Ready for the trick or treaters. Southeast Portland, Oct. 23, 2005.

Metal pumpkins (with mouths in the shape of bats in flight) rest in a pile. Sedona, AZ, Sept. 20, 2005

I hate to do this but.....

...now that blogger.com has a relationship with Adsense, each time I post anything to this site some ad bot turns on and a series of 3-5 ads get posted at various places on the blog. I get an email notifying me this has occured, and as soon as I get it, I rush off and delete it, so you all don't have to deal with something telling me what a great blog I've got and oh, by the way, I can go "here" to get a penis with more stamina, largers breasts, cheaper drugs, lower mortgage rates, creative ways to make candles, or better deals on a car.

So I've just turned on the word verification option on the web site, which means if you want to respond to something on the blog, you'll hafta type in a bot-generated word to insure you are actually flesh and bones and not ones + zeros. I hope this does it. We'll see.

And I'd just like to say that getting real posts from each of you makes my day. Sometimes, it can seem I post these things in a vacuum and no one is watching. The posts from you very real people is what keeps this blog up and running.

Party on Garth. Party on Wayne.

House in the Ladd's Circle area of Portland ready for those spooky goblins. Oct. 23, 2005. (Clicking on the photo to see the full-sized version will allow you to better see the stuff on the porch.)

Mini-pumpkins fill a basket at a mall for the uber-riche near Durham, OR. Oct. 23, 2005.

It's autumn here in the Pacific Northwest area of the US, so I thought I spend the next several days posting pics of the season. This one was taken in the Ladd's Circle neighborhood of southest Portland, OR, October 23, 2005.

Found while on a hike on the Schnebly Hill trail. Sedona, AZ, September, 2005

Along the Strait of Georgia just before sunrise. Comox, B.C., March, 2005

So there I was, sitting in the restaurant waiting for my breakfast and I looked down at the table setting with the early morning light being filtered through fog and I though, "Jeeze, I feel like I'm in a magazine advertisement for flatware." So I grabbed the camera and snapped this one. Port Angeles, WA, Aug. 2005.

On the midway, Jefferson County Fair and Rodeo, Madras, OR, July, 2005.

Found down a Portland, OR, alleyway. November, 2003.

Two and a half more minutes of fame

Those of you who remember the Sept. 2 post can recall my outlining how the photo from Feb. 25, 2005 was used by Al Gore for a presentation, and then was requested to be used in a documentary. Wellllllllllllllllllllllll....

...I was talking with a good friend of mine earlier this week who has a son attending the University of Southern California. My friend was down visiting his son a couple of weekends ago. The son, a former student of mine, told the father that he's taking a class on making documentaries and during one of the lectures, a photo came up of Mt. Hood over Portland and it appeared the photo credit was to me. He asked his dad if it was (it was).

So that little pic just keeps on making rounds, doesn't it?????

Mount Baker in the foreground, Mt. Ranier in the background. Taken from about 11,000 feet. Sept. 24, 2005. (As with all photos on this blog, you can click on the pic to see the full-sized version)

Looking through the mirror. Tourist shop, Sedona, AZ, Sept. 21, 2005.

Bench at nighttime. Uptown Sedona, AZ, Sept. 22, 2005

Along the Schnebly Hill trail. Sedona, AZ, Sept. 23, 2005.

No parking (except for guests of the Surgeon's House). Jerome, AZ, Sept. 21, 2005.

The sunrise casts a cactus shadow on an adobe wall. Sedona, AZ, Sept. 21, 2005

The wisdom of Steven Smith

There are those people you can tell approximately when in their life they congealed. There are others who are constantly growing and making new trysts with life. We must constantly be on guard against congealing.

Ceramic critters climbing a wall in Sedona, AZ. Sept. 20, 2005. (Click on the photo to see more detail in the full-sized version).

Red rock country at sunset. Taken between Cottonwood and Sedona, AZ. Sept. 21, 2005

Strings of red chili peppers drying in a shed. Sedona, AZ. Sept. 20, 2005

I felt like I was in Butch Cassady and The Sundance Kid (who ARE those guys), or expected one of John Wayne's Indian scouts to appear at any minute, when I took this photo. On the Schnebly Hill climb (4 miles and 1100 feet one way). Sept. 23, 2005.

The sun catches a portion of a variety of Southwest spices on display in a tourist shop, Scottsdale, AZ, Sept. 19, 2005.