Monadnock

big - bigger - biggest

big - bigger - biggest

Enchanted Rock, a monadnock, or, as the wikipedia page states:

The prominent granite dome is visible for many miles in the surrounding basin of the Llano Uplift. Its gentle dome gives the appearance of being the edge of a pebble of leviathan proportions extruding from the earth, in the same manner as the larger Uluru in Australia. The rock is actually part of a segmented ridge, the surface expression of a large igneous batholith of middle Precambrian material that intruded into earlier metamorphic schists and gneiss.

Mmm… schists and gneiss, sounds like something I could order at a bar. In the fotos, more of which you can find in my foto stream, I was playing around with the brown/golden tint acquired by placing my polarized sunglasses between my camera and the scene. I thought it looked good when I was on the rock, but once I got home, I realized how much detail I lost. Must have been a preliminary signs of heat stroke, or a vertigo affecting my color balance.

i only get to come here once a year

San Antonio, TX — Happiness is the after-effect of lunch at Mother’s Cafe and Garden: garlic-laden breath from the unassuming–and delicious–chips and salsa appetizer. Its everlasting effect revives the memories of many happy meals.

I was in Austin yesterday, for a few hours. Before, I was hiking at the Enchanted Rock. Those pictures are pending approval from my editor, in the meantime:

Shooting in the South

San Antonio, TX — To my left, a man and his two elementary school-aged children (one boy, one girl) shoot a variety of weapons, including an ear-piercing, gut-wrenching, sonic boom-inducing rifle not unlike an AK-47. The blast from that gun sent shivers down my spine every time. Further down, a lone gunman shoots a semi-automatic assault rifle and a nine millimeter handgun. Good ol’ boys. I think I’ll stick to my soothing .22 level-action rifle.

Can you feel the heat in this image? I could.

And yes, I did hit a bulls-eye, but only one. My shots started as a cluster that was consistently low, then consistently high, then consistently on target. It was on the last cluster that I finally hit a bulls-eye. It was as if I were performing a simulated annealing algorithm with my rifle.

Incidentally, though I am left-handed, I shoot right-handed. I recently learned that the left-handed Chilean writer, Roberto Bolano, played futbol right-footed. He attributes this to an array of confusions in his life, including confusing left and right. I too confuse left and right, and I too blame the confusions on something stemming from handedness. Must be the left-handed human condition.

A Walk in the Dark

Boy it’s hot out. Two women drenched in sweat and donning three digit numbers on their chests just walked into the cafe I am sitting in looking for another cafe. They say they are talking part in the Rochester version of the Amazing Race, “What is the amazing race?” I ask myself. Apparently it is a TV show, I am so out of touch with the people.

A few days ago I took a walk, as I normally do, in the early evening hours. I suppose the cool blue glow I see dancing on the walls of the houses I pass could have been the Amazing Race. I always want to take a picture of the light show, but I imagine a person wouldn’t take to kindly to a bearded stranger photographing into a their home.

Nevertheless, on this particular walk the power to the city street lights and a few residential blocks was out. It was very bizarre because it took me a few moments to realize what happened. I enjoyed the rest of the walk in near darkness with passing cars destroying my precious dark adaption time and time again. I am certain the fools had on their brights, that or the contrast was so stark.

Without thinking, I went to the grocery store. As I continued home the power was on again, the street lights casted there sodium hue, and the ice cream I purchased, melted in my bag. In other words, it was all wrong, the night should have remained dark.