Usual and unusual

This morning when I went to the park for my photo walk, the temperature hovered around 16 degrees...and even colder if you figure in the effect of the wind. My usual blips from the park at this time of year are birds, squirrels, and deer. Today I saw plenty of the usual, like the little titmouse in the middle of this collage, but what stood out most was the unusual sight of a woman running in shorts despite the snow and frigid air and the man riding a bicycle with his dogs running alongside.

Even more unusual was the brief conversation I had with the man. He saw me taking his picture as they approached, and he didn't mind, but he stopped riding long enough to share a memory of having his picture taken back in the late 1970s, marching along the beach in San Diego, California, playing his bagpipe and wearing only his birthday suit. Apparently he didn't get arrested for indecent exposure. His main concern was that he was never able to get a copy of the photo, and he didn't get any financial gains from the picture which was published in a national publication.

I never know what to expect on my photo walks, but today was definitely unusual!


My granddaughter came by yesterday afternoon and was able to clear up the problem created by a virus that somehow hijacked an email I sent to myself on Christmas day that had a very short video clip attached to it. Thankfully she is technologically much more capable than I am, so now the computer is working wonderfully. I have backblipped for the two days I was offline:

12/26 Lady cardinal
12/27 Acrobatic squirrel