I'll not love again

[Violet]

Hi Casey,

I think we’re having a communication problem again.. If anything I was fishing for encouragement.. not "ordering against" encouragement.. so.. don’t know how you arrived at that.. and on my end, I believe I’ve always been encouraging of your efforts..

Well, I’m sure Van Gogh would be jealous of some of these..



.. and Casteneda would probably have appreciated this variety..


Oh, I’ve decided to fight the Evil Empire with a little 70's punk humor today..

This is in honor of Obama’s declaring the H1N1 Flu virus (affectionately known as the swine flu.. and according to reliable and well annotated accounts, a government lab engineered version of this virus) (by the by..) (just saying) .. anyway, this is in honor of his declaring the spread of this virus a National Emergency.. something he announced quietly, on a Saturday (quite momentous for a Saturday.. hmm.. maybe they don’t want too much exposure on this one…).. anyway, below I’ve posted a little intro on just what further governmental powers are granted relative to such a declaration..

.. and this song is a little 70's number (I believe) called Germ Free Adolescents, by a band I only just discovered called X-Ray Spex..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGROSJbCPV8
FULL SCREEN..

(lyrics):
I know you're antiseptic
Your deodorant smells nice
I'd like to get to know you
But you're deep frozen like the ice

He's a germ free adolescent
Cleanliness is her obsession
Cleans her teeth ten times a day
Scrub away scrub away scrub away
The X.R. way....

You may get to touch her
If your gloves are sterilized
Rinse your mouth with Listerine
Blow disinfectant in her eyes

Her phobia is infection
She needs one to survive
It's her built-in protection
Without fear she'd give up and die

.. quite honestly.. I’ve never felt so clean and germ free.. (love her braces, by the way)..


Thanks for all your photos, Casey.. I’m sure I speak for all those who come to this thread that it’s always lovely to see just what you’ll come up with next.. (and that, by the way.. is meant to be encouragement).. (oh, and I like the moon shots)..

v i o l e t

.. oh, I did do some research on Shrikes.. and wound up reading about a Quentin Crisp novel, of all things (which I believe has “Shrike” as its title).. I’ll have to dig up my material on that..
.. anyway.. not sure such a predator could be compared with what happens when authoritarianism sets in.. speaking of.. we should all be concerned if the new U.S. prez declares Martial Law at some point.. (just saying).. It seems he’s well on the way.. here’s that intro.. with some further expository material on the following link, as well..

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/98-505.pdf

National Emergency Powers

Federal law provides a variety of powers for the President to use in response to
crisis, exigency, or emergency circumstances threatening the nation. Moreover, they
are not limited to military or war situations. Some of these authorities, deriving from
the Constitution or statutory law, are continuously available to the President with
little or no qualification. Others — statutory delegations from Congress — exist on
a stand-by basis and remain dormant until the President formally declares a national
emergency. These delegations or grants of power authorize the President to meet the
problems of governing effectively in times of crisis. Under the powers delegated by
such statutes, the President may seize property, organize and control the means of
production, seize commodities, assign military forces abroad, institute martial law,
seize and control all transportation and communication, regulate the operation of
private enterprise, restrict travel, and, in a variety of ways, control the lives of United
States citizens. Furthermore, Congress may modify, rescind, or render dormant such
delegated emergency authority.

[Casey Butler]

Well.......... Consider yourself encouraged by me. I thought I was getting something you wrote right.

"H1N1" is just primitive Newspeak for "Swine Flu" anyway... and I thought we'd been under Martial Law since 1981.

"Render dormant" is a nice phrase and I can think of lots of things that could use rendering like that.

Today a couple of more birds. I saw a Raven come down above the road near the cinder cone beside town, so I turned up there to see what was photographable. All I got was a little House Finch though...



We didn't go anywhere else today, so when I headed south of town for the sunset I saw one of those Irrigation Sprinklers had finally snailed itself close enough to the road for me to get close enough to it with as little effort as possible.

I don't know why I have a fascination with Irrigation Sprinklers. They're like gigantic good robots, though:



When I was looking for a picture I kept hearing this Hawk screech. I kept looking up and scanning the sky - 'til I finally spotted him on the sprinkler. I think he was screeching at me for interrupting him, but before he flew off I got a picture...


They still haven't cut the corn in that field on the far left for some reason:


Where I parked to get the sunset there happened to be a huge pond created by irrigation water, right under Molly's Nipple. As the clouds went pink I sat on the ground to get this one:


Today's sunset:


The moon at sunset is now behind you when you're facing the sun:


I splurged on eBay today and invested in a Cokin Filter Holder for the camera, with a "Graduated Neutral Density Filter X4 (Grey)". It all should be less than $50.00, but it will even out the light... like half sunglasses... so the sky in landscapes doesn't overwhelm the land part. Currently I either have to get the light-reading from the land and the sky is washed out, or get the light-reading from the sky and the land goes too dark.

I told E it was a belated birthday present for Violet, so the photos come out better.

You're welcome... :-)

Casey

[Casey Butler]

I almost forgot... at the height of the sunset (in my opinion) I took a panorama for you. I wish I could get them aligned properly, but I hate to lose the extra parts of the view that the lens at wide angle shows (like the moon in this one would have been cut out if I'd zoomed in a bit). Anyhow, here it is...

http://viablesoftware.com/casey/panorama6.htm

Thank for the link to X-Ray Specs, BTW... :-)

Casey

[Casey Butler]

Another explosive day in Hurricane cloud-wise, accompanied by our first snow visible on the higher elevations around.

While it threatened precipitation in town itself...

Nothing actually came down.

The Pine Mountains seemed to be the epicenter of precipitory activity today:


Zoomed in a little later:


To spite the weather, we concentrated our search today on the north edge of town. La Verkin (which has seceded from the United Nations) and Hurricane (which has not) are kind of sister cities situated right next to each other, with only the Virgin River (and their respective reputations) separating the two.

Just to the north of Hurricane and to the west of La Verkin is an area known as "Trinity Park". It's not an official park yet, but it's a "Reserve". Today we reconoitered along the southern border of Trinity Park, which, as I've already said, is the equivilent to the north edge of town (Hurricane, that is):

Zion peeking over the lava-strewn hills along the north edge of town:


A view down into the Virgin River Canyon on the north edge of town, where Trinity Park begins. It's an area rich in minerals and springs.


This is a view of the same canyon from just over the bridge into La Verkin, from the parking lot where there is a shaved ice stand that's now closed (until next summer, I presume):


As the storm clouds broke up there were a lot of "Heaven's Holes" shining sunlight down over our little valley.

Here is that Cinder Cone on the edge of town I've told you about that has the aquafir underneath it:


Here is Molly's Nipple featured by a bit of light from above the clouds:


Unfortunately the sunset itself was blocked blue by lack of a "window" allowing sunlight through. This picture is taken from up at Colorado City, BTW, as we were on our way to daughter Laura's house at that point:


I zoomed in for the color there was:


Tonight's moon over Colorado City, Arizona:


Back home now, wondering at all of it...

Casey

[Violet]

.. wow.. I really love how the clouds mimic the landscape.. and with the darkness creeping in it's slightly ominous, but wondrous too.. as is this world of ours..

Thank you so much for the belated birthday present, Casey.. I'm touched.. and I look forward to the results..

.. on this martial law matter.. there were those who feared it happening under "W".. but wouldn't it be just so ironic if it happened under our brand new "nice" president.. or maybe not ironic at all.. I mean.. that might make sense, actually.. such an intelligent and seemingly well meaning guise might allow people to be more willing to accept such a onerous turn of events.. who's to say..


OKAY.. the following I'd written (I sometimes do these posts on my desktop, since I have to scavenge for the various code for your pics, and links to youtube, etc., and so it makes sense to do these on my computer first).. anyway, this one I never posted, as I got side tracked it seems.. but I wrote it after my near demise on the -- well, you'll see..


[dated: last week some time]..

.. again, Casey.. I still don’t have the time right now to say much.. BUT.. something ODD is going on..

.. now, on the night of the same day my friend’s car crapped out on me on THE WEST SIDE HIGHWAY.. well, that same friend (who I’d called, and who called Triple A, and who was dropped off that day in an unsafe spot along the highway, as I waited for her in the tow truck, etc… oh, and whose car had to be scrapped, since the engine was ruined beyond being worth fixing).. ANYWAY.. that night.. she had to attend something downtown.. and was on her way back (she lives way at the tippy top of Manhattan, beyond the George Washington Bridge, for those who kow where that is).. anyway, it was late at night, and two of the subway cars she tried had everyone get out.. and so she decided to share a cab with someone she met.. only the cab broke down with a flat tire on THE WEST SIDE HIGHWAY.. (are you noting a theme here?)..

.. anyway, for some reason these word sounds started creeping into my psyche.. the Wicked West Side Highway.. Wicca.. oh, and Wikipedia.. all up to no good, in my opinion (and yes, I know how fashionable among some circles is this whole Wicca thing.. and yes, Casey.. E., you said, didn’t mind being called a witch... but that’s just sort of funny, I think.. I mean, somehow I don’t imagine her really getting into that sort of thing.. though, correct me if I’m wrong.. )..

.. anyway, I know this whole Wicca thing is supposed to be rather benign, etc., but I have a rule about such things, which is in part the product of hearing of and reading about a few scary anecdotes, which I won’t go into right now.. Anyway, my rule is.. don’t mess with things like this unless and until you really really know what the heck it is you’re dealing with..

.. speaking of something where I’m not too sure what I’m dealing with.. here, apparently, is where the term “wiki” of Wikipedia comes from, from a site called Tech Terms.com..

Wiki

A wiki is a Web site that allows users to add and update content on the site using their own Web browser. This is made possible by Wiki software that runs on the Web server. Wikis end up being created mainly by a collaborative effort of the site visitors. A great example of a large wiki is the Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia in many languages that anyone can edit. The term "wiki" comes from the Hawaiian phrase, "wiki wiki," which means "super fast." I guess if you have thousands of users adding content to a Web site on a regular basis, the site could grow "super fast."

.. sounds innocent enough.. even though the Wiki Wiki West Side Highway (where the cars go wiki wiki fast) will forever be linked somehow (in the rather free-associational, irrational, even, side of my brain).. to..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S85roJ1bvJY
FULL SCREEN..

.. I love the at-home-with-the-television rendering of this.. it's how I'll always remember this movie.. I’m so glad the Wicked Witch melted.. oh, and she knew of her wickedness too, even if she thought it beautiful.. I mean, at least she knew she was.. well.. evil..

.. I didn't mean to kill her -- oops.. (I'm picture dreaming again)..

.. as for Wikipedia.. I remember liking the concept of it when I first heard about it.. I mean, as long as there are intelligent, objective minded people overseeing it.. but that remains to be seen.. (methinks).. (just saying)..

[end section]


Well.. that about wraps it up for the moment.. You'll have to bear with me, as I'm working at a slow pace, thread wise.. I feel at some point I'd like to take the time to read again the entire thread, in order to see where we've been.. and where possibly we might be going.. I mean, I know some of the "sub-threads" I'm hoping to pursue.. but, reading it again might be something of a refresher course.. in signs.. stunning imagery.. personal anecdotes.. poetry.. (word sound).. Sissel.. and whatever else this thread has come to be about.. oh.. spinning.. electromagnetism.. (maybe).. gravity and anti-gravity.. (maybe).. oh, and the seemingly ever present threat of some manner of "Wickedness," in and about this wondrous world of ours.. or do I mean.. Wikiness?..


signing off for now... v i o l e t (flower).. having my tea with some of that fresh-from-the-farm milk we sometimes buy.. oh, and I'm still wearing the ruby slippers..

[Casey Butler]

What a coincidence... today I videoed Toto moving across the sky (okay, so you have to use your imagination)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr-z1UL6lp4

Sorry to hear about your friend's Neon...

While watching the Wicked Witch of the West melting video it was cool to see the reflection of the table lamp on the TV screen, and somebody was back there moving around but I couldn't tell what they were doing.

Today was cold on top of windy, so it was really cold. Tomorrow is supposed to be warmer, though.

The Pine Mountains spent the day entirely under this blanket of clouds, so tomorrow I'll bet they're white as snow. You can see they're not in the their usual place at lower right:


More clouds conforming with the terrain:


This was a much nicer view than it photographed!


The sunset was too much tonight - too big and too long and too darn cold and ending in a cloud of blue. But my favorite parts:

Zoomed in:


Zoomed out:


Zoomed in:


Zoomed out:


Shorly after taking that last one we turned Silver around and there were the two Golden Eagles we'd seen a while back. It was really dark at that point, so it was very exciting to see them at all much less to see them so close again.

Through the windshield, in the dark, Violet, it's not very pretty but it's a Golden Eagle:


Finally, the moon tonight...


Casey

[Violet]

.. okay.. woke up with a sore throat.. must be that Wicked swine flu the Evil Powers That Be concocted for us in their nasty bio terror labs.. (oy)..

.. oh (I thought to render this little post utilizing my now thread-famous free associational approach.. especially as I feel some sort of cold coming on, which in a sense liberates my "normal" thinking.. not that I ever think that normally I guess..).. anyway, as I looked at the cloud you call Toto.. I kind of thought, at the end there, he was sort of..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG-8uZg2uV0
FULL SCREEN..

.. notice too how this film must have been shot after her car accident.. (I mean.. given the scars on her forehead)..

… it's true, as you said before, Casey, that cars (and I would add, imminent ruin) (just consider our poor Silver Neon, after all) seem to have emerged as a kind of theme here.. (of course, the substance "silver" itself, I probably should be looking into as well..)..

oh, and I noticed you’re still driving Silver, it seems.. anyway.. not to upset Silver or anything (then again, he is a different make.. still, it's a fallacy to think that what goes around doesn't eventually come around.. only I guess we shouldn't be telling Silver that) (I can't believe you have me talking to a car).. anyway.. I thought to make this a conceptual art piece by adding the text.. (and yes.. that's how easy it is to make "conceptual art"..)..


THEY SHOOT SUBURUS, DON’T THEY????????

.. actually, I think that should be a warning to us all.. (especially those of us into a more metallic sort of fashion statement).. (that doesn't include me, by the way.. as I've just recently started sporting what I call my "rags to rags" look.. it's sort of enchanting, I think.. in a love's pauper sort of way).. (you know, I just made that up.. it could catch on in the New York fashion world (methinks).. Love's Pauper.. )..

oh.. (back to the conceptual art piece, and speaking of multiple question mark punctuation), I believe your Golden Eagle turned into the black bird nagual, Georges(zez).. (he can do that, you know).. (especially around this time of year)..

.. (hi, Georges, my sweet.. )..


.. anyway.. I’ve got to run.. though not before suggesting with your spectacular photo that maybe God wants us to know that “things turning out okay” is at least one of any number of possible outcomes..

.. I hope you’re right, God.. signing off for now.. with Toto in tow.. or maybe watching over me.. v i o l e t (flower).. drinking green tea, but feeling the chills, I think..

[Casey Butler]

THEY SHOOT SUBURUS, DON’T THEY????????

LOL...

Even if she (not he) felt that way, she's too valuable to shoot. We still have her, actually, because we're still trying to arrive at the correct value (the economic recovery hasn't trickled down this far as yet) each week.

Anyway, now that Silver has a resume I should put her on Craig's List with photos showing what she can do... or is it called a provenance?

"Collector's item! This is the same Silver used to hunt Divine signs for Violet from leonardcohenforum.com. Prominently featured in many photographs published there, Silver could one day be sold at auction for some untold fortune."

The Pine Mountains showed up uncovered today, not as much snow as I'd predicted though. But some snow...


Taken into the sun, these two things were acting as sundogs this afternoon:


Can you spot the Raven that snuck into this photo...


For sunset we went to Zion because the leaves are changing... Had to get the photographers again:


I had to drop E off with the camera, then drive way up the road for a parking space. Here is E's picture off the Bridge today:


When Mr. Darcy and I finally got back down to the Bridge, I took the camera to the other bridge hoping the sun would catch the clouds and it did


Of course, with your birthday present attached to the lens it would be much less dark and uneven. But that will come USPS.

The moon today was hard to focus on because of the cloudy mist up in the sky tonight, but what's cool is that the mist makes a little rainbow around the moon... A moonlight rainbow:


When you review the thread, if you remember the reason don't be shy... It's currently somewhere between veangeful indifference... Is where we left off. :-)

Casey

[Casey Butler]

Today was a cloudless day of mysteries. Maybe. It seems that way anyhow...

To begin with, I was rudely awakened by E at about 11:00 AM... "We've got to go get it", she was saying. I said, "Get what? What are you talking about?" When she answered I knew it wasn't a dream anyway. "This fox hunt engraving Laura and Wesley saw at the antique store. When they got home Wesley decided it might be an actual engraving print rather than just a print. They want us to go get before somebody else buys it."

Since this had never happened before I decided to include it in today's sign candidates.

I mean, it just so happens that this antique store is on the same ledge on the La Verkin side of the Virgin River that the shaved ice place I mentioned earlier is. In fact, they are right next to each other.

It turned out the engraving/print is called "EVENING: Returning to the Kennels", and I've reproduced it below for you:



So that was the first exciting thing that happened...

Since the clouds had nearly totally burned off by afternoon, I decided we should go up on top of Hurricane Mesa to see if I could catch the moon rising over Zion. It's a great view up there (as has already been attested to elsewhere in this thread) and a few years ago I got this dramatic shot with the moon from that same place.

Well, the clouds burned off even more before the moon rose, but not enough to make it a clear sky where the moon did rise. So the moonrise I ended up with is just a little hard to see... sorry. Look carefully though, and you'll see it:



On the way back down Hurricane Mesa I happened to spot what looked like a blue playing card stuck up in some rocks in the middle of a rock slide. I climbed out of Silver (leaving her in gear and pushing really hard on the emergency brake), and risked upsetting the rock slide in order to retrieve the card.

It turned out to be a postcard, amazingly enough, and a postcard from Glacier National Park. I've reproduced it, front and back, for you below:




Now if that isn't mysterious enough, another event happened when we got back into town. I took E to the Hurricane Library because the sun wasn't setting yet. She found some DVDs she wanted to watch, but just as she was reaching to pick the last one from the shelf, the librarian turned out the lights in the library to indicate they were closing (it was 6 PM). E went ahead and picked up what she thought was the same DVD and went to the desk and checked them all out.

However, it turned out the one she had grabbed in the dark was actually a Buster Keaton double feature DVD... And I figured just in case I should also reproduce it below:



When E got out of the library it was late and rather than drive to the southern edge of town for the sunset I decided to just drive through the Hurricane High School parking lot, since there was a football game going on, and use the football stands as stand-ins for today's missing clouds.

Today's sunset:



Finally, the moon tonight. It is almost full so hopefully I'll be taking some night photos for you soon... :-)



Hopefully also that last photo doesn't infringe on some trade mark or other... :-)

Casey

[Casey Butler]

Hurricane and environs at 2 AM on the Sabbath:






Framing and focusing are going to be a problem (like Orion up there), as nothing but black shows up in the electronic viewfinder of my camera (unless there are city lights in the picture). The auto-focus won't function in the dark and the manual focus is really really primitive on it. I'll figure something out like setting things up during the day and remembering the settings - or something.

Casey

[Casey Butler]

I hope if your sore throat and chills developed into something you are well on the road to recovery. You shouldn't disappear like this after announcing you're not feeling well!

Today I took E to church and then drove up to Gunlock Reservoir and back. While crossing the Shivwits Band of Paiutes Indian Reservation I spotted a pair of Red-Tailed Hawks with very Indian-looking markings. The only thing interesting in the little valley there was this ruin of a building. Photos of both:





Then this afternoon we went up to Cane Beds to see the grandkids' costumes and visit for a bit.

On the drive down the dirt road to my daughter's house, I spotted my first trick-or-treater... A bird singing from the usual fencepost, but he was dressed up for Halloween as a "Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel":




He really did stand up there and do his call, this long string of squeaks. Now, if he'd been on the wire...

Nary a cloud in the sky today. This is the sunset from Cane Beds:



And the now nearly full moon (taken with camera on tripod for once, as I need to get used to it for those night shots)...

...though not before suggesting with your spectacular photo that maybe God wants us to know that “things turning out okay” is at least one of any number of possible outcomes.

The odds look pretty good for "okay" at this point...

Try to see it my way: I mean, a handful of salt has miraculously seasoned an entire world. Those determined souls who've taken up the mantle of Judaism have grown Christianity, Islam, even Buddhism and Hinduism as we know them today, and more they don't even know about. As we speak, Abraham's seed numbers as the stars of heaven.

And, coincidently, the world actually needs saving today.

But I think it would have to be without the loss of one quark, forever.

You know what you were theorizing about time...

Yes, I think so. To be saved by anyone or anything capable of saving it, the entire world would have to virtually agree to the saving of the entire world.

Every quark.

Casey

[Boss]

Casey, forgive my naivete and unlearnedness, but the entire world will, in the end, agree to be saved.
Preceding this there will be torrid times.

[Casey Butler]

I guess more of what I meant would be that the entire world would virtually (you know, through their "bosses") agree to save the entire world. Like how loving your friends is something everyone does, but loving your enemies (ie. recognizing they never were your enemies), that's really worth something to the creator of both. It's all doctrinal speculation anyhow... Details... I am nuts as the hatter, Boss, and maybe the only person alive who's arrived at that conclusion from the twisted metaphor I read.

And both scenarios leave out the Theory of Intervention... The idea that waiting for either condition to prove true will be usurped by events we pretend are out of our control.

Our trip up to Kolob Terrace with our daughter last week was the first time I spotted the following rock formation, though we pass by it every time we go up there:



When I saw that, this parable Jesus told suddenly popped into my head:

And he spake a parable unto them (to this end), that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;
Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man:
And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary.
And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man;
Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.
And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith.
And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?
I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? [Luke 18:1-8]

In the rock formation I see that old woman nagging and nagging that Unjust Judge, giving him no peace day or night, and in Zion yet.

And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. [Matthew 24:22]

I say times have been torrid enough. But I'm just a crazy old woman.. :-)

Casey

[Casey Butler]

Sorry, Violet, today I slept through the sunset! :->

But here is Hurricane in the twilight...


And when I copied one of the moon pictures to the computer I found it had birds in it (maybe Starlings?), so even though it's a little blurry...


And tonight's regular moon picture:


Casey

[Casey Butler]

When I took Mr. Darcy out for his bedtime visit to the tree, what should I see but... clouds! Again these were taken about 2 AM. Only two because my camera battery needs charging.

They are still at the experimental stage, of course.

This one I wasn't sure if I'd get anything so I just turned the camera on its back on top of Silver. That's the moon in the corner, and branches from trees over our driveway, and it's a 20 second exposure at 100 ISO:



Seeing how that picked up a bit of cloud, I got the tripod out and aimed the camera northwest where there were all sorts of wispy looking clouds, and set the exposure to 25 seconds.

In 25 seconds the clouds moved a bit, and you even see that stars are elongated because the camera was turning with the world underneath them... so to speak:



Anyway, it's exciting to see anything on film at this hour without artificial lighting of some sort. :-)

Casey