We left at 7:15 this morning to begin our long trek to San Antonio.  We met up with Kathy Romanos in Georgtown, KY (near Lexington) for dinner at the Golden Chorral buffet.  Pretty good.  We’re now in Horse Cave, KY at the Hampton Inn.  We’re just under 100 miles from Nashville and have approximately 12 hours of driving tomorrow in order to get to Alvarado to meet Rhonda Owen.  I doubt we’ll make it for dinner, but we’re still planning to meet for breakfast.

Random Info (times are estimated):

Ohio must be the speed trap capital.  I swear that was at least one cop every 5 miles.  Sometimes there were two, sometimes 3.  They were catching people left and right.  Luckily other people kept them busy and I didn’t have any problems.

7:15 a.m. – Burdett, NY – 63F

12:00 p.m. – Cleveland, OH – 72F

1:30 p.m. – Columbus, OH – 88F

3:30 p.m. – Cincinatti, OH – 94F

5:15 p.m. – Georgetown, KY – 84F

The tour was interesting, but many of the buildings (like, all the good ones) were off limits. The best, by far, was the morgue. The others were in decent shape and some are still in use…so they are clean and freshly painted. Not the filthy dirty, chipped paint, and old asylum furniture we were really looking to shoot. Kind of disappointing… Plus, it started raining around 1:30/2:00 and eventually downpoured. On the way home it rained and there was some nice bolts of lighting ahead of us, where we live. By the time we got back to town a storm (wind shear?) had come through and wiped out many trees (some on vehicles) and phone poles. One electric line was smoking in a field and part of it was on fire. No damage at either of our homes, though, luckily.

Here are a few snapshot from the handheld through the window.

Apparently there was a tiny little article in the newspaper about a bald eagle release taking place today at Clute Park.  Luckily, the officer at our building’s front entrance told me about.  Since I don’t normally bring my camera with me to work, I had to ask my parents to drop off my camera bag, which they did.  Jenna, my coworker/friend, and I headed down to the lake, arriving just before noon.  We found a large crowd of camera wielding people.  There was everything from point and shoot cameras to SLR’s to news cameras.  We noticed the truck and headed in that direction.  The explained that they’d be removing the bird from the crate in order to band and tag it.  They needed everyone to move back and be quiet.  The procedure took approximately 10 minutes.  Once banded, they carried the bird towards the lakeshore.  Before releasing him, the man talked a little bit about the bird.  One fact that was interesting to learn was that an eagle’s bite is equivalent to 1,000 pounds of pressure.  Ouch!

As they released the eagle, he flew off quickly and seemed to be doing very well.  It actually gave me goosebumps!  Then he started to circle back around.  He wound up landing in the lake close to the shore.  He sat, just floating, for about 10 minutes.  As the tide slowly brought him closer to shore and he began using his wings to swim to shore, which was pretty cool.  He made it to shore and just sat for a minute.  The DEC man grabbed a net and approached.  I guess he thought the bird may not be ready to fly off afterall.  Just as he was going to net him, the eagle took off again.  He appeared to fly towards the bridge and road, which was worrisome, but we think he wound up under the bridge.  We’re not sure.

We had to leave and head back to work.  First we had to pick up Jenna’s lunch at the deli.  She said she heard inside that the DEC and animal control had left the lake shortly after we did.  They must’ve thought it was safe to leave the eagle since it has no real predators, other than humans.

I’m so glad we were able to see this incredible event…and to think I almost didn’t go!

So, we may never know for sure…  Dang!

First, let me start near the beginning.  We all know each other through our photography and we sometimes go on outings together.  Vinnie let it slip one day (3-4 years ago) that he enjoys taking photos of flowers.  There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, but it did open a door for Bill and I to pick on him.

One day while shooting waterfalls Bill had his fisheye lens on and took a shot of Vinnie.  Bill Photoshopped some makeup on him, added french nails and changed his coat to purple.  When I got it I added a Minnie Pearl hat and ever since then Vinnie’s been known as “Vinnie Pearl”…or “Pearl” for short.

Fast forward to September 2008.

Some bison were let out about 25 miles from my house and wound up on our lawn a couple times.  When my two goats saw them they freaked out and ran towards their shed where they stopped and went to the bathroom out of fear!  I told Vinnie about it because I thought it was funny.  Knowing about our upcoming trip to the Tetons (9/13-9/21) and my mother’s fear of bears, Vinnie then asked, “Is that what your mother’s going to do when she sees a bear??”  I told my mother, of course, and she said, “Oh really…he said that?  I’ll fix him!”

So, as I was planning my trip, Vinnie was planning his, too.  You see, he had chosen the week after me and we didn’t even know.  Not only that, we would both be spending time at Signal Mountain Lodge!

Once my mother realized we were staying at the same lodge, she put her plan into action.  She purchased a pair of underwear knowing that we’d later buy a chocolate bar and create some “skidmarks” in them (as if she saw a bear) and leave them at the desk for Vinnie. LOL  We were leaving the lodge on Friday and he was arriving the next day.  It was perfect because he had asked if I could leave the literature he let me borrow with the front desk.  So, we put the “soiled” undies in the envelope with the literature.  I asked the young lady at the desk to give the package to Vinnie the next day.  I also asked if she would help me “get even” with him by playing a joke on him.  She was very eager and more than willing.  “Oh, we’ll get him for ya!!”  So, I wrote up a little note as we left the lodge that Thursday morning.  My instructions were clear…when Vinnie goes to check in, tell him you can’t find his reservation.  Let him panic for a minute and then say, “Let me check again.” and then, “Hmm, we don’t have a Vinnie Collins, but we do have a Pearl Collins.”

I called Vinnie at the lodge Saturday night from Denver.  I couldn’t believe it, but the girls actually did it!  Vinnie said he was like, “Umm, yes, you do have my reservation.” and the girls started giggling.  When he heard “Pearl” he knew he had been had!  He found the underwear in the envelope and had to admit that we really got him good.

Mom and I returned home on Sunday and I immediately called Bill.  He was cracking up at our little prank.  I told Bill, “Wait a day or two and call Vinnie at the lodge with another prank.  What can we do??”  We came up with yet another plan…!

Bill called the lodge and asked for Vinnie’s room.

B:  “Hello, Vincent Collins?”

V: “Yes?”

B:  “This is Jack from the front desk.  I’m sorry to inform you, but we believe your vehicle was just involved in a minor accident.”

hehe…  I’m not sure what was said by Vinnie next, probably a “What happened?” or something, but Bill wound up saying,

B:  “We know it was your vehicle by the woman’s underwear we found inside.”

V:  “YOU ASSHOLE!!!”

What was really funny about that is Vinnie confessed to Bill that he literally had just walked in the door a few minutes before he called.  He said he parked a little crooked or too close to the car next to him and thought, “I should probably move my car a little.” but then decided it would probably be fine.  Ahh, the stars aligned!

So now fast forward to present.

April Fools’ Day is tomorrow and Bill and I have been scheming.  We decided to use that famous “Vinnie Pearl” photo for a poster.  We came up with the VISA card theme of “PRICELESS”.  On Saturday I sent out 15 color posters along with a note to the attention of the receptionist.  We requested that the posters be hung around the building and distributed to coworkers.  bwahaha!  He’s going to kill us.  So, if either of us come up missing or dead, Vinnie Pearl did it!

Here’s the poster (clickable thumbnail):

Last week two showed up at the neighbors’ place and tore down part of the cows’ fence.  He called the bison owner who came out.  I’ll leave out the sad and controversial part, but will say that none of the neighbors will be notifying the owner again.

Here’s some pics from this morning.  All three are males, the largest weighing probably 2,000-2,500 pounds, we guesstimate.  The other two are smaller (not shown below), maybe two-thirds the size of the big one.  We hear the big guy is named “George”.

It’s kinda ‘wild’ having these buffalo running around!

Several years ago I looked after a friend’s house and took care of their fish while they were on vacation. I don’t remember how many died on my watch, but I wound up buying quite a few to replace them. Luckily, the kids were old enough not to be traumatized by the loss.

A couple years ago I had been saying that it might be nice to have a little fish on my desk, so Janet (my coworker) bought me a little goldfish for my birthday. I named him Nemo. Nemo lasted a few months and then we walked him to the bathroom where we said a few words and flushed him down the toilet. Poor Nemo…

A few months after losing Nemo Mel, another coworker, brought me a blue betta fish to replace Nemo. I named him Finny Fin Finnigan – Finny for short. Bettas are pretty hardy and he seemed to handle things well. Last Friday I noticed he had one bulging eye, which, after a quick internet search, revealed he had a bacterial infection aptly named “popeye”. So, over the weekend I went to Petco and spent seven bucks on fish meds in hopes to get him well. It wasn’t meant to be, as when I arrived at work this morning I found Finny laying sideways at the bottom of the bowl with his face smooshed between the decorative rocks. Popeye killed Finny. And so, once again, I took the walk to the porcelain god and flushed little Finny into fishy heaven. Now my coworkers think I should give up on fish and perhaps try a hamster. I don’t think that’s a good idea though…if a hamster died on a long weekend, that would surely stink up the place. Fish don’t do that.