Back on the bike — Day 2: My hiney hates me. It dreamt of sitting on the soft, wide seat of a Harley Road King instead of the thin, hard saddle on my Dean Titanium. My prostrate filed a law suit against me — charging abuse — while my legs looked longingly at the graves as I rode by the cemetery on Old Church Road, envious of the souls resting in them. Now my bones, muscles and joints are conspiring against me. I reminded my body that we have been through this many times before, and that all parts airing their grievances will soon come round and be happy that I’m riding again. They’ll come round eventually, but they’re determined to make me suffer in the meantime!  BTW The Jack Rabbit was a no show.

Back on the Bike — Day 1: After 10 miles of battling wind, and the humiliation of losing a 25 meter sprint to a Jack Rabbit, my prostate and periwinkle are paralyzed, my thighs are throwing tantrums, my knees have nothing nice to say to me, and my calves are contemplating cramping. The sky, clouds and sunset were beautiful; the rabbits foraging along the roadside, and the lizards scurrying about to get out of the way of my tires, and the birds riding the wind above me were great distractions — I had a wonderful time. I told the Jack Rabbit to meet me same time, same place tomorrow for a rematch.  Oh! I almost forgot.  I’m scheduled to be de-ported next month.

 

This tiny spider turned out to be quite fashionably dressed and color coordinated with Laurie’s purple cup it was getting a drink from.

I spent all morning at the Cancer Center to get the results of my PET scan. I’m still in remission; I will have another PET scan in 6 months and I can get my port taken out — all great news, but I got worn out waiting for it. Dr. Marshall said they are short on doctors, which had her running well over an hour behind schedule this morning.

 

This mantis had been molested by the cats before I got home. We couldn’t see that it was hurt, but it was friendly and had no problem posing for the camera.

 

 

Our day was full of teaching, studying, cleaning house, and then entertaining family this evening. When I came back inside this afternoon from taking out the trash, the light on the vase and Petit Prince caught my eye. Laurie reads Le Petit Prince to Stretch and me while we waterboard Stretch. It’s great French practice and a nice distraction for Stretch.  I got the back-lit hollyhocks on my way back from one of my trips to the trash while cleaning the house this afternoon. The circle cuts in the petals make nice shapes, and a little grasshopper poked his head out from one of the hot pink hollyhocks to see what I was doing when I was composing the image. I don’t think the grasshopper is responsible for the circular cuts in the leaves.

Tristan and David had their annual solstice party tonight. In days of old, the Vikings celebrated solstice by sitting around the mead hall drinking, eating, messing with their swords, making up icelandic sagas and fighting. In the modern age, we sit in the living room drinking, eating, messing with phones, making up call center sagas, and fighting. Apparently not much has changed over the past thousand years or so.

While I was photographing all the action tonight, I noticed Laurie’s shoes sitting on the oriental rug and thought they would make an interesting photo. When I pointed my camera at the shoes, everyone started yelling at me not to photograph them, then called me a weirdo for photographing the shoes. They recanted on the photo and agreed that it was interesting when I showed it to them on the camera’s screen, but they still think I’m a weirdo.

The above butterfly landed on the flowers on the edge of the deck this afternoon. It sat there with its wings together for a long time, but I wanted a photo of it with its wings spread, so I finally touched its wings lightly and it opened them up for this photo. At first we thought it was newly emerged from its cocoon and drying out, but when I was looking at the other photos of it from different angles I noticed it had part of one of its legs missing. There were lots of different bees, wasps and flies hanging out on various plants this morning. At the end of the series is a photo of Rosencrantz reclining.

 

I believe this beetle is a Pine Sawyer Beetle. It had a standoff with my macro lens this morning. The moth in the second photo is well camouflaged in  color as well as B&W — I liked the charcoal look of the B&W.  Our white lilies are blooming. These may be some of the Easter lilies I planted last year after they finished blooming inside.

 

 

 

Mermaid is putting on some nice blooms. If you haven’t heard, the bosque is on fire in part of northern Corrales, but mostly burning on the east side of the river across from Corrales. There is lots of smoke.

Austrian copper put on a second bloom, which is really late and really out of the ordinary for Austrian Copper.

 

 

 

I went for a walk in the bosque tonight and realized it was the first time I’d taken my new carry camera to the bosque, and this is the first photo of the Sandias from the edge of the river I’d done with the XPro-1. Photos of the Sandias from the river bank have been among the first photos taken with my other cameras. This photo is frame number 1021, so I’ve really neglected the Sandias and Rio Grande over the past few months.

My port cooperated and returned blood from each side when I went in for my monthly port flush this morning. I have a PET scan on Thursday and a doctor appointment next Tuesday, so if all is well, then maybe I can have the port removed.