstone Trip – All About the Moose (Part 2 of Many)

 Update: 8/16/09 (original post 7/28/09) – Please see the corresponding Errata Page for a correction on the location this moose was seen at

As we traveled through Yellowstone Park we were checking off the various wildlife we saw against the field guild I mentioned in the last post.  There was one particular animal that was successfully eluding us almost the entire time. That particular animal was the following.

Yellowstone Moose

We had completely given up as we headed out of the park to the South on our way to the Grand Tetons.  Literally 5 minutes from the park exit we come upon this fine specimen.  Not carrying the same fear we had with the bears, we actually pulled over on the shoulder and exited the vehicle to get a closer look.  I must say, I was re-thinking that idea when I took this shot.

Yellowstone Moose

From this angle it looked a lot more ferocious and although this one did not have the biggest rack, it was still one of the largest animals we had seen on the vacation.  I am guessing for a brief moment this moose was thinking steak would taste better than those weeds.  Luckily it turned its attention back to the grass which calmed my heart down some.

Yellowstone Moose

Oddly, this was the only moose in the area as opposed to the other wildlife (with exception of the bears) that was not mingling with others in a herd.    The moose was very content to just eat his veggies and taken in the likely oddity of humans pointing cameras in its direction.  The dark fur really stood out against the greenery providing a nice contrast to the photos.   The following shot is probably my favorite since the branch looks like a hand tickling the fur under his snout causing his foot to raise up in a mock scratch.  My dogs do this all the time which makes me laugh.

Yellowstone Moose

It was close, but we did get to check this animal off of our checklist.  Next time we hope to catch one with a larger rack

Yellowstone Trip – All About the Bears (Part 1 of Many)

It’s getting late in the month again and I have a few posts to go to make my quota for the month.  Luckily there is plenty of content waiting in the wings many of which came from our recent trip out to Yellowstone.  I already posted the oddities collection from that adventure and now it is time to start the wildlife segment.  I thought I would lead with something we do not see much of out here in Illinois.

Black Bears in Yellowstone

If you look real close you will see today’s subjects.  Surprisingly, we had just entered the park from the East side when there were a few cars parked on the side of the road and some people looking out over the valley.  Figuring there was something of interest, we parked and grabbed the cameras.  Sure enough, waaaaaay out in the distance were these two black bears.  Keep in mind, I have a full Nikon 70-200 glass fully out and manually focusing this to get through all the trees.   Although not tack sharp for sure, I am pretty pleased I even got them at all.  Here is a zoomed version and it looks like they spotted me.

Black Bears in Yellowstone

Just 5 minutes into the park and we already had our first bear sighting.   Since I was not sure there was going to be anymore chances to see the elusive bears, I was snapping a ton of shots in the hopes one or two would come out decent enough I could prove we saw them.  It should be noted that there is actually snow on the ground.  It was the middle of June and we were definitely feeling the chill.  Apparently the bears were quite comfortable in their winter fur.  These two shots are a little better, but again, there were hard to see with the naked eye and having to manually focus was making it difficult to draw them in clear.

Black Bears in Yellowstone

After awhile they grew bored with watching us and headed back into the woodlands.  I caught this one taking a final look back probably thinking how tasty I would be for lunch.

Black Bears in Yellowstone

The good news is we actually had 3 other bear sightings while we were out there.  Take the jump to see some much better shot.  Well, actually three better shots and one crappy one with a frustrating story.

Continue reading Yellowstone Trip – All About the Bears (Part 1 of Many)

You’re GRRRRRRRRRRR[EAT]

Target Rating SystemIt is very apparent that I spend waay too much time at Target or there is just waay to much stuff to be observed there.  I think this is like my third post based on things that I have seen there and thought was interesting.  This particular incident occurred at the checkout lane a few days ago.  While we were completing our purchase there, something on the electronic register display caught my eye.  On the lower left hand of the LCD panel there was a section labeled as Last 10 Ratings (or something very close to that heading, I forgot to write down the actual words).  Underneath that label was a series of 10 letters which I am guessing where the results of the last 10 assessments.  In this particular situation there were only the letters G and R.  There were definitely more R’s than G’s, but there was absolutely no legend for what they actually meant.  If it was important enough to have it visible to the customer, you would think there would be some explanation for the values provided.  I decided not to question the clerk on the chance the ratings she was getting were not flattering.  The trip home was spent pondering the potential rating options:

G’s

  • Great (Tony the Tiger would approve)
  • Good (Seems kind of boring)
  • Goddess (The male clerks might be offended)
  • Gracious (She was nice)
  • God Awful
  • Get your *ss moving (nothing like a little motivation)

R’s

  • Respectable (Wouldn’t just an O for Okay work better)
  • Really Good (And Jack Handy is happy)
  • Reprehensible (it’s Target.. thinking this is not the one)
  • Really get your *ss moving (the boss is not happy)
  • RaaawwttRoh (for the Scooby Do fans out there)
  • Rest (cause you are doing sooo well)

If anyone knows the real definitions, please drop me a comment because I am running low on other options.  Oh well, time to get some sleep, I the main race of the year coming up this Saturday (Bix7) and I don’t want to give myself any excuses other than I have not been able to acclimate to the heat thanks to this joke of a Global Warming Threat that is keeping it in the 60’s in the middle of July.

Happy Fourth of July America

 Fireworks

Once again, the greatest country in the world celebrates its birthday.  This means it is time for the light shows in the sky (courtesy of China firework factories).   Today is another guest blog entry courtesy of my wife’s photography.  We basically just learned the trick to taking fireworks pictures and was out catching the local displays to try it out.  To be honest, the settings are only about 40% of the effort.  It is all about timing since you have to keep the shutter open for a number of seconds.  However, when you get lucky, it sure looks good.

Fireworks

I really like this one she took for a couple of reasons.  The color is really crisp, but generally fountains give off way to much light and overpower the image.  She had the shutter timing perfectly for that oneand gives an interesting shadow as it shot through the trees.

This one came from the same display.  It gives the impression of huge sparklers suspended in the air.  Too bad the fountain had to be cut off the bottom, but that would have probably washed out the shot.

Fireworks

The hardest shots are the large flowering fireworks due to having to guess the timing (about 1 second after you see the propulsion flame go out works pretty good) and harder yet is trying to guess the diameter of the explosion to set the zoom appropriately (yes, we are zoomed in pretty good).  To be honest, the off center ones give an interesting artistic impression.

Hit the jump to see some of these pictures

Continue reading Happy Fourth of July America

Things I Am Unable to Explain

Deadlines Deadlines Deadlines.  Cutting it close this time, but this post brings me to my self imposed minimum of 6 posts a month.  Before jumping back into the trip pictures, something strange occurred today while working in the yard.  It was time to deal with the trimming so I brought the trimmer out, gassed it up and reved it up.  As soon as the engine fired a barn swallow flew up behind me and started hovering in the air.  Actually, it was more like a bird backstroke because the birds body was actually vertical while the wings did a backward flap.  Not phased in the least by me turning to look at him, I decided to play out the situation.  As I was whacking down the weeds a moth flew up into the air.  At that point it all became very apparent.  The bird launched into action, chased that moth down and caught it.  I was impressed, not only was he pretty agile, he (assuming a male at this point) was smart enough to associate my trimmer with dinner.  This went on for about 15 minutes until he was either full or needed a rest.  For the curious, I could care less about the insect.  I draw the line there in favor of actual animals unlike PETA which apparently doesn’t know what the ‘A’ actually stands for based on their recent declaration against Obama killing a fly.

With that out of the way, I’ll lead with this picture.  Take a minute and just absorb the image….

Rock Hard Man

Linda thinks I’m crazy, but it sure looks like a rock man with ummmm… well… let’s just say that is some hard rock.   She vetoed my idea of merging it with one of the pictures of Old Faithful.

While in South Dakota, this truck passed us on the highway.

Truck Skull

All I could think of was the movie The Jerk when Steve Martin picks up the red chair and claims that is all he needs.   I would think the paint would be getting scratched up pretty good, but I must admit, the skull was a nice touch.

Catch a couple m0re shots after the jump

Continue reading Things I Am Unable to Explain

What Are They Thinking?

At Culvers today I was thinking it was nearing the end of the month and I was way behind on my posts.  I actually have plenty of content queued up, but have been having a hard time to sparing the time to get it written up.  The trip out to Yellowstone energized me to start cleaning up my forest acreage and getting the trails cut in.  This has a tendency to drain me especially when I have to end the day with my 7-8 mile Bix7 training runs.  I was jarred back into the moment at hand when a young woman approached the counter with her friend.  She was holding a wrapped hamburger which begged my attention.  Correctly guessing, it was a messed up order.  Two statements made me stand and wonder what was going on in their head.  First, while explaining what the problem was, the young girl states “I threw the onions out the window because that’s what everyone did”  For one of the few times I can’t think of any context where an observed action makes any sense.  Was there a big pile of onions on the side of the road she was simply adding to?  Did she see a whole like of people ahead of her in the drive through whipping their condiments out the window?  I have nothing here folks other than the possibility she was savvy enough to know they come from the ground so returning it seemed like the appropriate action. The other interesting statement was from the cashier.  For some reason she was not stunned at all about the onion comment, but after listening to the issue she responded with “Would you like that made again right now?”  I had at least 4 clever responses in the time that took her to respond with the boring “Yes”.  Possibly a clever cashier followup would have been to simply grab the sandwich and scrape the undesired condiments off on the edge of the counter and handed it back.  It probably would have been job ending, but I probably would have shook her hand after redeeming herself from a stupid question.

Anyway, I decided to get this post on a couple of vacation scenes that made as much sense as this encounter.  First a quiz.  Does anyone out there think Bison are tame?  Does anyone believe that wild animals don’t care about their young?  And lastly, are wild animals entirely predictable?  If you answered affirmative to any of those questions you need to stay out of our National Parks and stick to safer destinations like zoos.  I can’t tell you how many times we saw people chasing out after wildlife to get the perfect shot.  Note, this can all be remedied by purchasing higher powered glass, which is significantly cheaper than getting a horn removed from your rear.

This lady decided that the numerous stay away from wildlife warning signs didn’t apply to her.

Dumb Human

We had already taken a number of pictures from the walkway (with the 200 glass) and was able to get various angles in complete safety.  What this lady didn’t know is there is a calf (guess that is what you call it) on the other side.  I kept my finger on the trigger for funniest home gold.  In case you questioned, the answer is I have little sympathy for stupid people but luckily for her the subject didn’t decide to test her speed.

Then there was this guy.

Dumb Human

The elk are probably a little more tame than Bison, but this guy essentially stalked this elk for 15 minutes.  He was trying to be clever and stay out of view, but checking the angle of the elk tells you how successful that was.  Every time the guy took a few steps forward, the elk would head a little further up the hill.  I joked to my wife that he was being led closer to the tree line so his friends could roll him.  Yes, I kept my camera ready for any violence that might have been initiated.  I ended up 0-2 for content on the my series When Good Animals Go Bad.  Admit it, you would watch it – and you can’t tell me it would be any worse than watching the wife of our removed and soon to be put on trial ex-governor Blowjobovich trying to replace her cuss filled tirade wiretap image with a PR stunt in the woods.  But the funny thing about this is there was another elk (with a similar rack) sitting under a tree not 30 feet from the trail.  The whole time that elk kept a close eye on the guy.  Made me wonder if it was not the humans who were on display.  I wish I could tell what that elk was thinking at that moment.  Maybe it was this.

The Food Chain

A Special Load

 Convoy Ahead

Last year we headed out to South Dakota a week later than this year.  While we were there, the army was carrying out their training exercises in Custer State Park.  Since we were out a week earlier, we came up on a number of military convoys heading out to the park.  One particular grouping of trucks turned out pretty comical.  As w approached one of the semi trucks, something looked odd about the payload.

Military Convoy

Slowly the picture became a little clearer.

Truck Convoy

I have to admit, we did not have the camera out when we passed this convoy the first time.  We laughed so hard we doubled back to take a few photos.  It is amazing the lengths you will go to get a blog entry.  As we passed the truck for the second time, took the payload shot.

Truck Convoy Payload

I think it is our newest secret weapon developed for special urban assaults.  There are probably rocket mounts in the dump bucket and special hummer inflating tires to allow it to traverse any rubble it encounters.  We definitely appreciate the job they do to keep us safe and our Democracy intact.  Good luck boys an girls and in the words of Maximus “unleash hell”.

Eat Dust

Salute the Troops!