If I could Be Any Animal...

If I could be any animal, what would it be? 

Now, that's a tough one. 

I'd want to keep my fingers and definitely want to be able to fly. I don't like bird food so... How about a flying monkey like the ones on Wizard of Oz? That would be perfect. I wonder what they eat???

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Santa Rant 2015

I can remember exactly where I was standing when Bonnie Gang convinced me that there was no Santa Claus. 

Bonnie is someone I had known since my first day of kindergarten and had been a trusted peer for about four years. One day, around Christmastime, she seemed to have a message of deliverance that she wanted to share with me in private.

 We were standing in the West Elementary library, where the top of the stairway meets the long wavy wall that divides the upper and lower library. Bonnie had always been smart, and that gave her message credibility. No one else seemed to be there as I pondered the evidence and came to conclusion that she was telling the truth and that Santa is a Big Fat Lie. 

Time stood still as a deluge of emotion washed over me. Initially, I was embarrassed that I had so faithfully believed the lie, but most of all, I couldn't understand why the lie in the first place? 

The lie was elaborate too, and everyone was in on it; parents teachers, siblings. I remember lying in bed on Christmas Eve, listening to the Santa's sleigh update on KCPX AM radio, that supposedly tracked the magickal giftsman on radar. Even the media was in on the deception.

Is it good for children to be deceived on such a grand scale?

   

Bunny Boy Halloween

Where, oh where has Bunny Boy gone? 
Where, oh where can he be? 
Did he find his missing brother, Harvey? 
Did Bunny kill the Beast and save the world? 
Did good triumph over evil or did the corporations win? 

A whole lot of folks have been wondering.

Well, that's a whole lot of questions, and maybe it's no one's damn business what Bunny has been up to. But since you asked... the fact* is, Bunny recently turned up near the shores of the Great Salt Lake in Utah, behind the Zion Curtain. 

Apparently, Bunny had long overstayed his welcome at the old Balfour place in Erda where he had been staying as a guest of an old friend, Merdis. Bunny finally did find Harvey though. Maybe. Bunny said that he saw a guy who "looked an awful lot like Harvey" on Temple Square in Salt Lake City. He was passing out Book of Mormons, or Books of Mormon, (I'm not sure which). He looked a lot like Harvey. Bunny was almost 100% convinced it was him but was too scared to talk to him. The cat had his tongue. I'll bet that hurt.

Bunny was still fast asleep in the guest haus, (actually an old shed he shared with a wheel barrow and other burryin' tools), when Merdis arrived to evict him. Bunny got dressed and announced that he was heading to Santa Cruz, CA for Halloween and immediately departed on his long journey across two and a half states. 

Bunny saw lots of interesting things whilst walking across the desert; salt water, rocks, dirt, even some bushes. The Jack Rabbits were all unfriendly and didn't want to talk to him though. That made Bunny sad. 

Half way across Nevada, Bunny's feet were tired so he decided to take a rest at the Bunny Farm. It wasn't what he expected, and he didn't get any rest there, but he did get off his feet for a while. 

Bunny decided to hitch-hike the rest of the way and the nice folks at the Bunny Farm gave him a square of cardboard to make a sign. Bunny borrowed the official Bunny Farm magick marker pen and wrote upon the cardboard. Everyone figured he'd write "Santa Cruz" or something like that. But instead, he wrote: "Hi, I'm NOT crazy" so that people would know that he isn't crazy. That'd help him get a ride, he thought. 

Before long, a blue Subaru, not sure what kind, (they all look alike), stopped and gave Bunny a lift. It was a nice woman named Edweena, and she was going to Santa Cruz too. She told Bunny that she's a yoga instructor there. Bunny told Edweena all about the bunny pose and made her promise to incorporate it in her own yoga routine. 

Bunny talked Edweena's ear off. He had a few stories to tell, and after hours of Randy this, and mama's boy Carlos that, Edweena had had enough and turned up the 70's TV theme music they had been listening to in an attempt to drown the chatter. Bunny talked louder. Edweena handed Bunny a case full of compact discs and asked him if there was something he might want to listen to. He thumbed through the selections, mostly crap, and then pulled out what he said was one of his favorites. They spent the next couple of hours listening to the throat singing selections of Chirglechin. Edweena was surprised that Bunny could sing along and knew all the songs. A mysterious bunny indeed.

Edweena dropped off Bunny next to Charlie Hong Kong's on Seabright Ave, and told him how to get to the bus stop. He was glad that Edweena hadn't murdered him in the desert for his lucky rabbit feet. They're a pricey commodity these days, and a big pair like Bunny's, would fetch buku dinero on the streets. In parting, Edweena presented Bunny with a nice card that depicted Sasquatch with bunny ears that she had attached with duct tape. Inside the card, she wrote, 

"Bunny, thanks for riding to Santa Cruz with me. You are an amazing bunny. Your yoga friend, Edweena" 

 Actually Bunny made the card, but he pretended that Edweena had given it to him.  

After a quick bus ride to downtown, Bunny found himself in his own habitat. He even met some nice bunnies there. Bunny reveled in, and relived memories of his glory days when he was big on the YouTube and starred in the Rez E Dents premier of the Bunny Boy at the Rio, right here in Santa Cruz. Those were good times. 

The next day, Bunny was out of his suit, and going somewhere. He didn't say where.

Bunny was last spotted eating chicken somewhere in remote Nevada, at these coordinates 
40° 21' 03'' N 
117° 20' 48'' W  

* and of course none of this really happened... or did it? 

Great Salt Lake in 3d Part 7 Lakeside

The drive to Lakeside began before 5:00 AM. I wasn't sure how long it would take since much of the drive would be on dirt roads, and I wanted to be there to photograph the sunrise.

With an hour or so before sunrise, we took exit 62 off of Interstate 80 and found, not a dirt road, but one of the smoothest and best maintained roads I have ever driven... and there was no one else there. Apparently, this area wasn't a popular destination for Labor Day weekend travelers.

The moon didn't offer any assistance as the nicely groomed road continued north for almost 20 miles. The darkness made it somewhat difficult to navigate. 

Suddenly, the road came to an abrupt end and we found ourselves under bright lights at the gate of a top secret military installation. We examined the map and discovered that we had failed to make a right turn a couple of miles back. We turned the car around and backtracked without incident. 

The rest of the drive took place on a well maintained dirt road and we arrived in time to make our way out onto the causeway that crosses the Great Salt Lake before the sun painted the sky... and everything else.

 

3D shot of Transcontinental RR Great Salt Lake Causeway looking East from Lakeside moments before sunrise. 

 

Sun rising over the Promontory Mountains looking East from Lakeside Station on the Transcontinental RR causeway.

 

3D - On the Transcontinental RR Great Salt Lake Causeway at Lakeside Station looking West

 

3D - Lakeside Station

 

Lakeside Station

Not much happens at Lakeside Station except for the occasional passing train, and the numerous birds who thrive in this harsh environment.

 

A Union pacific train heading East across the Great Salt Lake Causeway.

 

Looking Northwest toward the Hogup Mountains

John Williams Gunnison was second in command of Howard Stansbury's surveyor expedition that began mapping this region in 1849. Gunnison, and his team of surveyors were massacred by a band of Indians in 1853. Gunnison Island, one of the loneliest Islands on the Great Salt Lake, bears his name.

 

Looking North - Gunnison Island..

 

3D - Salt

 

3D - receding lake has left behind eroded barricades.

After leaving the causeway, we headed up to the top of Lakeside Butte, (about 450' above the Great Salt Lake level), for a great view of the region. 

 

Causeway crossing the Great Salt Lake looking East

In 1904, the Lucin cutoff shaved off 44 miles from the old Historic Transcontinental RR route around the Great Salt Lake. The causeway across the Great Salt Lake has physically divided the  lake and has drastically changed the saline levels of each side. The north part of the lake is now much more saline and the algae gives the water a reddish hue.

 

Transcontinental RR looking West toward Lucin, UT - about 160 miles away. 

 

3D - sign at the UTTR, (Utah Training and Test Range), on the Puddle Valley Highway on the way to Lakeside, UT. A Declared Public Right of Way even though the "ROAD CLOSED" signs would make you think otherwise.