Lane's kitty, Tesla, is in the slammer.  Tesla has been on the blog before playing with balloons, and on his cat tree in bow ties, but that's when he was on his better behavior. Lane went to visit Tesla in the kitty Bastille and sent me these photos of poor Tesla behind bars. All the photos today were done by Lane.

A tongue tested 9 volt battery.

One of the lingering side effects of chemotherapy is nerve damage, and bouts with nerves slowing dying off. When the nerves are going into their death spirals, they vibrate, like a cellphone on vibrate, and they send electric spikes through my muscles and along my bones. When I don't have my cell phone, I stand there and try to answer myself.  Laurie asked what the nerves shocks felt like and I told her "It's like when you put your tongue on a 9 volt battery!" Surprisingly enough, Laurie said she had never put her tongue on a 9 volt battery.  I was a little shocked by that realization, because I thought most everyone my age had put their tongues on 9 volt batteries when they were kids. It was all the rage when I was young, and, besides the fun of it, it's one way to test a 9 volt battery to see how much juice is left in it. I did a poll at the office and most of the men had put their tongues on 9 volt batteries, and about a third of the women had done it. While some of the women said, "No! That's what the boys did!" they did confess to playing with mercury. Funny that more people in my poll had played with mercury than put their tongues on 9 volt batteries. Of course, most of us tongue shockers played with mercury, also. Laurie wasn't brave enough to put her tongue on a 9 volt battery to see how my nerves feel, but Lola, Spunk and the Mad Mac all tried it.   Have you ever put your tongues on 9 volt batteries?

To lick or not to lick? That is the question!

Lola revving up her tongue for a quick lick.

"Wow! That was something."

"Hello! I love you, my shocking little Duracell."

Spunk: "You really want me to lick this thing?" Me: "Just give those two silver thingies a little snaky lick."

"Here goes."

"Whoa! You didn't tell me it would be shocking."

The Mad Mac had the same reaction as Spunk.

Blue sky with clouds building up in the east at 6:30 pm

Dark sky to the west at 8:00 pm

Sun breaks through and lights the tops of the trees for a few minutes at 8:15 pm

Cloud cover and thundershowers on the Sandias at 8:34 pm

Heavy cloud cover with rain in the distance at 8:45 pm

The first time I posted a photo of this donut was March 22, 2017. See it at Big Red Road Kill.

Bruce called this "The Stairway to Hell!" He said if you walk out the door you're going straight to the bottom.

Cumulonimbus

A bear behind

Reflecting

Silver and Spunk lounging in the catio.

Beaver slipping into the foliage on the sandbar in the middle of the river.

A walked out to the river shortly before sundown, and as I walked up to the river's edge, a beaver was climbing up the bank of the sandbar across from where I stood. By the time I got my camera up and focused, he was disappearing into the foliage that covers the sandbar. I stood on the bank, photographed the Sandias in full sunshine, and watched to see if the beaver would come back out of the foliage. About 5 minutes later, he reemerged with his mouth full of tamarisk cuttings. He slipped down the bank, into the river, and then swam about 100 yards down stream where he stopped along the bank and seemed to be eating the tamarisk. The sun went down, the mountains turned red, and he was in the same place with his tamarisk cuttings when I walked back out to the ditch bank and photographed the sunset.

The sandbar is in the shade in the middle of the photo. The bosque on the opposite bank of the Rio Grande is catching the tail edge of the light from the low sun.

Beaver sliding down the bank toward the water with his mouth full of tamarisk.

He paused for a second and I got a closer shot. I was surprised how much the beaver looks like a little bear.

Sliding into the river.

Swimming downstream with his tamarisk.

Sitting along the bank snacking on the tamarisk.

The Sandias turned hot pink in the sunset.

The sunset was partly cloudy and orange.

Copper's Hawk: "Hey there! Whatcha doing?" Me: "I'm looking for my glasses that got knocked off my face cutting down elm trees."

Cooper's Hawk: "I have an eagle eye! Can I help?" Me: "I need all the help I can get. Thanks!"
 

Cooper's Hawk: "I don't see your glasses around here." Me "I wasn't over there when I lost them."

Cooper's Hawk: "Okay, I'll come down closer to where you are." Me: "That would be much better."

Cooper's Hawk: "I'm looking. By the way, what do glasses look like?"  Me: "Like the one's that I'm wearing. These are my spare pair."

Cooper's Hawk: "I see. I don't see anything that looks like your glasses right off the wing."

Cooper's Hawk: "Oh! Wait! is that them?" Me: "Do you see them?"

Cooper's Hawk: "Sorry. It wasn't them. I have to go find a mouse or bird for dinner. All that looking for your glasses made me hungry."

Cooper's Hawk: "¡Adios! Until next time. I hope you find your glasses." Me: "Thank's for the help Coop. Have a nice dinner on whatever you find."

Three newborn Western Tiger Swallowtail butterflies (Papilio rutulus) paid us a visit to feed on one of our butterfly bushes and trumpet vines. Since they were newborn and hungry, they paid no attention to the pesky paparazzo, so I was able to get them from all sides — up and down, underneath, sideways, top, front, and back. 

Unsettled inkblots taken flight
Overhead high desert sky
Rorschach crows fly on by

Caws call spirits
Oedipus and Freud
Complex simple to avoid

Twisted minds shape 
Black and white
Unsettled inkblots taken flight