Snagless Slim

@scarycricketranch.com

287 Followers 459 Following

Professional Computer guy, newly interested in fountain pens, and typewriters, terrariums, long time hiker, houseplants, propagation, musician, birds, one particular classic car, reproductive health supporter.

This is not my art. My good friend Jeff Cook drew this during Reagan’s time in office. Another cartoon showed him (Bonzo) driving a car, a completely wrecked smoking junk heap, labeled “the American economy” into a tree, rock, (or something similar) with caption, “this could be a sign of trouble ahead!” Probably right around the time he raised taxes, contradicting his pledge never to do so. And don’t get me started on the feckless response to the bombing of the marine corps barracks in Beirut. Or, holy fuck, his response to the AIDS crisis and the way he turned his back on Rock Hudson. AND the first American President who was divorced! In fact he was the only divorced president until…
Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck As a student. A musician who played piano, cello and organ. He wrote operas and had perfect pitch. He was advised not to go into theoretical physics, since the physical universe had already been completely discovered.
A blazing red sun! Why so red tho?
A roasted chicken. The near (left) wind has several pin feathers visible. There’s some carrots in the juices and underneath some onions and leeks not visible. It’s resting in a schlemmertopf on an old electric stovetop
A (young?) hawk interrupted in the bath….
Same van, “ we try…”.
Sign on the side of the ”white van”, saying, we try harder and phone.
Stolen image of a spotted moth clinging to a pencil. White, with black polka dots
A picture of me with a large catfish. I’m the one in glasses
A story from twitter. Sherri Turner posts. I added alt. “I look at my mom‘s old house on Google maps Street view, the house where I grew up. It says “image captured May 2009“. there is a light on in her bedroom. It is still her house, she is still alive, I am visiting every few months on the train to Bowman Parkway. Her little pink car will still be in the garage, but I will have taken a taxi from the station, and when it arrives, she will be standing in the doorway, smiling, and waving, some more smaller than the last time I saw her. We will play Scrabble and watch tipping point and”
It’s a terrarium with a little isopod in there. This one moved away from the glass towards the interior. The yellow globs are going to be crawling around soon.
It’s a terrarium with a little isopod in there. This one from the underside. Notice anything in frame?
It’s a terrarium with a little isopod in there.
A moss farm in a brandy snifter. This is several pillow moss growing together. It looks a little brown on one side. There’s a not moss plant in there too. The snifter is on a speaker cabinet, and there’s a towel on the floor and a lamp and some books in the background.
Walter Ufer painted the original. This detail of a reproduction cracks me up every time I walk by it. The title is “Paint and Indians” dated 1923.
Detail of an oil painting featuring an indigenous woman, looking skeptically at the artist who is painting her friend
Kelvin-Helmholtz (fluctus) clouds https://scied.ucar.edu/image/kelvin-helmholtz-clouds WX weather
A neon sign, “LIVE” ( this part in blue ) “ON AIR” ( this part in pink ) glows outside my outer office door.
A small sign stating, “Sound Restricting Door Seal U.S. Patent No. 3221376 Can Patent No. 723925 Overly Mfg. Co. Los Angeles, Calif.
Portion of a chart showing that nearly 30% of white voters over 64, in New York, voted for Mamdani. Please do not discount them
A small display outside a shop in Tokyo. A nice (Jade?) plant and several small items. In Japan, no one steals your shit.
A vial of cyanocobalamin 1,00 mcg. It stands in front of the prescription bottle indicating it is to be injected “under the skin” once each w eek. As an aside, this was prescribed, and approved by insurance, and filled. However the _syringes_ were _not_ approved by insurance and needed to be purchased at cash price. (Which was nothing for us, as we are frequent fliers and are well known to the staff of our most wonderful pharmacy!)
This is an image of a sunny day in Colorado. We see a blue sky, the sun shining, specular rays pointing out the clouds. Artifacts in the upper right lend a wash of mystery to the scene. It could be anywhere. If the Hubble telescope were here on earth, maybe this is how it would see our star
The Capital dome and cathedral spires. The cathedral was once struck by lightning! A shop owner from across the street had dashed over and grabbed some of the debris. Personally. I blame the archbishop, who was a complete ass!
A view of Denver’s downtown. These are reversed i.e. the left image is of the area to the right of the right image.
A few single petal roses, with sweetpea flowers twining around. Irises in the foreground who have not bloomed yet this year as we’ve just transplanted them. Some sage and an old hurricane fence behind.
Orange street in Tokyo. A night scene. The pavement is painted orange, it is raining lightly, the pavement reflects the light from shop windows and cars. A couple is ready to cross. A parked car faces us. The shops are all closed. We can see several blocks down the canyon created by tall buildings. The air is chilly, it was warm earlier but the rain has cooled the night air. It’s time to head back to the hotel now (why do I keep saying, “home”?) to try to sleep. My hours are all wrong. It’s 11:00 pm now, and I’ll wake again at 4:00 am and nothing will be open. When the sun comes up I’ll go out and watch a man wiping the rain from the seats in the park. I may or may not be able to find my way to the coffee shop where they use a vacuum device to make delicious coffee. “Strong and to go!” I say, making little walking legs with my fingers. They don’t mind that I don’t speak Japanese. The woman stirs the sugar in for what seems like forever. Slow circles first one way, and then the other. She hands me the cup and I walk on… The post office is still closed. ¥140 to send international. I already have the stamp and letter written but I don’t know where it goes. I should have sent one to myself, to see the postmark. I could write a letter and never open it. time stops
We had a brief (but limited) conversation. She asked us if we knew why Japanese people are so punctual. Apparently the answer is, “The JR”! Japan Railway is the modern, “they make the trains run on time.” Their response to the militarism of their past is fascinating. As a complete aside, the most recent cohort of graduates have a 98% rate of finding employment after leaving university. I don’t know the level of overall unemployment but I think it is probably higher than in the United States. Apologies to those who prefer the alt text be limited to only descriptions of the images
Video taken from the Shinkansen
This is the seat-back display showing our flight, current status location? Pretty much everything except altitude we are just over 1/2 way to Los Angeles from Denver.
A goldfinch at the water dish. A huge (by comparison) sparrow nearby
Lion’s Mane mushroom
A rainy day in Denver, taken through three panes of glass at maximum magnification. A baby finch looks over the edge of its nest. The nest is built on a holiday wreath which we did not take down.
A bush of small white and pink flowers
An aspic with embedded hot dogs, pickles, and some set of relish
Several irises
An image which appears to me as a woman’s naked torso, head, cape and hood
Two daffodils whispering secrets while a third looks away.
Val Kilmer’s signature under the words, “God Bless”. This inscribed in my copy of “Eden after Burns”, by Val Kilmer. It is addressed to my mother-in-law, who went before him.
AI will tell you “narcissus” but I think daffodil
White flowers on a tree against a blue sky. AI tells me it’s a plum. But we’ll never know as these trees produce no fruit
An average human produces enough saliva in a lifetime to fill two swimming pools.
Miniature crocuses. These are purple. One is poking up through a hole in a brick and another is growing around the brick. All lying in a bed of leaves.
A link to a YouTube and the “cover” of a “record album”. What follows is the German lyrics (original) and a kicker. 99 Luftballons (German)
Hast du etwas Zeit fuer mich
Dann singe ich ein Lied fuer dich
Von 99 Luftballons
Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont
Denkst du vielleicht g'rad an mich
Dann singe ich ein Lied fuer dich
Von 99 Luftballons
Und dass sowas von sowas kommt

99 Luftballons
Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont
Hielt man fuer Ufos aus dem All
Darum schickte ein General
'ne Fliegerstaffel hinterher
Alarm zu geben, wenn's (sie?) war
Dabei war'n da am Horizont
Nur 99 Luftballons

99 Duesenjager
Jeder war ein grosser Krieger
Hielten sich fuer Captain Kirk
Das gab ein grosses Feuerwerk
Die Nachbarn haben nichts gerafft
Und fuehlten sich gleich angemacht
Dabei schoss man am Horizont
Auf 99 Luftballons

99 Kriegsminister
Streichholz und Benzinkanister
Hielten sich fuer schlaue Leute
Witterten schon fette Beute
Riefen: Kring und wollten Macht
Mann, wer hatte das gedacht
Dass es einmal soweit kommt
Wegen 99 Luftballons

99 Jahre Krieg
Liessen keine Platz fuer Sieger
Kriegsminister gibt's nicht mehr
Und auch keine Duesenflieger
Heute zieh ich meine Runden
Seh' die Welt in Truemmern liegen
Hab' 'nen Luftballon gefunden
Denk' an dich und lass' ihn fliegen Also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2YPpA1KQPQ
A sign saying “Happy Pi day! Free pie right inside 11a-12:30 or while supplies last “ The sign is on an arrow shaped whiteboard sign. It’s outside a building where, you guessed it, they are giving away pie. I had to decline, leaving additional pie for the others.
A bottle of Algae Cooking Oil. Orange text on a beige background. The caption reads, “Better for cooking, better for you.” It tells us it is a clean neutral oil, is seed oil free, has a smoke point of 535 F, and contains 13G of Omega-9.
Early Crocus flower, yellow with green leaves and a background of dried leaves
Screenshot of a text message. There’s no subject, and the only contents are a file named, “file_1740678920213.pdf”. Under that is a warning, “the sender is not in your contact list”. I didn’t blur the number because they don’t deserve any privacy.
A clump of Blue Oyster mushrooms, which will become part of tonight’s meal.
Same plant but farther away.
A closeup of the pink flower on this African Violet. The color cast shows the bloom and the wall behind more pink than they actually are.
A car pulled up next to me in traffic. A very amateurish version of “flames” painted on the side, with a note explaining “flames”.
What is this thing in this tree?
A mated pair of bald eagles, sitting in a tree. Kay Eye Ess Ess Eye En Gee!
Microsoft screen saver of the day. 2/4/25 and apparently the year is nearly over! They say, “The end of the year is upon us once again and holidays are coming up”. They are not correct
Rapacious.
The same animal. A small hawk, sitting in a Hawthorn tree, scanning for prey. A very serious sort of glare.
This hawk has been hanging around all day. They need water as much as anyone. It’s tough though, to see one of your other birds killed and eaten. Sometimes I take down the feeder, but with the cold weather it’s kind of a wash. By the way AI tells me this is a Coopers, but I think it’s much too small.
Me in my warmest coat! I’ve just come in from watering the birds. Water is more important than food for wild animals, but must be kept clean and fresh or may spread disease. My coat is Swedish and rated to I don’t know how low. It weighs like 40 pounds but it is _WARM_! Here in Colorado, we consider this a dry cold, enough to bundle up, and definitely need long pants and maybe a jacket. NO exposed skin. I’m overdressed here, but I just tumbled out of bed. That’s my bathrobe underneath. Tomorrow it’s supposed to be a bitter minus 10 Fahrenheit, even the hardiest will be suited up. (Or stay inside if you can! Out on the plains, windchills could get as low as -30 F! I think of our ancestors, who had nothing warmer than wool, and uninsulated homes. (Unless you count paper to cover the cracks in your thin wooden walls.) Not to mention the indigenous, who had only animal skins and how they survived I can only imagine! This is stock show weather! I remember stomping around the coliseum, which is (or was?) made of concrete and colder than the proverbs say.
My decorated wall at work. An image of a T-Rex-ish looking dinosaur embracing a smaller figure of a knight in shining armor (me) with a sword. Sorry about the non-inclusive neckwear.