DickC Loc: NE Washington state

Nice photo Jim!!

joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

Second look: I think it is really healthful for people to be surrounded by the kind of beauty that you show us in your work I imagine it's great for your physical and mental health as well as that for those of us who look

Cany143 Loc: SE Utah

I've read a number of articles over the years that attest to the 'mental health' benefits of being in Nature. As I dimly recall, the majority of those were magazine or newspaper articles, or were in woo-woo self-help-y kinds of books --meaning they were essentially 'popular' pieces-- that claimed a lot, but didn't really prove anything. These were considerably different than some of the research pieces in juried medical/psychological journals I'd read and studied over the dozen years I worked in psych, where EEGs and Alpha States and complex neurochemical stuff was cited. I figure I put a lot of that background/training/experience into my subsequent years as an NPS Parking Lot Wrangler, giving talks, leading hikes (oooh! hard core physical stuff!), and variously dealing with the manifold weirdnesses of thousands upon thousands of bat$hit crazy Park vizziters.

All I know for sure --now, after all that jazz is behind me-- is that the little blue pills the Doc prescribes (3x daily, or in Med Speak, that would be 'TID') make those voices go away, while the larger green pills (QID, or 4x daily).... the larger green pills......... the larger green pills....................... Um. I'm not exactly sure what the larger green pills do, but I know they go down really good with a belt of Bourbon. And as long as I don't tell the Doc about the voices or the booze, maybe he'll keep prescribing them for me.

Yeah, Nature's good for ya. In a variety of ways.

DickC Loc: NE Washington state

Ah'yes Jim, anything goes good with booze, taking mine now with a shot of 100 proof EzraBrooks!!

Cany143 Loc: SE Utah

Ever thought about pouring some Ezra Brooks over your Wheaties in the morning, Dick? Talk about startin' your day right! Hoo-wheeeee!

Might want to limit your use of heavy equipment --anything bigger than a chain say, anyhow-- afterwards, though. And certainly not before lunchtime when you have your Ezra Brooks & chikkin' sooooop.

DickC Loc: NE Washington state

I'm only using a broom to sweep snow off of my Jaguar!

Cany143 Loc: SE Utah

Good choice. A broom is good. Having a long-ish handle might mean your Jaguar may be less likely to claw your hand off. Did it make the Jag purr contentedly, once you got the snow brushed off?

One of my cats danged near took my hand off a little while ago while I was petting him. From this point on, I'll follow your lead and use a broom instead when interacting with this feline of subtle but malevolent intent.

DickC Loc: NE Washington state

Ha Ha, sorry about your cat though,er I mean sorry about your hand, don't want that picture-taking hand to get hurt! The Jag roared and ready to go, those 12 cylinders blew out a cloud about an acre across!!

Cany143 Loc: SE Utah

Came really close to buying a '60-something XKE coupe sometime back in the mid '70's. I knew it needed a timing chain, and I figured I'd be able to figure out how to replace it, only I never got the chance. The guy who owned it re-neg'ed at the last minute, and I was crushed --CRUSHED, I tell you!-- but not all that much. Ended up with a sweet little '72 MGB --that didn't need anything except one hand on the steering wheel and the other hand on the shift knob-- not long afterwards. My only other experience with Jags involved the one a buddy of mine had back in the '60's; the one we drove up to Atlanta a couple days before he got married. I don't remember exactly how I got back 'home' to where I was stationed in Alabama, but I must've somehow or I'd have been declared AWOL and gotten a dishonorable discharge or whatever.

Your Jag blew out a cloud the size of Delaware? Really? You might want to have that looked into, Dick....

DickC Loc: NE Washington state

It was just vapor, it does it in the cold, Stationed in Alabama? I was stationed there in the Coast Guard in 1958, in Mobile, or is it in Mississippi? I don't know, I was on a CG Cutter Andescoggin (sp) for awhile before I went to Alaska for Bering Sea Patrol.

Cany143 Loc: SE Utah

Aha! Once a Coastie, eh? Always liked Coasties, though I only ever knew one that I knew for sure was an actual Coastie. Duty station was on an island off the coast of Maine I used to frequent. Sort of more into Rebel Yell (and even cheaper stuff), but I didn't hold that too much against him because he couldn't play poker for spittin'.

My time in Alabama was limited to a couple of tech schools. It was at a nice little AF base just outside Montgomery, located immediately across the road from a prison where when they did an execution, the lights on base would flicker some, go out, then come back on a minute or two later. Never saw as many water moccasins as I did down there out in the swamp when we did our field training exercises. Nor have I subsequently wanted to, either. Made a couple of friends in town --surprisingly so, me being little more than a Filthy Stinkin' Yankee-- and together one dark night we --me and my Dirty Stinkin' Reb friend-- purloined (with great enjoyment) a couple of watermelons from some farmer's field. That Reb and his family, by the way (and I might add that his sister was incredibly HOT, years before the word 'hot' would came into fashion in terms of female hotitude), sort of 'adopted' me while I was there-- late one night when we decided we really needed a watermelon or two. Oh, and I've never seen rain come down so hard anywhere, either. You literally couldn't see your hand in front of your face. Wasn't all that bad, though; we could pick up an AM radio station --WLS?-- out of Chicago most nights.

DickC Loc: NE Washington state

Quite a story, hey Rebel Yell isnot to bad!