You May Play In The Dust, But Please Don't Write In It!

Yeah, it's been a while hasn't it? I supposed you have been wondering, Gentle Reader, what the flying hell happened to me.

Things to know:

1. Yes, I am still alive. I have, however, lost some close friends and family, and others close to me and the rest of the family are fighting for their lives. A lot of our time is spent helping them fight the good fight.

2. Yes, funny things still happen all around me, to me, with me and in front of me to other people. Adventures abound all around each of us, and I take pleasure in experiencing the rich wonders of life every chance I get - until some stupid asshole comes along and fucks it all up.

3. Yes, I am still teaching. Loving it, and with my new focus on writing-intensive curricula, driving my students to new heights of rancorous aggravation. (Mwahahahaha!)

4. Yes, the islands are still there, and we still scamper around in the sand every chance we get. It's rarer now, but the opportunity to go back and recharge our batteries still gets cashed in every once in a while. Here, have a picture or three as proof:


Sunrise over the Atlantic


Jockey's Ridge


AWESOME Dolphins Jumping in the Surf at Sunset!

See? The Postcards still come, they're just fewer than before. Maybe I'll get back into the habit soon. There's still plenty to talk about...

Beware Geeks Bearing Grifts

So, we had our Back To School night tonight at the college. All the faculty was on hand to welcome back students from their spring break. It was a lot of fun catching up with my students, most of whom seem to be following me from one class to the next in succession. I guess I was just meant to herd this particular group through to the end and send them on their way at graduation into the cold, cruel world.

Anyways, the college ordered an Imperial Fuck-Ton of pizza for tonight's soiree. By that, I mean four full-length tables piled five to seven pies deep end to end. Yeah, much more than a mere Metric Fuck-Ton. We had enough left over to send whole pies home with late-coming students who were initially worried they'd miss out on the comestibles only to find themselves hitting the mother lode.

As we were divvying up the remains, several of my students were still there talking with us and waiting to see if they were going to be bidden to the take-home feast. At which point, I picked up one of the sausage pies and spoke loudly to the group,

Please Do Not Throw Sausage Pizza Away!

How proud I was that every single one of my students got the reference, much to the consternation of most of the faculty who had no idea what we were giggling about. Some even recited the OSI model right back to me in correct form.

Looks like it's gonna be a good year after all.

The Road to... Where?

I'm sitting in my office grading papers and could really use a drink right about now. The Missus is on her stationary bike working out.

Me: "Hey, can you please bring me a drink from the fridge?"

The Missus: "I'm on my bike. It'll be a while yet."

Me: "Just find a safe spot to pull over and pick me up me a soda right quick on your way back, will ya?"

The Missus: "Okay. Wait... what?"

Me: [guffaws]

The Missus: "I hate you, Larriken!"

I'd hate me too if I'd just been pwned like that.

Pollen Pun-ishment

It's no secret that this has started off as the worst pollen season in recent memory. Everyone is sneezing, hacking up their lungs and weeping out of every hole in their heads, even those hardy folks who normally are not affected - and by that I mean me. Yuck!

So yesterday I walked in to the room where several of my co-workers were huddled to avoid both students and light green tumbleweeds...

Co-worker: "AAAAA-CHOO!"

Me: [Resisting the urge to start barking - thanks, Coyote! I'll never be the same now!] "Bless you. What a mess out there. The pollen is really bad today."

Co-worker: "Thanks. Yeah, it makes you want to cut down every Pine tree in the state!"

Me: "Except that right now the biggest culprit are the Oak trees. But the Pine trees will have their day in the sun real soon..."

Co-worker: "Along with everything else in the woods!"

Me: "After all, every Dogwood has its day!"

And that was when they physically threw me out of the room.

Fortunately, pollen piled up and tied into bales makes for a soft landing.

Downhill from here?

Let us celebrate the occasion with wine and sweet words.
- Plautus

Or maybe with a poignant song...



Sigh. Another year gone by. Is this really where life begins or is that just bullshit?

This song really sums things up for me right now: I'm an over-forty victim of fate, down to rock bottom again (with just a few friends) and my occupation is nowhere to be found.

Gonna go get drunk now. Care to join me?

Old age: A great sense of calm and freedom. When the passions have relaxed their hold, you may have escaped, not from one master but from many.
- Plato

A Slow Learner With Fast Reflexes

Conversations of the Damned, Part LXIII:

The Missus: (Folding laundry) "These little jeans here are mine!"

Me: "Really?!?!"

The Missus: [Hard stare]

Me: [blink, blink]

The Missus: [Stony silence, darkening clouds gathering ominously over her head]

Me: "Oh! I mean... Yeah... Yes! They certainly are!"

Really, the couch is quite comfortable. If only it could fit in the doghouse...

Every Dog Has His Day

Good night, America, how are you?
Don't you know me I'm your native son,
I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans,
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.

-Steve Goodman
The City of New Orleans (1970)

Well folks, it's official: Hell has frozen over. Solid.

The perennial underdogs of the NFL, the New Orleans Saints, have won the Super Bowl. It's a good thing they rebuilt the city stronger after Hurricane Katrina, because this will be the longest and wildest Mardi Gras ever!

We are trav'ling in the footsteps
Of those who've gone before,
And we'll all be reunited,
On a new and sunlit shore,

Oh, when the Saints go marching in,
Oh, when the Saints go marching in,
Lord, how I want to be in that number,
When the Saints go marching in!

-When The Saints Go Marching In
Traditional Southern Gospel Song

(Little-known fact about me: I'm a big fan of Dixieland Jazz!)

Language Barriers

As a parent, you sometimes have to decide which is better: to step in and fix a problem for your children or give them the tools they need to fix it themselves and step back out of the way.

My daughter was messing around with the settings on her phone last night and managed to change the default language. After punching a bunch of buttons to no avail, other than having the phone splutter out a long string of Español, she brought the phone to me with the expectations that I'd fix it for her.

I handed her an English-Español dictionary and left her to fix it herself. As an extra bit of motivation, I told her that if she didn't fix it, all of her text messages would be sent out in Spanish and no one would be able to read them. (Yeah, I know. I'm bad.)

Eventually, after a long struggle with the nuances of conjugating Spanish verbs, she figured it out, and her phone is now speaking the Queen's English right and proper.

Snow Day

Well, the Gnu Herd was originally gonna be broadcasting live from the Ice Rink down at the beach, where The Skating Gnu had a traveling double-header slated for this morning. How ironic that Ice Hockey gets canceled due to snow and ice. Only in the South, folks. Only in the South.

Right now, the Cape Fear region who was hosting us for the games is totally iced over. Couldn't we just skate to the game??

We got dumped on here at the house. So far, there's 3 1/2 to 4 inches on the ground in our neck of the woods. Tobacco Road is shut down, either from the snow itself or all the dumbasses who can't drive in it. It would be entertaining to watch if the stakes weren't so high. I have no problem with idiots eliminating themselves from the gene pool - in fact I highly encourage the practice - but when innocent others are affected, well, that's just not right.

The Gnu Herd stepped outside to enjoy the new fallen snow this morning, then ran back inside when The Missus announced the advent of hot cocoa. Ahh, nothing is finer than sipping hot cocoa next to a roaring fire, with a blanket of snow just outside the window.

Here's some pictures from a snowed-in Tobacco Road. Enjoy!


Snowfall on the homestead...


...and on the trees. This tree, by the way is a Thuja Occidentalis. I just like saying that. Makes me feel... smart.


Whoops. This isn't in my neighborhood! I'll bet a lot of my neighbors wish this was the view right now, though. This is from our trip to the Sunshine State for my Graduation back in December.

I just realized I never posted an update from our trip. Suffice it to say, a good time was had by all. Guess I'd better go dig up some more photos for a belated update...

all photos copyright 2009 - 2010, The Smoking Gnu
All rights reserved.

Southern Traditions

Well, here we are in 2010! I hope everyone survived the holidays without too much trauma. The Gnu Herd stayed home for New Years Eve, watching the NYC festivities from the warm comfort and relative safety of the living room. We toasted the end of 2009 with a little bubbly and then collapsed in bed. Yeah, we're gettin' old.

On New Years Day, we fixed the traditional Southern New Years Feast, commemorating our hopes for health, prosperity and fortune by means of ham hocks, collard greens and black-eyed peas. With cornbread. Gottta have cornbread for sure.

Many people avoid collard greens because of the bitter taste and the smell they make when you cook then. I contend that this is due to a lack of cooking technique. So with that in mind, I'll share with you my method for cooking up a good ol' mess o' greens:

Larriken's Mess O' Greens
Serving size: 1 Mess
Serving location: 1 Mess Hall (Sorry, couldn't resist)
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour, 10 minutes

Ingredients:
1 Lb fresh Collar Green leaves, prepared as directed below
1 small Ham Hock or 6-8 oz Salt Pork, diced
1 Small Onion, diced
1 Tbsp Minced Garlic or 3 fresh Garlic Cloves, minced
1/4 C Olive Oil
2 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
1 Tbsp Kosher or Sea Salt
1-2 Tsp Cracked Peppercorns or Coarsely Ground Pepper (I use the McCormick Peppercorn Medley Grinder because it has better flavor than your standard-fare black pepper and I can adjust the grind)

Preparation:
Collards - Don't buy them in a damn can, get the fresh ones they sell at the farmer's market or the produce section. Prepping collards is easy. Separate the leaves and wash them. Lay each leaf "face down" on a cutting board so that the stem is sticking up. Take a sharp, smooth-edged knife and cut the leaf from the base towards the tip following the edge of the stem as if it were a spine. Repeat on the other side so that you have two leafy halves. Throw away the stem (or feed it to your pet rabbit if he likes 'em.) Take a handful of the leaves and roll them into a Cuban cigar. Don't smoke 'em, just cut the roll across so you have slices of leaves in 1/2 inch strips. Pile the leaf strips into a colander and wash the whole mess o' greens once more to remove any residual sediment. Drain and pat dry.

Everything else - If you are watching your salt intake, here's a cool substitution tip for ya: Instead of salt pork, which is, oddly enough, salt cured with pork - no wait... Ahem.. moving on, instead of salt pork you can substitute a thick slice of regular, uncured ham. Marinade the diced ham in a lighter serving of Kosher salt or Sea salt to your preferred level of salinity for 30 minutes prior to cooking. I like to use Kosher or Sea salt instead of regular salt because the flavor is stronger per ounce so you don't need to use as much. Once you've settled on your choice of ham to use, put all the other ingredients except the collards into a small bowl and mix well. Let them marinade for a few minutes while you heat up the skillet.

Heat a large wok or high-walled skillet to medium-high. Mix all ingredients except for the collards and saute for 5 minutes to sear the ham and sweat the onions. Add the collards and toss the leaves to coat them with the olive oil, ham fat and vinegar. They will start to wilt and reduce over the next 5 minutes. Once the collards leaves have started to turn soft and bright green, pour just enough water to cover them, about 2-4 cups. Cover the skillet with a lid and reduce the heat to medium. Simmer for 1 hour until the leaves are soft, sweet and tender.

Once done, strain the collards from the skillet and turn the heat up to high to reduce the liquid remaining in the pan into a special gravy we Southerners call "pot liquor." Give the pan a good 5 minutes at a rapid boil, stirring constantly until the liquid is reduced by almost half. Serve with dinner in a gravy boat. This is good over mashed potatoes, meats and dipping for breads. It also makes a good stock for soups and is full of vitamins and good flavors.

Serve the collards hot with a side of black-eyed peas, ham steaks, and corn bread. Enjoy!

Southern tradition holds that collards represent good fortune or prosperity in the form of money, since they resemble folding greenbacks. Ham is for good health and the black-eyed peas are for good luck. The corn bread is just plain good eats no matter what. This is the traditional first meal served in the New Year. Enjoy and all the best for 2010!

Goodbye, 2009...

...And Good Riddance!

We ring out the old year tonight with a heaving sigh of relief that this year is over. 2009 was not a good year, for the Gnu Herd or many of our friends and loved ones. The year took a terrible toll, economically, emotionally, physically and personally. Most everyone we know agree, 2009 will go down as "The Year That Sucked."

It truly did. Starting off with a trip to the Emergency Room, continuing with the death of a beloved uncle, and climaxing in the sort of professional betrayal that no one should have to endure from a colleague I trusted implicitly but who proved himself unworthy of any esteem. You may have noticed I don't write about work too often here, and for good reason. I discovered too late that the career advancement I thought was a good idea turned out to be hell in disguise, a dysfunctional, maladjusted daycare for overgrown babies who need a hard spanking and time out in the corner until they learn to act like professional adults.

Two notable exceptions, however, to The Year That Sucked, but I had to wade through a year's worth of crap raining down on my head to get to them:

I finally graduated from The Graduate School with a Master of Science in Information Technology. Hallelujah! Two long, hard years of learning and slogging through long hours of studying, writing, reading, and at times, weeping. But I finally did it, realizing a decade-old goal - and I did it with a perfect 4.0 GPA! On top of that, I was honored to be inducted into the Honor Society and was also awarded the Outstanding Graduate Student of the Year. The Skating Gnu took notice and has been keeping pace with me in her own studies. It's good to know that being a positive role model can have a payoff every now and then.

The second good point from this past year took all damn year to get here, all the way till the last day. Today marks 15 years of our marriage. Ask Mrs. Gnu and she'll agree, what a long, strange trip it's been. I remind her that behind every successful man stands an amazed mother in-law. She reminds me that no one else would put up with my crap for so long, so I'd better not take her for granted. As always, she's right. A saint walks among us, folks!

I'm glad to see 2010 come and take its place, but I hope the next year is better than this last one. I don't think the country - or our circle of family and friends - can take another bad year.

So to all our friends we wish the very best for 2010. We pray for health, happiness and prosperity for everyone! We pray for our country and for those who defend her. We pray for those who are less fortunate that us, for in spite of the trials and tribulations we suffered through this year, there are those with even less to be thankful for. We pray for those people and give thanks for our blessings.

Happy New Year!

Recipe for a Happy Christmas

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.

Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.

But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.

Matthew 1:18-21

Over the years, I've learned that all this overhyped commercial nonsense is so distracting that it is real easy to forget the real reason why the holidays exist. We spend too much time in overcrowded malls, wasting too much money on useless junk for people we can't stand to be with the rest of the year, and we wonder why the jingle bells always seem to ring so hollow. Maybe it's time we shunned the malls, banished Santa Clause, stomped out that annoying Jingle Bells song they play on a loop track everywhere, and get back to basics: the Real Reason for the Season, unadulterated, unfiltered, unchanged.

So, I've come up with a holiday recipe that I'm sure will help rekindle the True Spirit, in every sense of the phrase. I meant to post this yesterday, but better late than never. At least this way, you'll have all year to gather up the ingredients...

A Happy Christmas Recipe

Serving size: one heart
Calories: Who the hell cares
Allergy notices: Grinches, drunkards, jerks, drama queens, busybodies and crybabies should not partake unless they are ready to grow up and become real adults for a change.

Ingredients:
1 Warm home, ready to receive friends, family and God's blessings
3-4 Roomfuls of people you love, mixed well to induce good conversation
Several handfuls of hugs, liberally sprinkled all over
1 Table full of good eats, all homemade with love
1 Rooftop, overflowing with thanks to God, cheer for fellow men and women
1-2 Warm fireplaces for gatherings
Drinks on the house

Directions:
Place all ingredients in house, pause to give thanks to God to the wonderful food, great company and all the blessings of life. Plan without fear, welcome without hesitation, mix well and share with each other. Serve and enjoy.

Serve and enjoy. It's the last step in most recipes that were written down by hand and passed from one generation to the next. But isn't that really the sum total of God's wishes for us? Serve... and enjoy. Think about it...

Hope you had a Merry Christmas yesterday, a Rollicking Boxing Day today and a Happy New Year coming up!

Happy Thanksgiving

Well, we're now in high gear for the holiday insanity season. My expectations for human intelligence wanes to a seasonal low again as hordes of idiots from all corners of the globe crawl out of the woodwork to make fools of our entire species. I'm staying as far away from centers of commerce as I can, including grocery stores until the late, late hours just to keep from getting trampled. Forget the malls, I've been doing my holiday shopping online for the last 11 years. What little holiday shopping I do, that is.

Meanwhile, before the holiday hysteria drowns out reason again, I just wanted to take a moment to wish all of our friends a Happy Thanksgiving from the entire Gnu Herd. We are all thankful for your friendship and support through good times and bad.

Messin' Around

My wife is into the Destination Truth series on the SciFi channel. Yes, that's right: SciFi. I spelled it FUCKING CORRECTLY!! I refuse to use the "new and improved" name. It's a bullshit move and I hate it - what are you positioning the channel's viewership for, Twilight fans or something? Come on!

Anyways, she Tivo'd an episode where the team travels to the Himalayas to track down the Yeti. She's all into it and excited, and instead of sharing her excitement that maybe they'll find some concrete evidence confirming the existence of this mythical creature, all I can think of is...

This was a missed advertising opportunity for these guys:

In Flanders Field

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)

A big thank you to all veterans - past, present and future - for all you do to protect freedom around the world! Every generation must repay the debt that is owed for the freedoms we enjoy. The generation that absolves itself of this, damns its future to miserable servitude.

Thank a veteran today. Do it again tomorrow.

Remember, Remember

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent
To blow up the King and Parli'ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England's overthrow;
By God's providence he was catch'd
With a dark lantern and burning match.

Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

While Guy Fawkes Day is more of a British event than here, the thought that a holiday can or should be dedicated to the remembrance of an act of treason is fascinating to me. We have no real equivalent here in the United States, no Benedict Arnold Day or such. So why is it so important for Britons to remember an attempted terrorist act that happened 404 years ago today?

Perhaps it's an important social reminder to succeeding generations of the importance of respect for the bounds of civil society, beyond which we should not let our passions take us. Originally there was an anti-catholic bent to the celebrations, but this was replaced over the years with the rhyme above, fireworks, and "a Penny for the Guy." The reminder that one's act of treason will not be forgotten is a powerful meme, one with strong social ties to the community to remind people that while it may be permissible in the pursuit of social discourse to take up opposing sides of important issues of the day, there are boundaries that are not to be crossed.

Indeed, this reminder might be a valuable token to offer our own so-called leadership in this country as to their obligations to respect the bounds of ethics, morality and the timeless values that bind human society together in ways that strengthen without enslaving, and without which society is reduced to anarchy and chaos. Leaders in business, government, religion, education and culture seem to have forgotten that to lead is to serve, that those who follow are not vassals to be toyed about or trifled with. Leaders who have fallen from the path of truth, who accept expediency over deliberation, the quick answer over the right answer, form over function, "right now" instead of just plain right.

The message needs to go further, to those who take their ill-considered beliefs to such extremes as to destroy the fabric they claim to be saving from others, those instigators who drive the masses towards decisions their grandchildren will regret for them. We should take notice of a month in history that should remind all future generations of the persistence of consequences that arise from ill-begotten actions: Red October, culminating in the 25th, 1917. In more recent history, we see how faith is twisted to serve evil purposes, to massacre innocent women and children for no other purpose than to amass power and reduce humanity to mere playthings of pretend gods, living - but mostly dying - at their idle whim. There are no greater evils in our world today than Fascist Islam, Socialism and Communism, who together have murdered and enslaved nearly half the planet.

These bankrupt philosophies are being repudiated around the world as people in many countries emerge from the darkness of misery, yet here in our own country, a cadre of "useful idiots" plow forth down the same paths to ruin, while the drunken and passionate cry of ignorant citizens along for the ride drives them on.

Remember, indeed. Treason to moral principles and values that are ageless, even God-given, is just as bad as betraying your country, and the consequences will be visited to the seventh generation.

Jockey's Ridge

In spite of the weather reports that spelled out gloom and doom all week, the weather in the norther Outer Banks wasn't all that bad last week. So we went for a trip out to Jockey's Ridge State Park.



This is the largest natural sand dune on the East Coast and is visible for miles around the area. I've never taken the opportunity to visit until now, and I can tell you, I'm really glad I didn't come here in the summer. The sand goes on for miles and I can only imagine how hot that would be in August. Sand temperatures tend to be much hotter than the surrounding air, so if it's 100 degrees outside, expect the sand you're walking on to be at least 120. Ouch!

Coming in October was good idea for cold-weather folks like us. Made for a much more enjoyable visit. Maybe next time, I can convince The Missus to let me go hang gliding!

Enjoy some more pictures from our hike around the park:



Above and below: Satellite dunes on the western side of Jockey's Ridge facing the Roanoke Sound. These smaller dunes move around a lot, and around the park in many spots you can see where some of the larger ones have swallowed up trees and shrubs. The more stable dunes provide shelters for tree groves and shrub thickets that become home to a wide variety of birds, mammals and reptiles. Walking along the nature trail, we were able to identify tracks from Raccoons, Possums, Egrets, a Hog Nose Snake, and field mice. In the air we saw Egrets, Cormorants, Geese, Ospreys, and Cranes. Thankfully, we had a steady 10mph wind that day so there were no mosquitoes buzzing around our heads.



Below: Roanoke Sound front at the western edge of the park. We found Brine Shrimp in little isolated pockets of still water along the edge and a fish or two jumping out of the water to greet us. Dragonflies were buzzing all over, darting in and out in search of prey.





Above and below: My attempts at photographing interesting sand formations along the dune face. For the most part, these are "raw" photos with no intense digital enhancements, only minor color adjustments to even out the saturation. My only accessory is a circular polarizing filter on my lens to clean up the sky and bring the clouds out.



Below: There is a semi-permanent brackish-water marsh in the Wadi at the base of Jockey's Ridge that is a favourite landing point for many species of migratory birds and also is home to a wide variety of other animals and plants.



all photos copyright 2009, The Smoking Gnu
All rights reserved.

Don't Look Down!

Scottie: It's because of this fear of heights I have, this acrophobia. I wake up at night seeing that man fall from the roof and I try to reach out to him, it's just...

Midge: It wasn't your fault.

Scottie: I know. That's what everybody tells me.

Midge: Johnny, the doctors explained to you.

Scottie: I know. I know. I have acrophobia which gives me vertigo and I get dizzy. Boy, what a moment to find out I had it!

Midge: Well, you've got it and there's no losing it. And there's no one to blame, so why quit?

Scottie: You mean and sit behind a desk, chair-bound...

Midge: ...where you belong.

Scottie: What about my acrophobia? What about... Now, suppose, suppose I'm sitting in this chair behind a desk, here's the desk, and a pencil falls from the desk down to the floor, and I reach down to pick up the pencil - BINGO - my acrophobia's back.

Midge: [Laughing.] Oh, Johnny-O.

-Vertigo (1958)
Alfred Hitchcock


Well, the Gnu Herd had a great time at the beach. When we got tired of looking at scenery right off the back porch like this...







...we went out to explore the island. Some friends came down to join us for the weekend, so we went up to Currituck Village to climb to the top of the lighthouse. Here's another video postcard from the top of the lighthouse:



Great view, huh? Don't look down if you're afraid of heights!!

Again, from the west side, looking over at the Keeper's house:



Yes, I know, my thumb makes another cameo appearance. Still, that's a lot better than filming my iPhone's untimely demise!

Looking up the spiral staircase on our way to the top...



Hello, hello (Hola!)
I'm at a place called Vertigo (¿Donde esta?)
It's everything I wish I didn't know
Except you give me something
I can feel, feel.

-U2, Vertigo
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2004)

Here's some slightly more sane pictures of the grounds...

The Keeper's Quarters, at ground level:



Nice digs, huh?

The lighthouse from the sound:



The nature trail along the Currituck Sound:



The Currituck Sound:



Dunno why they call it a sound... I didn't hear a damn thing.

all photos and videos copyright 2009, The Smoking Gnu

Say Hello To My Little Friend

Walking back from the ocean the other day, I nearly did something that would have caused me to break out in tears of anguish... I almost stepped on this gorgeous fellow:



photo copyright 2009, The Smoking Gnu

Yep. That's a King Snake. A four-foot beauty too! Just sitting there on the boardwalk sunning himself when I came along and nearly walked right into him. These snakes are worth their weight in gold to a farm boy like me. Why? Easy... these buggers are so tough, they will kill a Copperhead! King snakes are great mousers too, better than any damn cat.

For a non-venomous snake, they are very excitable and aggressive in defending themselves. Then again, I did almost step on him, so I'm sure he was a bit upset at my clumsiness. I managed to catch him and after a bit of handling, I tamed him so me and the Skating Gnu could spend the afternoon playing with him while Mrs. Gnu cowered inside. She still doesn't quite understand my affection for these creatures, but bless her heart she puts up with it in her own way.

We keep finding ways of meeting up with all sorts of interesting fauna out here on the island. Two years ago, we ran into a Cottonmouth, this year a King snake - definitely an improvement!

After playing with him for a bit, we turned him loose on the dunes next to the ocean so he could continue doing his part in keeping the Town of Duck mouse-free.

Hopefully Copperhead-free too...

Life's a Beach

Back to the Outer Banks again this week. It's an annual pilgrimage that I look forward to every year. I don't care how much crap the universe throws on me, I'm gonna make it here and just relax for a week. This year especially, I need a damn break!

In case you were wondering what is it about Duck that draws us here, and at this time of the year, here are a couple of video postcards for you:




Did you see that? Exactly. Not a damn thing. No one around to pester me, and the weather has been in the mid-60s all week.

Here's another one for you, and this time I make a cameo appearance.



Well, my thumb does, anyways. Sorry about that. Some day's I'm just all thumbs!

all videos copyright 2009, The Smoking Gnu