Finally Rain!

My only friend...the rain!

From October to Afternoon / 145 Seconds / The Light Pours Out of me

Xmas is here! / Art is near! / Kitties are dear!

Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye A Little

These last two are the last pictures I ever took of Tweed and I together. The first one is really the last time we got to play, taken late Sunday evening. He used to do the cutest thing and pull my hand towards his chest with one paw when he was feeling better and let me rub his tummy-this is the last time I got to do that with him although my hand is out of camera sight, it is lying gently more against than 'on' so I didn't add any unnecessary weight. It had been a while since he had done this particular behavior so Sunday night, the last night he seemed to be hanging in there, I got out my camera. I got out my phone. I took copious pictures. Tweed managed not only to tolerate me snapping in his face(on silent mode of course) and taking several videos, including what turned out to be his final vocalizing, taken Saturday night. I will forever be thankful to Robert for not only being my pillar through all this, covering the financial aspects and being with me tuesday. If he hadn't suggested this I would have been so wrapped up in the 'now' I wouldn't have had any space to think about recording anything. I even managed to capture something I rarely did on film which is him swishing around his little paw in his water bowl before drinking. IN all these years I had never managed to get a shot. He somehow was actually strong enough to stand on three legs(he wobbled a lot though) with one paw in the water, then in his mouth, then back in the water until he finally felt safe to drink. more is coming but i am out of energy to write anything else tonight

Mr. Mooshy Face

New Kitty Pix

one of Nate sleeping and one of Tweed and Nate negotiating for a timeshare on their brand new kitty condo.

Gutterman's Starry Night

More Santa Fe Memories

A picture of my favorite guy...with his feet in an ancient river
In one of the best places on earth...having a wonderful time.

One On One in A Future World

A man and his meoooow!

Cat Six Feet Up In A Bookshelf

Tweed hitting the books, 1999 (note yellowpages for scale)

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things...

Something Cute

from sometime in November...

This Charming Man

This Charming Man - Morrissey/Marr

A punctured bicycle
On a hillside desolate
Will nature make a man of me yet ?

When in this charming car
This charming man


Why pamper life's complexity
When the leather runs smooth
On the passenger seat ?


I would go out tonight
But I haven't got a stitch to wear
This man said "It's gruesome that someone so handsome should care"


A jumped up pantry boy
Who never knew his place
He said "return the ring"
He knows so much about these things
He knows so much about these things


I would go out tonight
But I haven't got a stitch to wear
This man said "It's gruesome that someone so handsome should care"
Na, na-na, na-na, na-na, this charming man ...
Na, na-na, na-na, na-na, this charming man ...


A jumped up pantry boy
Who never knew his place
He said "return the ring"
He knows so much about these things
He knows so much about these things
He knows so much about these things

Salty-tures

Pretty-tures

Picky-tures

Make It In The Straight World Part II

Thoughts on a Lizard

There were two lizards once.
They didn't have names.
Just lizards really,
not big ones.
Just simple
alligator lizards.
Part of the ecosystem.
Eating bugs.
moss, other smaller lifeforms.
Everyday they were there.
I would find them.
Everyday.
Some days sunning themselves.
ravishing in the
scorching sun.
Other times
hiding in dead
christmas trees,
hidden as if
branches.
sleeping,
for the fog
must be lifting
I saw them.
Many places
adjacent to
where I was working.
thinking.
smoking.
breaking from
the tyranny
of lifting 50lbs
bags of cement
no place to vent,
no one to hear
my desperate cry.
anguished, trying
to figure out
what was wrong with me.
why couldn't I be
purposeful in my
existence?
Why was I left
hobbled by doubt
and here
where two lizards
bathed, eating
mud and bugs
achieving a level of
perfecting I
could never know.
I fed them.
Gave them crushed bugs
to eat.
playing my
own part
in the bigger scheme
of things.
I admired their
persistence.
existence
on a much simpler
plane-freed from the
notion of nothingness
of emotional turmoil.
not embroiled by
tribulation.
Beautiful, eternal
perpetual and
timeless.

I figured the lesson was there before me if I wanted to learn something. I still think about the level of calm these two lizards(obviously a pair-a male and female-their skulls are very different in width from male to female)exhibited while I either held them or moved them repeatedly. I often acted in their own best interest over my own while cleaning a rather large yard side area full of debris, including making sure that no cement dust was left on the soil-which can burn their skin and making sure I checked each large piece of trash or dead wood as I scrapped it-so that they didn't get 'bagged' or crushed in the removal process. This caused a few stirs with Mark but I don't care. The animals were more important to me. They lived with truth and I felt deserved the right to live. The chance to let nature take its course, not be wiped out by one man's carelessness. IN my mind there is no greater life form. all living things have a value and a worth. Even though I eat meat and consume my fair share of resources as a human being-I like to think that I do my best to co-exist with nature and my place in the food chain and to show other living things I come into contact with respect-even when I might be eating them.

I referred to them as Jack and Jill because they were always on the hill together.

And yeah, this IS that lizard.



Look at that Stare!! Like he wants to kill your whole family and THEN burn the house down. Notice to the mice-you WILL be eaten!!

This is the female.



even though she was smaller she was still a good 11 inches in length. he was almost 12". There is probably a crude dick joke in there but I'll let it go for now. ;)

The Cuteness!!

After nearly 14 years these two still spend time with one another, grooming, playing and romping(though less romping for Tweed lately)and as always they are so photogenic its just WRONG!! And this pictures says a lot about the two of them. Tweed looks rueful and suspicious while Josquin is like "Hey! Look!! A CAMERA!!"

Love them to pieces...they help keep me together.

Composition in Black and White (Jazz solos for orchestra)