Winding down the road with Kirby

Tonight finds me baby sitting Kirby the Dog Who Thinks He's A Human in Springdale. We decided to take a stroll in the blessed darkness of the new moon after both spending the day trying to hide from blistering 100+ degree heat.

Our usual routine is to take the truck and drive the mile to the Bit & Spur, so Kirby can get petted by all the local girls who adore him more than most of the boys in town and for all the tourists who miss their pets at home. He serves a unique and necessary ecological niche in this lonely tourist village perched on the edge of nowhere. We then walk northward to the park boundary and back, about a 4-mile round trip, with more petting for Kirby as the walk progresses.

Tonight I took along my old Mavica camera to record some of the sights we might encounter and, sure enough, interesting subject matter materialized, including the largest rhinoceros beetle (Oryctes rhinoceros) I've ever seen. It was just a promenading its bad self on the sandstone steps of the Bit & Spur, attracting a crowd, much to the delight of this here nature photographer.

This member of the Family Scarabaeidae is supposedly the strongest animal in the world due to it's proportional strength. Scientists say that it can carry 850 times its own weight! Can you imagine an elephant carrying 850 other elephants on its back? Boogles the mind really. God makes some pretty spiffy stuff.

It was also great to run into David Ayala, former Bit & Spur bus boy, who is now in his second year of graduate school at Stanford studying theoretical mathematics. He was in town visiting his very lovely and charming mother Helen. He's been gone for six years? Lawd a mercy time is a shore flying by!

It's always refeshing to be with young people who help restore your faith in the future and David you are certainly one of them. Best of luck in the rarefied air of Palo Alto. I'm very proud of ya dude.

Bad red eye from the flash prompted me to convert this shot into an art photo. Cute guys, huh? Only one 'em is still unspoken for. (Hint: it's the one who lives in the Bay Area.)

Pee-wee reaches for his beverage.

Sergio & Omar working late, again.

The current and former house marionettes convene behind the bar.