short fat guy online

Category: Photos

June 9 2006

Balls

[City Engineer Jeb] Brewer swears that consultants who work for the city did not design the $5.7 million detention basin to resemble anything, but recent e-mails to City Hall from area residents seem to have found “art” in the not-so-subtle phallic design.

Former attorney Barry Zuckercorn sees it differently and is planning a lawsuit against the city for mental duress and false adverising.

Those are balls. They always look like landscapes when they’re that close.

Jeez, I miss Arrested Development.

Posted by Mickey at 08:21 PM in News, Photos | Comments (0) | Email this entry

May 8 2006

Nesting

We haven’t had any more ducks take up residence by the porch, but the motion detector by the deck has become a perennial domicile for some robins. Here are this year’s tenants.

Mama Bird…

...and her babies

Posted by Mickey at 01:27 AM in Photos | Comments (1) | Email this entry

April 27 2006

April Showers

Late Saturday night, we had a lightning storm with no rain and no thunder. (I assume it was storming over Canada, to the east of me.) I had my camera set for five-second exposures, and took over eighty-three pictures (thank goodness for digital cameras)—but I still only managed to catch only a couple lightning bolts in action.
Here’s probably the best shot of the night…

Click for larger size

Posted by Mickey at 03:25 AM in Photos | Comments (0) | Email this entry

November 10 2005

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Today marks the anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, the Great Lakes freighter immortalized in Canadian folksinger Gordon Lightfoot’s ballad. The Fitz went down in Lake Superior, off the eastern coast of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, thirty years ago tonight. And the news stories I’ve read and seen today are as much about that song as they are about the loss of her 29 crew members.
It just so happened I was up there that same year. My family went to the UP for our Summer vacation. We toured the Soo Locks (at Sault Ste Marie), saw Tahquamenon Falls, visited the agate beaches at Marquette’s Presque Ile park, and got grievously ill making the crossing between Copper Harbor and Isle Royale. Many months later, we were shocked to discover something remarkable amid our vacation slides. One of the ships following our little Soo Locks tour boat was none other than the Edmund Fitzgerald. We’ve since taken my slide and blown it up to film. It was one of the first things I posted, when I first created my Photos page; but for the sake of the day I’ll share it on my blog. Who could’ve imagined what would befall those men just a few months later?

Photo taken Summer 1975. (Click image for larger size.)

Posted by Mickey at 11:03 PM in Photos | Comments (0) | Email this entry

November 6 2005

The Fish is Ailing

Fish VI seemed fine when I left him on the morning of Friday, October 21. But he was behaving differently that night and the next morning. He was listless and instead of just sleeping on the bottom of his vase he looked like he was flattened. Over the nexr days I would check on him and find he had barely moved; in fact, I would think he had died, until he finally stirred when I tapped the glass.
His water was needing cleaning but I hated to bother him. I was afraid moving him might be too much and would finally kill him off. I hated to think leaving him in dirty water would finish him off too. I finally put him in fresh water on Thursday, October 27 (when the following picture was taken). I moved him into the old cube, the original house of my first bettas. I ended up leaving him there.

He spends so much lying on the bottom that he wouldn’t need too much room; and besides, less water meant it would be easier for him to get to food. Another concern of mine was that it was tough to feed him. His food would float at the surface, out of reach, until it would rot. I managed to get some food to him most recently by gently stirring the water. He panicked and tried to struggle against the sudden current, but at least it caused him to rise up as well as causing the food to swirl past him where he could snap it up.
And that’s how it continues to be. I keep expecting to find him dead, but he’s still showing signs of life. He’s looking worse each time though. His dorsal fin droops, his tail is curled up. In fact, it almost looks like he has back problems since his tail fin hardly moves. He lunges about more than swims. I’m also noticing him listing to the side, which is a sure sign the end is nigh. And, he’s exhibiting a mild form of the fishy dementia I’ve seen before—where, out of nowhere, they’ll suddenly burst into activity and zoom about madly—although Fish VI’s movement is obviously more limited than Fish III’s or Fish IV’s at the end.
He’s still hanging on though. It’s hard to believe Fish VI has lasted this long. It would be impressive if it weren’t so sad to watch.

Posted by Mickey at 11:05 PM in Fish, Photos | Comments (0) | Email this entry

September 15 2005

Headlines

Sure seems like a joke, but Reuters says it’s true. It’s another breakthrough. First Bush purportedly admits some form of responsibility for the cluster in New Orleans. Now comes this handwritten confession that he is possibly quite full of shit.

Bush at UN: “Mommy, I have to go potty”

P.S.: shame on all fifty-four Senate Republicans who voted against an independent investigation into what went wrong in New Orleans. What do you have to hide? The Senate Democrats had no problem with such an investigation—they all voted yes. But not one Senate Republican voted for it. Not one. And the Republican Senator from Louisiana? He decided to sit this one out. Shameful. Absolutely shameful.

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