I was watching a show on TV today about an old woman who shot alien spacecraft creating colorful light shows in the Canada sky, with an 8mm camera. Squiggly lights would suddenly appear in a single frame of an 18 fps camera, like they were drawing something in the sky. So, I took a picture of it off my TV screen and did that funky photo thing I like to do, and this is the result.

My new read arrived in the mail today, it's called Signs, the Secret Language of the Universe and it's all about recognizing messages from loved ones and spirit guides from the Other Side. I did a quick glance through it this morning and I saw a piece about the significance of coins, and I instantly thought about my Lucky Nickel.

I can't even remember where I found it, or when, but it was decades ago. I've always carried it my wallet, stuck down in a little crevice where it would never fall out, and always transferred it to each new wallet. Where's my nickel? I frantically thought!

I bought a new thin wallet last year and threw my old one in a drawer, so I went and found it. When I opened it, there was my nickel sitting up on the edge of a pocket. It had dug itself out of it's crevice and was sitting up there like Get me out of here, damn it!

Looks like a sign to me...

My Zip Code tools are being used a lot, but I have no clue where. 56k+ hits is significant. If anybody reading this knows why, please hit me up (gmail = tetonpost).

My poor cat Piper hates the Garbage Monster. She hated it in Idaho and she hates it here. She's actually becoming an outdoor cat, loving the nice weather and the quiet neighborhood. She spends hours lounging around on the sidewalk keeping watch on her hood, until the monster arrives, and then she disappears into thin air.

David Crockett State Park is only two miles from my house and a great place to mellow out on a nice Saturday afternoon in Tennessee.

I guess you know the end is near when you spend your afternoon scoping out burial sites and I found this very nice place off the Old Florence Pulaski Rd. I've often maintained that I don't want to be burned, just stick me down in the ground (without a casket if possible) and put a marker down, just like Jimmy's.

Melissa made me a banana cream cake for my birthday with exactly 73 little brown things all over it. Very cool, very pretty, and delicious!

Birthdays don't mean much to me anymore but they are good for reflecting on how things have changed since the last one. So, this time last year I was hanging out on the deck of the Idaho house, sitting at the glass table soaking up the sun, listening to Lucas Nelson on my Echo and feeling very lost.

I had just returned from Washington State realizing that I couldn't afford to live there and a trip down to Arizona was pending, but the truth was, I just couldn't see living there either. We had to be out in a month and I needed a place that would accept Piper and the things I was taking with me had to fit in the back of my little truck.

It was looking pretty bleak and the thought that I would end up in a nice little place in Tennessee with all my stuff, and my cat, never got close to crossing my mind, but here I am a year later and I'm doing fine. Thanks god!

Sparky was the mascot for the Lawrenceburg Touch-A-Truck yesterday.

Lawrenceburg put on a little event in the town square today called Touch A Truck where the good ol boys brought their work trucks down and let the kids climb up in them. I met with Steph's clan and we had a good time. I made some new friends at the local radio station and Dillan chatted with some Army recruiters. Click on sugar-face below to see some shots.

I'm still fine-tuning my new camera settings, these were a little flat for my taste. By the time I hit the ocean I will be ready.

I have a new website that I started last year, ran into coders block, and ultimately stopped working on because nobody looks at my stuff anyway. For what it's worth, here it is: 4xMaps.

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, I share my story. I was three days shy of my 23rd birthday, attending the old Merritt College on Grove Street in Oakland learning how to program a computer. Earlier that day I played tennis at the campus and as a lark I walked out on to the street and stuck my thumb out to hitchhike into Berkeley.

A tall gorgeous black chick picked me up and we spent the afternoon visiting her radical female friends around town and I got a real earful about the current state of the black male. She was studying law at Berkeley and we ended up at the apartment she shared with her infant son.

As Neil stepped off the ladder I was laying on the floor of her living room in front of a TV, with my head resting on her naked thigh. Everyone alive at the time has their story, and this is mine.

P.S. I actually remember what I was wearing that day: white tennis shorts and a white t-shirt. What was I wearing when man landed on the moon? Nothing...

This is the new travel rig I've put together for my upcoming cruise. I picked up the Asus Netbook for under $200 during the recent Amazon Prime sale, with 64 gig of storage, 4 gig memory, and Windows 10. I've installed a 128 gig SD card for program storage thus it has plenty of internal room and it's damned snappy I must say.

Attached is a four port USB 3.0 hub from which I run a new little 2 terabyte hard drive and come Saturday I'll have a small USB lamp to plug in there. I'm also getting a Micro USB to USB-C cable since the netbook has a C port.

So here's how it works: At the end of a cruise day I'll hunker down in my cabin and download all daily photos and videos from the camera (using the USB-C port) onto the external drive. Then I'll use the editing tools I've installed to process the selected photos for the blog, upload them to Flickr, and create the post for the day. Then I'll wipe the camera card clean for the next day.

Eight days, eight posts, titled Cruise Day 1, Cruise Day 2... with hundreds of high quality shots. I'll handle the videos when I get home.

My new Sony E 18-135mm f3.5-5.6 OSS lens arrived today and I love it. It's made for my camera so focusing works together perfectly, even while zooming and capturing video. I would be out and about shooting with it today but I'm busy setting up my new Asus netbook for the upcoming trip. Too many tools, too little time...

Update: Took a moment to shoot my stressed out little creek.

The old laundry place I use has been around for decades, so it makes you wonder what it used to be? Or maybe the sign was just reused.

Tropical storm Barry is right on top of me. I'm the dot...

Chalk up one more item on my bucket list, I just booked a cruise! It sails out of Miami late next month and goes to Key West FL, Costa Maya Mexico, Belize City Belize, Cozumel Mexico, CocoCay Bahamas and then back to Miami. Eight days on the Royal Caribbean Empress of the Seas. I got a terrific deal on a cabin that has no window or balcony (just a place to shower and sleep) and without any single supplement (the amount they charge if you travel solo), which can be up to 100%. Total price including taxes (and meals): $667.80!

Update: Just booked a cheap R/T out of BNA for $134.60.

Here, let me loan you my ceiling fan.

Checking the mail, again...

A couple interesting mushrooms appeared on the lawn today.

Caught my little buddy the groundhog popping up out of his hole.

What...

Update: Piper entered our lives in June, 2011 but she had a few years on her before that so I just called her vet in Idaho and had them lookup her birthday. Sept, 12, 2005, so she will be 14 in a couple of months, which actually makes her right around my age in human years.

Just strolling thru the South, and yes Jim, you're not in Driggs anymore...

I grabbed Steph from the air-conditioned animal shelter today for a little company and we drove to the Shiloh National Military Park past Savannah, TN. A famous Civil War battle was fought there and a lot of men died. Click on the tombstone below to see what we saw.

The most famous (and disputed) battle of Shiloh was called the Hornets Nest where the Union troops were hunkered down in a grove of trees and held off the Confederate Army, allowing Grants forces to strengthen from the rear and ultimately win the fight. Look what I found inside of a canon!

Update: Melissa asked me if I really got that close to those bad-asses and I said yes, my Sigma lens is not a zoom. I woke up this morning thinking that maybe I got lucky yesterday :-)

Not much happening locally for the 4th of July so I drove up to Franklin, TN this morning to check out their little downtown event. I must be getting jaded by large festivals like Cornucopia in Kent because this one bored me. I took a few shots which basically became test subjects for resolution and compression settings on my new rig. Click the photo below to see them, if you like...

Tori's first bike ride. 7/30/2013 Driggs, ID

From original: dropped wind blown audio, stabilized, zoomed and cropped.

Cayenne, Turmeric, Garlic, Ginger, Pepper, Hawthorne Berry, Ashwagandha Root, Gotu Kola, Soy Lecithin and Amla, blended up in water.

Dumping the trash, to it's own beat...