It may be a few days to a few weeks before I can sit at my desk for any period of time. At leats four more shots in the next week, and we'll see. This process is a pain in the neck, and a literal pain in the back. Two more shots
in the back today and several in the hip(s) for several weeks. I will post a few photos every year just to prove my existence or the existence of a proxy.

The variable checkerspot or Chalcedon checkerspot (Euphydryas chalcedona) is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in western North America, where its range stretches from Alaska in the north to Baja California in the south and extends east through the Rocky Mountains into Colorado, Montana, New Mexico and Wyoming. The butterfly is usually brown or black with extensive white and yellow checkering and some red coloration on the dorsal wing. Adult wingspan is 3.2–5.7 cm (1.3–2.2 in). Adult butterflies feed on nectar from flowers while larvae feed on a variety of plants including snowberry (Symphoricarpos), paintbrush (Castilleja), Buddleja, Diplacus aurantiacus and Scrophularia californica. The checkserspot below is more endengered than either the one I'm posting today (see below) or me both tday are more common checkerspots showing both sides.

I'll try to keep you up to date. "t's just say that it's uncomfortable at best

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Well, "they" say that praying mantises are good luck, and we've have a whole herd of mantises in the past two months. I'm willing to trying anything at this point. And of all days to have rain start up again and with relatively cold temeperatives to boot. Oh well, wish me luck. Here's to my lucky praying mantis who's only been dead for three years if you considerthe the life span of a mantic at none months. Whatever size monitor you have, this is life size!

Later, people.

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I'm off ( in so many ways), but this morning in another attempt to do what has to be done do straighten, tighten, loosen, and normalize (all at once) my spine. Oh, to be like a mockingbird, once more to sing voluntarily.

I hope to be able to mock the mockingbird once more immitating a cat and a car horn at the same time. I'll keep you informed and retell you stories of these beautiful clowns ... and the sooner the better.

The northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) is a mockingbird commonly found in North America. This bird is mainly a permanent resident, but northern birds may move south during harsh weather. This species has rarely been observed in Europe. This species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae as Turdus polyglottos. The northern mockingbird is known for its mimicking ability, as reflected by the meaning of its scientific name, "many-tongued mimic". The northern mockingbird has gray to brown upper feathers and a paler belly. Its tail and wings have white patches which are visible in flight.

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I'm afraid I still feel as thought I've been riding a Clydesdale twice a day for five hours. I just don't remember doing it or why I got talked into it. That's the way I feel: I want to feel like Sammy looked so many years ago.

Thanks for all the well wishes, but this looks like a long haul and, wouldn't you know it, every pain doc in the west is sitting on a beach in the Carribbean. Oh, did I tell you, that my Clydesdale is carved from boulders at Ruby Beach in Washington State. With any luck there are sprinal decompression shots in my future no later than Wednesday!

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I have been laid up for 10 days, and another 10 seems to be in store. Hip and knee and on the same side! It couldn't even be something to keep me on an even keel. No. That's not the way I do things.

There are x-rays in my future, and wh knows what comes afetr that? Are they're groin replacements? Maybe I can get a discount for a threefer.

Anyway, I thought I'd better give you some reason for my absence after between 8 and 11.5 people have asked if I was "all right." Answer is "no," but breathing is still in the ofing on a day-to-day basis. The half person is on Smug-mug so not part of the "on-line community. Anyway, following x-rays may come a prolonged regimen of shots: back, knee, groin, and hip. I saw one of the possible needles last week. How anything that big (how many of you know what a "Flit-Gun" is?") that relieve pain is beyond me, but lately, a lot of beyond me.

Thanks for your good wishes, and the best odds I'd had to make it to Easter, since I once admitted to th existence of the Easter Bunny. (Well, it's either that, or we have a herd of rabbits preparing for mulching in spring.)

So, why post a Chilopsis linearis? Because I have this shot, a shot of a single blossom on a tree with a 100+ foot canopy and thousands of flowers that bloom six month of the year, and fall for the other eight months of the year. I still have getting an Anna's hummingbird chosing one bloom after another and am hoping for one more image of a hummer all the way into the three-to-four inch trumpet! (flic.kr/p/2nVs4B1 - I told you I could fit)

I am wakened by pain at 2:30 AM, 8:30 AM, 1:30 PM, and then just add six hours. By all mean call me at Pacific Coast Time. I will be awake even if you're not. Chilopsis is a monotypic genus of flowering plants containing the single species Chilopsis linearis. It is known commonly as desert willow or desert-willow because of its willow-like leaves, but it is not a true willow – being instead a member of the catalpa family.

It is a shrub or tree native to the southwestern United States and Mexico. It is commonly seen in washes and along riverbanks. You've got toi admit that for a desert plant that can reach 55 feet in height, it puts on quite a show.

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