Guess where ...

Yep, Bulldog Canyon. This morning I was looking at some pictures from yesterday and it looked like it would be easy to get up on a ridge to the northeast. Well, I just proved that you can't tell how hard it will be to go somewhere from so far away. I didn't get on top of the ridge, but my legs were tired from yesterday. Maybe I could have done it if I'd been fresh. I was standing there looking across a ravine and thinking "I should have gone that way", but I was too tired to do it.

I sat at the base of a cliff taking pictures for several minutes. During that time, my GPS data logger seems to have wandered around by itself. Suzanne said that maybe one of the hawks took it for a ride. The trip statistics say that my average speed was 8 kph and my maximum speed was 5 kph. I don't know how that's possible. Maybe because I was moving so much when I wasn't moving. Also, my minimum altitude was 91 meters below sea level. Blub, blub. Maybe being next to a cliff in a canyon blocked most of the GPS satellite signals.

I used to have the data logger set up to log my position every 6 seconds. I bumped it up to 10 seconds and that seemed to double how long the battery should last. I was thinking that might be because it doesn't write to EEPROM as often, but maybe it's because it shuts down the receiver for longer logging intervals and doesn't get as good of a fix when it comes back on. Anyway, I set it back to 6 seconds and we'll see how it does on my next adventure.

BC_2008_11_16

Back to Bulldog Canyon

It was another absolutely gorgeous Saturday afternoon, and I spent it in an absolutely gorgeous place. There was a lot of traffic on the drive to our parking spot. There must have been some church group that had spent Friday night there. There was a ranger on the road checking passes of everybody that went by. He was writing a ticket for a guy driving a Suburban. There was no traffic once we got past the intersection of 10 and 3554, though. This time, I was able to drive up the hill I could not drive up last weekend. It was nice being able to park a little closer to where we were going to hike.

I keep saying "we". A friend and coworker went hiking with me today. We used to hike together a couple of years ago, but he got too busy with school to hike for a while. Paul is taking a break from classes now, though.

I was looking at Google Earth a couple of days ago and saw what looked like it might be a route to the top of a ridge I've been trying to get to for a few years. That's where we went today. I don't think we even got halfway up to the top of the ridge, though. That's OK. The view was terrific where we were.

Near the beginning of the hike, a couple of hawks kept flying over us and screeching. I don't know if they were screeching at us or at each other. Here's one.

From BC_2008_11_15

After a while, one of them perched on this rock and watched us for a long time.

From BC_2008_11_15

We stopped climbing when the trail got uncomfortably steep. This is looking up towards the ridge. It looks too steep to walk up.

From BC_2008_11_15

It looks like I could walk up this way, though.

From BC_2008_11_15

Or maybe over that way.

From BC_2008_11_15

You can see Spooky Hill, Horse Shoe Mountain, Red Mountain, Fountain Hills, and a bunch of other stuff in this picture.

From BC_2008_11_15

My GPS data logger seemed to work OK. At least I didn't have any trouble downloading the data this time. My position seemed to jump around a lot, though. I think the military must have been messing with the signals or data.

BC_2008_11_15

The other hill

A week or so ago, I climbed a small hill near Bush highway. I meant to climb two, but I ran out of daylight. Today I went to climb the other one. It's slightly taller. From the top, during lulls in the traffic, I could hear the "rapids" on the Salt River.

Remember the mines I found on the other hill? Well, I found some copper and gold deposits on this hill. I could see lots of copper, and some of these sets look old enough that their ICs might have gold bond wires.

From BC_2008_09_22

I found some bones on this hill, too.

From BC_2008_09_22

I didn't find any big mines, but I did find this shallow depression that somebody made many years ago.

From BC_2008_09_22

There were other signs that people had been there.

From BC_2008_09_22

I don't think those people drove the vehicle that this (chrome body side molding) came off of up here, though.

From BC_2008_09_22

On the highway side of the hill, there's a memorial to Joyce Ann Devree. When she died, she was two years younger than I am now. Gee, that seems so young.

From BC_2008_09_22

Click below to see all of the pictures, including dead trees, fungus, breathtaking landscapes, and deformed saguaros.

Red Rock Canyon

Suzanne attended a nursing conference is Las Vegas on Thursday and Friday. I went along to keep her company, to see Las Vegas (well, a little bit of it) and to explore the desert around Las Vegas.

I spent as much time as I could at Red Rock Canyon. It's at an altitude of over 3000 feet, which made it 10 or 15 degrees cooler than Las Vegas. Still, the time I could spend there was limited by how much heat I could take. When it's in the upper 90's and you can't get out of the sun, it's hot.

The first day out there, I hiked the Calico Tanks trail. It goes up the Calico Hills to a tinaja near the top of the hills. The rock there is formed from sand dunes that had piled sand over half a mile deep. It reminded me of Zion National Park, and it turns out that Calico Hills and Zion were formed from the same huge dune field.

Here's a video made as I walked along a narrow ledge to get around the tinaja. I really wanted to get to the other side and I thought this was the only way. I wanted a video in case I fell. Normally I wouldn't walk along a ledge like that, but there were other hikers around. I figured they could call for help (I had a cell signal up there) and my body would be out of the hills before Suzanne knew I was dead. Sorry about all the popping noises. I don't know what does that, but I've got to find out and stop it.

As I was standing on a cliff above the tinaja, a large bird landed on a ledge near by. I thought it was a red tailed hawk at the time, but I looked it up in our bird book and it's a peregrine falcon. Here's a video of the falcon getting a drink of water. Sorry it shakes so much. I was zoomed in all the way and couldn't stand still. Maybe I was still shaking from the stroll along the narrow ledge.

Sometimes (well, probably most of the time for me), pictures can't show things in perspective or how they look in relation to each other or how big or small things are. That's why I made a video walking up to the tinaja from the southeast (you approach from the northwest on the hike).

Oops, that video is broken. I've been having a lot of trouble with Google videos lately. OK, I guess I'll go on to videos I made at the Bellagio on our last morning there. The first is a cool fountain at the Conservatory.

There are several G-gauge trains set up there. Here's one.

This is a model of the Bellagio with a fountain in front.

I'm still having a lot of trouble with my video uploads. Until I get that figured out, here are the pictures.

Vegas_2008_06

Another contest!

Late today I saw something I have never seen before. I have never even heard anybody talk about seeing one of these. More about that later.

There were two general topics of conversation at work today. During the morning, it was the guy who apparently committed suicide by running across the freeway. He had to run back and forth several times before he succeeded. In the afternoon, people kept talking about how hot it was. It was only in the 90's. They've already forgotten what hot is. It was only about 90 while I was hiking. The gnats still weren't very bad, either.

I didn't want to do a lot of climbing today (my legs are sore from sweeping the driveway), so I decided to walk around Horseshoe Mountain and Spooky Hill. I forgot how many washes you have to go in and out of on that hike. Oh well, it was fun.

When I was almost back to the truck, I came across something that, as far as I know, is sort of unusual. The recent rain followed by an ATV spinning its tires created the perfect conditions for it. It's difficult to see, and almost invisible in the picture. I tried adjusting color and contrast to make it stand out better. Anyway, whoever can identify it wins a framed and autographed print of the picture of their choice (taken by me). Entries must be sent to my gmail address to count. Leaving a comment on this blog or my web album will result in an email being sent to my gmail address, so that will work. Contest ends at midnight (MST) Saturday, 5/31/2008. Oh, the contest photo is the last one in the web album for this blog. It's labeled "Contest photo".

BC_2008_05_29

Lens trial

I went to Bulldog Canyon today, thinking that I would experiment with various lenses and see which one or which combination was making my pictures look bad. I don't think it was bright enough, though. I can't tell much difference between any of the pictures. I need to go out to the lake on a sunny day again. I think some of the pictures turned out nice, though.

BC_2008_05_06

Deer!

There's a hill just north of Lone Mountain that doesn't look very exciting. I decided I had better go check it out and make sure I wasn't missing something. I also wanted to go someplace I hadn't been before. Since I was so close to Usery Pass road, there was a lot (relatively speaking) of trash around; empty water bottles, broken beer bottles, kitchen sinks, etc.

I was trying to walk quietly, which is hard to do when you are walking on crunchy rocks. I was coming up to the top of a hill and looked around and saw some deer. Here's a video of them.

It was very hazy today. Has been for a few weeks. You can see that in some of the pictures. Here are the pictures.

BC_2008_04_30

Zebra-tailed lizards are similar to cows

I was hesitant to go to Bulldog Canyon today. I thought it might still be full of the surly church crowd. I didn't think about it being Sunday until later, though. First I drove over to Saguaro Lake Ranch. It looked like I could park there, walk across Stewart Mountain Dam, and easily get to the top of the mountains that are just across the river from Bush Highway. No dice. Of course, I couldn't park at the ranch. That's for customers and that is understandable. There isn't enough room to have hikers parking there, too. And there ain't no way anybody is going to set foot on that dam. Since 9/11, anybody with a back pack that's near a dam is a terrorist hell-bent on the destruction of the American way of life. Anyway, I had a nice conversation with the pleasant woman at the ranch. Maybe I can talk Suzanne into spending a weekend there in cooler weather (they close when it's hot, anyway). They do provide canoes so guests can get to the other side of the river, but they don't let people hike alone. Good grief, I don't know if it's BO or my personality, but I can't get anybody to hike with me.

I thought about the parking areas at the Bulldog Canyon entrances being empty and decided to go there. I saw people on 3 ATV's as I was driving in, and that's the only other people I saw the whole time I was there. Nice. (Hmm, maybe it's my personality.) I headed for Spooky Hill.

I was planning to walk around Spooky Hill and Horseshoe Mountain. As I walked, though, I felt lazy and decided to just climb Spooky Hill. As I approached it, though, I felt even lazier and decided to see what I could find in Spooky Canyon. Next thing I know, I'm up on the side of Horseshoe Mountain, looking down on Spooky Hill. So much for going on a lazy hike.

While I was up there, it seemed that the buzzing of bees was exceptionally loud. Then I spotted a stream of bees spewing out of the side of a cliff. It was a little scary. I made a video. It's shot into the sun, but that way the bees show up better. Trust me, it's the only way you would have seen them after the upload compression. I didn't want to get too close to that hive.

You may be wondering by now how Zebra-tailed lizards are like cows. Down on the ranch (the one in Wharton), you can walk out into the pasture and the cows will run away from you. You can't get very close to them. Richard and I used to throw aerobies out there and try to get ringers on cow horns. We never did, but we figured we would have to use the truck to get the aerobie off the cow horns, because cows don't run away from a truck. I've had trouble getting pictures of Zebra-tailed lizards because they keep running away. As I drove down the road in the truck today, they just stood on the side of the road and watched. What is it about trucks that sets animals at ease?

At the beginning of the pictures, there are a couple of blurry pictures of a red tailed hawk. It came soaring up out of the canyon near where Suzanne and I had parked to watch the lesser nighthawks.

BC_2008_04_27

Traffic jam

Lindsey went out to Bulldog Canyon with me today to see the goatsuckers. We saw a bunch, but we could hardly hear them because of all the traffic. A church was having a father / son campout there and there was a constant stream of trucks going by. I even saw a couple of minivans. I would never take a minivan out there myself. I guess there were enough trucks to pull them out if they got stuck, though.

Lindsey asked one of the drivers what was going on. That's how we know it was some sort of church function. I wish she had asked what church it was. On the way out, there was a guy sitting on the (closed and locked) gate. He sat there as Lindsey opened the lock and the gate. I pulled through and stopped just outside the gate. Then a guy sitting in a large diesel pickup started his truck, as if he was going to drive through. I asked the guys if they had a pass. They dodged the question. If I let people in there that don't have passes, I could lose mine. I'm not about to give up my Bulldog Canyon pass for a couple of yahoos. Anyway, the pickup driver was very upset because I wouldn't let him in. I'm guessing he was one of the church members because he didn't cuss. He was extremely rude, though. What's up with that? He gets mad at me because I don't want to help him break the law and risk losing my pass? What a total and complete moron. The one and only thing I don't like about Bulldog Canyon is the surprisingly large number of idiots I seem to run into out there.

Sunset in Bulldog Canyon

Suzanne and I went out to Bulldog Canyon to see the goatsuckers again. I don't know why they're called that, but that's what the bird book says. I'm glad we saw them last week, because there were hardly any tonight. It was not a disappointing trip, though. The weather was fantastic; mid to upper 70's (and dropping fast) and a nice breeze. We saw an owl, too. It perched on top of a couple of saguaros. I tried to get pictures, but it was too dark. Here are the pictures.

BC_2008_04_23

Red tailed hawk?

I went to Bulldog Canyon (I know; "Surprise, surprise") after work today. I got out of the truck and looked up and there was a large bird (as big as a vulture) circling above a mountain ridge. It had different colors than a vulture, though. I tried to get a couple of pictures, but it was very far away. Suzanne checked our bird book and we think it might be a red tailed hawk. Before you look at the picture and scoff and say, "How could you possibly determine that from that picture?", remember that I have the full resolution picture and you don't. Nanny nanny boo boo.

While I was perched on the side of the ridge, I was looking to the north and noticed something unusual. What's missing from the picture below? Hints: I'm in the Sonoran Desert. They are all over the place (except here). It's rare to see such a large area without any; I think they may have been wiped out here by a fire.

Click below to see all of the pictures. I think I got some nice ones of some rocks.

BC_2008_04_22

A long hike

There is a canyon in Bulldog Canyon OHV area that I've tried to get to the end of on several occasions. I made another attempt yesterday. I took extra water. I took food. I started early (2 pm). I didn't make it. The further I went, the rougher the terrain got. I was accumulating scrapes, bruises, thorns, and rocks in my shoes. It turns out that I didn't take enough water, either. Remember a couple of weeks ago when I stood on a rock and it rolled out from under me? I was careful about that this time. I didn't think I had to be careful about rocks the size of a Buick, though, especially when half of it is embedded in the side of a wash. I had to climb over one of those to get out of a wash. I found a foothold and was on my way up when the part my foot was on broke off. What a surprise. I found a plant with lots of thorns (see below) when I landed on my side on the ground. I also have matching bruises on my shins now. I saw lots of cool stuff, though, and planned my route for the next attempt.

The forecast said sunny and windy. Bulldog Canyon was overcast and calm, though. Temperature was around 80, so it was comfortable.

Here's a bush I never really noticed before. It's covered with flowers now, and they are very fragrant. It smells like cheap cologne. The first time I smelled it, I stopped and was looking all around for a rhinestone cowboy. I couldn't believe that smell could be natural.

I saw a lot of these lizards. I think it's a whiptail of some sort, but I can't figure it out for sure. I didn't see them until they were running to hide from me, so I didn't get any good pictures.

I've been close to this cave a couple of times. Maybe next time I'm out there I'll hike on up to it.

These plants cover the desert now. They are everywhere. I used to think that they made me itch, but yesterday I discovered they are covered with thorns. At least the thorns come out easily. See the full set of pictures for a close up of the thorns.

On the way back to the truck, I followed a wash for a long way. I did that because I was tired of those thorny plants and going up and down and up and down and up and down... My ankles were actually tired from the rough terrain. I followed it too far, though, and came out close to the Salt River, which is further north than I wanted to be.

From there, I headed in the direction of the truck. I wound up on top of a large plateau. I spotted the truck on the other side of a canyon with veritical sides and crawling with rattlesnakes.

The snake was a nice surprise. It gave me a shot of adrenalin that got me the rest of the way back to the truck. I posted a video of the snake yesterday.

Click here to see all of the pictures.

BC_2008_04_19

Rattler

I didn't just seize the day today. I throttled it. I'm worn out. I'm not going to have my pictures ready to post before I fall asleep. I did get a video uploaded, though. This gave me a shot of adrenalin that got me the rest of the way back to the truck. Listen to it rattle as it slithers away.

While I'm posting videos, here's Cameron. Do you know what he's saying?

Lesser Nighthawk video

I've been having some trouble with Google Video the past couple of days. Hope this works. If you turn the volume up you might be able to hear the birds.

First look at Boulder Canyon Trail

As you approach Canyon Lake from the west, you can see a trail going up a mountainside on the far side of the lake. I've been looking at that trail for years and saying I'm going to hike it some day. I finally got tired of hearing me say that and today I went out there and checked it out. It's a great trail. It's heavily traveled, so it's wide enough to hike with shorts if you want to (you won't be getting cholla balls embedded the the backs of your legs).

It was in the low 80's while I was out there, and very windy. I had to use the chin strap on my hat. I was out there in the early afternoon, so I had to have my hat on. I spent 4 hours on the trail. A lot of that time was spent taking pictures and movies (about 150 pictures and 5 movies). It's taken me a couple of hours to decide which pictures to put on the web album, geotag them, etc. The geotags may not be very accurate. The trail is in a low resolution area of Google Earth. It isn't possible to tell where the trail is on the map.

I think I hiked about 3 miles. It felt like 6. My legs are tired and my feet hurt. I'd be out there again tomorrow if it weren't for work, though. The views are spectacular. I saw dozens of lizards. One of them is an Eastern Collared lizard. It's the most beautiful shades of blue, yellow, aqua, etc. Suzanne even thinks it's pretty, and she used to cover her face whenever a picture of a lizard came up on the computer screen.

I tried to get a movie of a zebra-tailed lizard. They run a little and when they stop, they wave their tail back and forth in the air. I never caught one waving his tail, though.

I think I'll have to wait until tomorrow to add the movies to the blog. It's getting late and I'm tired and it might take hours to upload the video. I'll try to identify the rest of the lizards tomorrow, too.

There were a lot of people on the trail. I saw at least 10. Most of them looked like they weren't having as much fun as me, though.

Bldr_cnyn_trl_2008_03_30

A new mystery plant

I went wandering around in a relatively flat area of Bulldog Canyon OHV area today. I saw, but did not get a picture of, a roadrunner, a deer, a cottontail, and a plump, brown jackrabbit (they are usually gray and ripped). I only saw one lizard today, too, which is strange this time of year. It ran across the road, holding its tail up high.

I crossed several small washes as I walked. Just about every one of them had horse prints in it. Horses cannot go anywhere in the desert without leaving a trail. I worry about the damage they are doing to the cryptobiotic soil. At least the riders seem to stay in the washes when they can. Anyway, I was wondering if deer ever dig up the soil when I ran across some deep deer prints in cryptobiotic soil. They don't usually do that, though. Their hooves dig in when they jump over something, but there are surprisingly few deer prints out there, considering how many deer there must be. I know there are a lot of them because there are places where they pass between mountains to get to water, and the ground is solid deer prints in those areas. Boy, that's a lot of yakking about one picture of a deer print.

I took a lot of pictures of one kind of plant. It's a very small plant that I have never noticed before. What is unusual about it is that it seems to be covered in something that looks like spider silk. Anybody that can identify it wins an autographed print of one of my pictures. Get busy, though, because you have to identify it before I do.

BC_2008_03_26

Odd saguaros

I forgot to mention in yesterday's blog that when you are hiking on Picketpost Mountain, you never get away from the noise of cars and motorcycles on 60. It was kind of annoying. So today I thought I would go out to Bulldog Canyon for some peace and quiet. This was the first time I went out there this November. The combination for the gate locks is changed every month. The combination on my pass didn't work at either of the gates I tried. I figured my feet were too achy from yesterday's hike to get to a quiet spot in Bulldog Canyon without driving, so I just parked near the Salt River and wandered around there for a while. I found several saguaros that had something strange about them. Here are pictures.

2007_11_04

Picketpost Mountain

Date: November 3, 2007
Location: Picketpost Mountain, near Superior, Az.
Time and temperature: Start - 1123, 82
End - 1718, 78
Elevation change: 1757 feet
The numbers:
51 Pictures taken
7 Other hikers seen
6 Times I lost the trail
4 Times I seriously thought about turning back

Ramblings: Wow, what a hike. What a killer of a hike. I did have fun, though.

I started out by starting too late. I should have shopped for supplies last night. It was a little warm by the time I got on the trail, but it wasn't hot enough to be a problem. The problem was limited daylight. A sign said the parking area closed at sunset. There was a caretaker there that would probably have my truck towed if I was late getting back.

The trail was not bad for the first mile or so, except for how far away the mountain looked. I kept thinking that I wouldn't want to walk that far on level ground, much less on ground that looked like it went straight up. Then I met Conrad. He was sitting in the shade of a large rock on the side of the trail. He was waiting for his son and grandson to get back from the top. He seemed embarrassed that he had to sit there and wait. He talked about training with a heavy pack and coming back. He turns 75 next month. I think he's doing pretty darn good.

Just past Conrad's rock, the trail got steep. Then it got steeper. The trail was also difficult to follow in places. It's marked with cairns and paint spots, but a lot of times I would be walking (or climbing) on what seemed to be the trail, and it would just end. I would look around for a few minutes trying to find a trail marker and sometimes explore a little ways in various directions before I found it again. One of those times was when the trail was going up the middle of the canyon and up ahead I could see that it was nothing but polished rock going almost straight up. I might be able to climb it, but it looked too risky. That was one of the times I thought about going back. I looked around and saw that the trail went to the left, though, so I continued my quest.

There were also times when I knew I was on the trail because I could see markers up ahead, but the trail still looked treacherous. Several times I had to stand there and pick a route, take a few steps, then stop and make sure the route still looked like it would work from this new vantage point. Sometimes I would stand there planning the next 2 or 3 steps and going over the plan again and again before moving. The trail was sort of scary on the way up.

At about 2 in the afternoon, I stopped to have a snack. I got to thinking about how much sunlight was left and thinking that maybe I should turn back now. I got out the GPS to see how far I was from the summit. It was 0.3 miles distant and 400 feet higher. I thought about coming back next weekend and realized that the memory of how difficult the climb had been would be too fresh. I had to go on; it's now or never.

The rest of the way to the summit wasn't too bad. There's a mailbox full of notepads for people to write stuff at the summit. A note written on aluminum inside the door of the mailbox explains its history (see the pictures). The note reminds me of Dad's humor.

I figured I should leave the summit at 2:30 to get back to the truck before sunset. I got to the summit at 2:40, though. I took a few pictures and left at 2:51. That reminded me of going on trips with Dad. Drive for hours and hours, stop and look around a few minutes, then drive back.

The hike back down was really scary because I could see what I had my back to before. I would be walking along a steep downward slope and it would look like it ended at a sheer cliff ahead. Sometimes that was because I had lost the trail. Sometimes it was because that's what the trail was like. Well, I didn't have to go off the cliff, but I would turn up ahead or it wasn't quite as bad a cliff as it looked like. I was going slowly and carefully. Fortunately, my thighs didn't start cramping until I was back down to Conrad's rock. I felt relieved because the trail wasn't nearly as steep from there on down to the parking lot. It was a lot steeper than I remembered, though. It was a shame I had to hurry. I think I could spend several days on that trail taking pictures of all the neat stuff.

I Geotagged all of the pictures, but the ones in the canyon are just guesses. Google Earth isn't detailed enough there for me to figure out exactly where I was.

Picketpost_2007_11_03

Burning tires

Date: September 20, 2007
Location: Lone Mountain, Bulldog Canyon
Time and temperature: I forgot to look
Elevation change: 750 feet
The numbers:
50 Pictures taken
200 "Film" speed, dag nabbit
67 ants photographed
3 golf balls found

Ramblings: My truck is filling up with golf balls. Maybe I should take up golf so I can get rid of them. Oh, heck, I should just go throw them in a water hazard and save a lot of trouble.

There was a fire today that filled almost the entire valley with smoke. It was pretty ugly. I was headed for Bulldog Canyon and decided to climb Lone Mountain to see if I could get some pictures of the smoke.

As I started up Lone Mountain, I noticed occasional yellow ribbons tied to palo verde branches. Looked like somebody was marking the trail, but the trail seemed much more prominent that it did last time I was up there about 2 years ago. I don't climb it much because I don't like the noise from the nearby gun range or Usery Pass road. Somebody had also placed a lot of cairns along the trail As I got closer to the top, the trail had switchbacks. Somebody had put a lot of effort into the trail. This wasn't some hiker doing something just for fun. It's a very nice trail.

There is a bench (I think) at the top that has "EJ Peak" written on it. I don't know who named it that. It's still Lone Mountain as far as I know.

Several times over the years, I've taken pictures of ants because I thought it might make interesting computer wallpaper. The ants didn't stand out, though, so the pictures just looked like pictures of dirt. I think I've figured out how to make those kinds of pictures work, though.

BC_2007_09_20

A cloud

Date: August 23, 2007
Location: Meridian Road
Time and temperature: Nineteen hundredish, one-oh-eightish
The numbers:
26 Pictures taken
1 Cactus thorn in my foot
1 Helium birthday balloon retrieved

Ramblings: Wanna hear a funny story about my yard? OK, but anyway, I haven't been giving the yard the attention it requires in order to make the HOA happy. We decided to hire somebody to take care of it for us. Well, it's been almost 3 weeks since the last time he was here. He says it's been too hot for his crew. They can't work all day. So I mowed the front yard today. I know I couldn't do that all day.

It's that time of year when it is not only hot, but also humid, and the constant heat just wears you down. All week long, when I would get home from work, all I wanted to do was stay someplace cool. So sad. It's like I'm getting old or something.

While I was mowing, I saw a really nice cloud to the south. I hopped in the truck when I was done and headed up Meridian to get some pictures. Sorry about all the power lines. I didn't have time to get to where they wouldn't show up.

Sunset_2007_08_23

Oh, and just for completeness: