While I was standing by the fence photographing the sun as it slowly fell through the clouds of smoke, Harry chicken was peeking at me through the fence. He had quite the do. I asked him if it was much trouble to keep his hair that way, but he just gave me a look like “what are you stupid or something?” and then gave me the sped gesture with its wing across its chest.

Our neighbor’s acacia is looking good, and a crow flew over cawing and cawing as he swooped by me for a photo as he flew south. I’m not sure what got him going. He was sitting on a dead cotton wood before he swooped by, startling the hummingbird I was sneaking up on. Maybe the crow was warning the hummingbird that a human with a great big lens was sneaking up on it.

I was sneaking up on the hummingbird a second time, when Puck started a fight with the neighbor’s tabby that was stalking me yesterday. In a flash, Rosencrantz and Lola joined the fight so all I could see was a ball of black cats with an occasional flash of tabby.  I got the cats separated, but didn’t see the hummingbird again.

The little bird on the post sits on a post or power line then flies out all of a sudden and nabs one of the dragon flies swarming about. If you look closely, you can see the dragon flies in the photo of the sun shining through the smoke.

We had an infestation of cats tonight. Both the neighbor’s cats were over, plus the other black cat that’s been hanging around. Lola, their little black cat, followed me around the garden tonight, and rubbed on me while I was doing photos, making it difficult to get anything in focus. When the neighbor’s tabby noticed I was photographing him, he started stalking me. He was confused because he doesn’t really trust me to get very close, but he could see Lola rubbing on me.

Then the other black cat that’s been hanging round, but keeping its distance from me, decided I was okay tonight and started rubbing on my legs, meowing at me and letting me pet it. It let me pet it once before, but I think that was a tactic to get Rosencrantz to accept it. Once, I’ve petted a strange cat, Rosencrantz accepts it and doesn’t run it off. After the initial petting some weeks ago, it kept it distance until tonight. There’s a photo of that kitty on the “Losing My Religion” blog. I don’t know who it belongs to, but it is healthy and well fed, but spends a lot of time around our house.

When I went out and called Puck tonight, Lola, the tabby and the mystery black cat all answered the call. So I had three cats that don’t belong to us and no sight of Puck. Puck eventually got up on the roof, and came in after Laurie came out to inquire about which kitty was on the roof while I was out photographing the sliver moon.

While I was making rounds in the garden in the midday heat, I found three of the cats lounging and Stretch hunting. We went to Tristan’s to celebrate the 4th and I got a photo of Pepik talking to her.

Just when we thought it was safe to go back to church, we had our intelligence insulted by screens in the “traditional” service this morning. Call me a snob, but I don’t think I need to be treated like a theological special ed case when I go to church. I can plainly see and hear that the choir is singing the anthem. When the pastor says “bow your heads” 99.99999% of the time a prayer will follow. I don’t need a set of screens telling me it’s “prayer time!”   I don’t know what compels churches to treat adherents like kindergarteners, but I find it offensive and I won’t be treated as such.

About ten years ago, I tried to go along the whole “contemporary” service thing. I even played in a Praise Band for awhile. However, it didn’t take long before I couldn’t deal with the vacuous words and idiotic gestures that went with praise songs — Imagine singing “Our God is an awesome God… He reigns from Heaven above…” with a bunch of teenagers wiggling their fingers and moving their hands up and down gesturing rain.

The choir performed a fabulous rendition of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” this morning, the whole time the screens blaring “Chancel Choir: Battle Hymn of the Republic” The problem with screens is that even if you try to ignore them, they are in your peripheral vision, which makes them even more annoying.

I don’t understand why people want to take a beautiful sanctuary with stained glass windows all-round and a grand pipe organ, and make it ugly with screens — I guess H.L. Menken’s  “Libido for the Ugly” is universal.

Stretch’s creatinine level is much better, but still double the high end of normal. He’s gained some weight, which is great, and he was all claws when I put him in the kitty restraint bag to water board him tonight. He also growled at us while we water boarded him, which is also a sign he’s improving.

I attempted to upgrade the hard drive in my Macbook Pro to a 750 GB drive today, but it didn’t like it.  I knew there was something not right about the drive when I got a kernel panic after I finished restoring the files to the drive from the backup and restarted the computer. I finally got it to boot, but it ran really slowly and the drive was really hot. I’m reluctant to try another 750 GB drive, because I found several other people had experienced the same issues, even though the drive is supposed to be compatible with this Macbook Pro. I’m returning the drive and looking at other options such as network area storage.

When I went out to look for Puck tonight, there was a baby porcupine hanging out by the deck. I ran back in, grabbed a flashlight and my camera, but it crawled under a rose bush before I could get in photo range, so all I got was a photo of its tail under the rose bush.

I left the office without my Macbook this afternoon and remembered I had left it when I was almost home. I went home, water boarded Stretch, grabbed both cameras and headed back downtown to get my Macbook.

I arrived shortly after sunset and set out with cameras in hand to see what was happening on Central between 3rd and 6th streets at dusk on a Friday. People filled the bars along Central, while others milled around waiting for more people to show up to party. Cars poked along Central with an occasional Harley rumbling along between them. A couple of guys asked me if I knew where any bars were, which seemed a little strange to me as I pointed out two bars and a strip joint within 100 feet in front, behind and across the street from where we were standing.

Three cool bikers hanging out at the library asked me to take a picture of them. I couldn’t refuse. I’ll be interested to see if they contact me for copy of the photo.

There were a couple of musicians playing for tips. The guitarist/singer with ARC on his guitar case was pretty good. The woman playing trombone for tips was at the level that you would pay her to stop playing rather than listen to her for any length of time. The young women sitting outside the smoke shop seemed too occupied with their cell phones and cigarettes to notice the trombonist.

The most interesting place was 405 Central. The DJs were setting up for an outside gig, playing loud music while the corner window displayed a variety of tantalizing images projected on it from inside. The woman walking up to the DJ checking his phone was sitting at a dial-a-ride booth in front of the homey in the lavender shirt when I walked by on that side before taking the photograph.

Vendors were set up on the corners of 3rd and Central and 4th and Central to provide normal fare to the bar hoppers. The lead photo was set up in front of Nick’s Restaurant at 4th and Central.

I was thinking of going to the Jemez or Belen for the 4th of July and having a weeny roast!  One of the problems NM faces with wildfires is that most of the land in NM is owned by the Feds and the State. None of it is very well-managed, so lots fuel in the form of undergrowth that should be cleared doesn’t get cleared, and fires go viral when it’s dry.

The Corrales bosque is thick with underbrush and dead branches that should have been cleared years ago, but Corrales doesn’t seem to have the resources or interest to clear it, and they especially won’t let individuals in to clear it, so we have a tinderbox and potential for a huge fire only 500 feet from the property.

Laurie was explaining the “hairy ball” theory (topology) to me: that you can’t comb the hair on a coconut all the same direction because you get a point that’s a “cow lick.” But we can apply the “hairy ball” theory to real life; for example, if we can find the point where there is no wind inside a multi-directional wind in the Jemez on the 4th of July, that will be the perfect place to have a weeny roast, even in the middle of a fire.

The cats have been getting on the treadmill after Laurie to show her how it’s supposed to be used. Laurie got a shot of Stretch taking a breather between sets. Melody Parfumée, while not in perfect form, had a nice lavender color tonight.

I was trying to photograph Stretch lazing out on the high plank in the kitty jungle gym in the catio, and he simply stuck his paw out for me to talk to.

Matador was looking pretty good tonight and Pillow Fight has huge clusters of roses.

Last night we were sitting on the deck talking, when Laurie got up and said what’s this? I pulled out my flashlight and it was a wolf spider with a bunch of baby wolf spiders clinging to her back. I gave Laurie the flashlight and grabbed my camera, which I had on the table. The spider seemed to be attracted to the light and posed while I photographed her.

Our weeping lavender red bud was nicely backlit against the gazing ball for a moment when the sun peeked out between the clouds. Otherwise, the light was pretty dull tonight as dry thunderheads blew in from the west.