A Strange And Dramatic Dream

This morning, immediately before waking up, I dreamt that I was watching a magic performance.

 
The magician held up a life-size cardboard cutout of a dog, turned away from the audience for a moment, then turned back to face us with a real live dog.

Even as the audience was still applauding, the magician turned away and back again -- in his hand now was a human skeleton.  It was smoking.

The audience applauded even more enthusiastically, and I said to my companion (a composite figure of two of my coworkers) that the smoke was a fantastic touch.

The magician had one more trick up his sleeve though -- he turned away and back once again, and now the skeleton was in flames.

This reminds me of a dream I had a long time ago.  I was gingerly picking my way through a mine field.  The field was strewn with human skulls.  The skulls were bombs, and they were burning fiercely.

Beauty. And Earthworms

Number of worms rescued :  67

Head In A Fog

Fuzzy-headed thinker, that's me,

Moonstare

Wet Blue Bunny In The Parking Lot

More On Insubstantiality

A shadow and a paint stain, expressing a ghostly negation.

Oy

It drizzled throughout the night and early morning today.  In the parking lot at work I found a bunch of stranded worms, all within a short distance of each other.  I took them and duly deposited them in the wet earth, then on the way back to the office I came across a bunch more.  I took them and duly deposited them in the wet earth, then on the way back to the office I came across a bunch more.  I took them and duly deposited them in the wet earth, and thankfully on the way back this time I didn't encounter any more for the time being.  I think there were 14 in all, though I can't be certain.

EVEN I WAS A LITTLE SPOOKED BY THE BIG FAT ONE AND THE REALLY LONG ONE

 Number of earthworms rescued:  61

Another Favorite

I really like this one.  The way he eyes those unimpressive horns of his that he can neither show off nor get rid of -- with such emotion -- reminds me a little of me.  O.K., so he's old and gnarly.  But he is crotchety.  Like me.

A DWELLER IN ONE OF THE LESSER NARAKA

Another Rescued Worm

This one is actually from several days ago.  I forgot to upload it amidst all the holiday distractions.

Number of worms rescued:  47

2 Different Kinds Of Insubstantiality

A shadow contemplating a stain.

WISTFULNESS

Hole In The Head

More Iridescence At Year's End

PEEK-A-BOO!

Related Post:  Last Iridescent Cloud Photo Of 2010

2 Random Floating Objects

Related Post:  Rainy Day

Iridescence

The longed-for Sun

Incandescence

The Next Panorama

After The Rain

It rained in the early hours of the morning today, so the ground remained wet through most of the forenoon.  And on the wet ground there were these very beautiful things.

And of course, wet sidewalk means stranded worms.

When I come upon a worm that's lost out of the soil and in danger of drying out, my usual practice is to take it to a grassy area, dig a little depression in the moist earth with my finger, place the worm in it and lightly cover it up.  Until now, though, I did not know if that was the best way to help the worms;  this one assured me that I have been doing the correct thing all along -- as soon as it hit the earth it started to burrow in.

Number of worms rescued:  46

Disappearing Trick

Another disappearing pole!

Hummingbird In Winter

When I found out that hummingbirds hunt insects for a living (the nectar-drinking is just to fuel their blurry-fast wings) and that while some species migrate to warmer regions for the winter months, others winter in California, I was surprised and delighted.  Turns out, they are tough little predators!

Anyway, several days ago I happened upon a hummingbird in a tree while out on a walk and was able to take a shot of it before it flew off.  It was a rare treat because I had not seen any hummingbirds for months, and was not expecting to see any until next summer.  Then Monday evening I spent a good half-hour searching for the photo, but it proved maddeningly and mystifyingly elusive.

This afternoon as I walked again through the area where I took the shot I began to wish the creature would return for another take;  and Lo! -- like magic, a hummingbird zoomed in out of the blue and alighted on a branch of the tree directly in front of me.  Again, I had just enough time to take one shot.  So I guess this photo could well be posted under Synchronicity.

A Glut Of Flooded-Out Earthworms

The wet weather continued into Monday, and I was able to help 6 worms that had become lost in the parking lot at work.

Number of worms rescued:  45

A Dark Crown

Cold Light

Another Worm Rescue!

Yesterday it drizzled/sprinkled/misted off and on -- mostly on -- all day long.  I appreciated all the wet, and I guess the earthworms did too;  there were three of them within a few feet of each other in the parking lot at work.  I dug a little depression amidst the grass and dumped them all in together (I was a little pressed for time) before lightly covering them with damp soil.  I hope they didn't fight.

Number of worms rescued:  39

Another One Of Those

Once again, two small eddies in the cosmic ocean converged by chance, and the resulting wave washed over me.

The other day I happened to come across a book of poetry composed by a 19th-century Japanese monk called Ryokan.  I opened it at random and there was a map of what used to be known as the province of Echigo, where the man was born.  I had never heard of the place before, but anyway this is what the region looked like, courtesy of the internet.

Not in the mood for poetry at the moment, I put the book down and picked up another.  It was the Zagat survey of restaurants in the Los Angeles area, 2013 edition.  I opened it at random, and first thing, there was an entry for a sushi restaurant called Echigo.  Below is an image of the place, from an internet street view.  From what I can see here, it does not resemble the province in the slightest (but maybe there are references to the region inside the establishment?).

I looked up the name -- just because -- but there was nothing that meant anything to me.  There are people named Echigo, and apparently there's a brewery in Japan called Echigo, plus an Echigo-Matsunoyama Museum.  I am familiar with another sushi restaurant called Matsu no Sushi that used to exist in Little Tokyo, but I suppose that's neither here nor there.

Just out of curiosity I also looked up Ryokan, and found this picture of a statue of the man.  It's beautiful.

Magnetic Pole

ATTRACTIVE HAZARDS

Small airplanes have been known to be attracted to the magnetic fields of electrical structures such as transmission towers and cell trees and become stuck fast.  This light pole near my office is a well-known hazard to air traffic.  Strangely though, it only pulls from right to left -- never left to right.

I guess that makes it one of those fabled MONOPOLES that physicists dream about.

Related post:  Marooned In The Sky

The Secret Language Of The Earth (Pt. 13)

As to the meanings of these spontaneously formed 'words' of the Earth, I would hazard the following guesses:

Top Image = 'Dance Taste' (in pseudo-Chinese, to boot)

Middle Image = 'Complete' or 'Stable'

Last Image = 'Pixie Pants'

Related Post:  Just a Fun Post

Balancing Act

To avoid getting burned by the object of one's love, one must learn to maintain a delicate balance.

Last Crane Update

What 101 miniature paper cranes look like, in differential states of order and randomness.

In a high-entropy state:

In a low-entropy state:

With the addition of this batch I think I've passed the target number of 1000, but of course I have to do a head count.  At this point you would be justified in wondering, Why didn't Sam keep a running tally as he was making them?  Because organization is an entropy-lowering activity, and Sam's mind is an inherently high-entropy system.