You can take the boy out of...

I think everyone has someplace they are particularly fond of, a place that calls them. It raveled a lot, different states, other people’s deserts, and so on, settled in Arizona a state now going through “clear cutting” courtesy of developers, builders, a population more interested in running over the desert on “Quads” or their four-wheel monsters, and a government on the take. It is a damn shame, but money talks so the desert will soon be isolated pockets – a museum rather than a landscape. Have to have that mall, though!


Anyway, my special place is Wisconsin. I would dearly love to go back there but one of my greatest fears has come to pass – being stuck in one place. Say what you will about the military the experience made me a lot worldlier than the kid from Wauwatosa. I always thought I would wind up back in Wisconsin. It wasn’t all that long ago most folks lived worked and died within ten miles from where they were born. Hell, I knew families that all lived on the same block! Now things are different, people tend to be more scattered (location-wise not mentally, although…) and our family or what is left of it is no exception. Bloom where you’re planted. I hear that all the time and is right up there with the statement “Just walk it off, son” found in the “Webster’s Book of Bullshit Quotes”, $10 new or used on Amazon.com. The right to move freely about the country is limited by the need to pay bills and keep everyone happy. So be it. I can close my eyes and still see the thick brush, hear the wind playing through the colored leaves on the forest floor, and smell winter on the way (you can smell winter, you know).

I added a picture of a couple White-tailed Deer. I wish I could take credit for that picture as it is a great photo. Well composed, especially considering the subjects aren’t usually very cooperative, and the subject matter is near and dear to my heart, no pun intended. My father took that shot, he was quite the photographer. I am sorting through photos and came across some of the pictures he sent to me, and thought I would share some of them from time to time. I think this one was taken on Deer Island up near LaCrosse on the Mississippi.