Morning errand: early voting . Between the house and the voting location, one American flag was at half-staff. When turning into the voting facility, their flag was at half-staff. When I see a flag at half-staff, I want to know for whom it has been lowered. After voting, I inquired until I found out that the half-staff flags were for the fallen police as this was national police week.
Outside the polling location, I pulled out of the rather long lot onto a neighborhood service road which I like to drive because it is tree lined and a peaceful dive on to the lake.I noticed this guy walking his bike and bending over trying to catch something. In my mirror I watched as he was holding this turtle.
Since I submit data sheets to Texas Department of Wildlife on killed box turtles or other sitings, I turned around and drove back to the polling location. Putting down the passenger window and calling out to the guy,"Is that dead or alive?". The guy replied that it was," alive." I ask him if I could take a picture of it. He said that I could. I parked and jumped out of the car. He hardly wanted to stop; explaining that he was taking it to the stream behind the voting location and that it was an Alligator Snapping Turtle, an endangered species. I shot the picture and away the guy took off on his mission again. At least, I did get a picture. Getting back in my car, I took out again on my original journey to have breakfast at the lake.
It was then, that I knew that the day was going to be a bit out of socket but not a total loss. The voting machine was slow to cast my vote. The flags were at half-staff, the turtle guy was on a mission and being somewhat grumpy, But hey, I had already cast my ballot in the primary this year! Something had been accomplished this morning.
As the day moved into lunch time and then early afternoon, I had run into four photographers at the lake. On the way home, I calculated that the combined total of MM of lenses I had seen was 1785MM! That's what was visible, not including lenses in backsacks and cases. In fact, I had in backpac two 55's and a 40. That raised the total to 1930. That's a lot of lense power, brother!
Outside the polling location, I pulled out of the rather long lot onto a neighborhood service road which I like to drive because it is tree lined and a peaceful dive on to the lake.I noticed this guy walking his bike and bending over trying to catch something. In my mirror I watched as he was holding this turtle.
Since I submit data sheets to Texas Department of Wildlife on killed box turtles or other sitings, I turned around and drove back to the polling location. Putting down the passenger window and calling out to the guy,"Is that dead or alive?". The guy replied that it was," alive." I ask him if I could take a picture of it. He said that I could. I parked and jumped out of the car. He hardly wanted to stop; explaining that he was taking it to the stream behind the voting location and that it was an Alligator Snapping Turtle, an endangered species. I shot the picture and away the guy took off on his mission again. At least, I did get a picture. Getting back in my car, I took out again on my original journey to have breakfast at the lake.
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| Alligator Snapping Turtle (Loggerhead) |
As the day moved into lunch time and then early afternoon, I had run into four photographers at the lake. On the way home, I calculated that the combined total of MM of lenses I had seen was 1785MM! That's what was visible, not including lenses in backsacks and cases. In fact, I had in backpac two 55's and a 40. That raised the total to 1930. That's a lot of lense power, brother!
