Author Archives: brokawphotoi

It used to be easy, when hay bales were small. You could tuck them under a rock or cover them with a few leaves and no one would know you were there. Farmers in our area sometimes just covered them in Post It notes with mundane things like “water the poison ivy” or “pick up corn meal worms.” Day to day stuff you’d glance at and forget never realising there was a hay bale hidden under that valueless information.

But now, hay bales have been supersized. They is huge and it is so much more expensive to hide them. A market has developed for invisible tarps, which are not cheap. You’ve probably never seen one, (with good reason!) but they are widely used. I only managed to get this shot before the invisibility function was activated. I later went back to see if the hay bales were still there. I couldn’t find them, so maybe they were stolen after all.…

It’s inevitable. We will screw up. We’ll do something we later wish we hadn’t. We will make a mess of some things. Maybe a lot of things. What’s the best thing we can do? Deny it and blame someone else, of course.

Not all of have this fortitude, though. We cave. We admit. We take responsibility and sometimes in a big way, shouting it out to everyone (who may or may not give a rat’s petunia). Shouting it out is good for the soul. And who knows, maybe someone will shout back.

…

If you’ve ever worked construction or even done a home project on something above your reach, you know the value of a ladder. What may not be well known is that many professional tradesmen and tradeswomen belong to a secret cult that actually worships ladders.

That make sense. Humans tend to deify things that are essential to their survival or that they love unconditionally , like Apollo the sun god, sacred cows in India, Facebook or chocolate.

The sacred ladder sect is secret and knowledge of it is not supposed to be shared but I’m sharing. You can tell who is a member by their genuflecting each time a ladder is erected. Pay attention next time you see a construction site, but please do not tell them I told you. …

On the average our heads are about 11+ pounds. Quite a ball of bone, meat and blood. Imagine holding up an 11 pound medicine ball all day, every day. Sounds tiring. The box people of Actinicastan (a remote caucasian tribe located near the city of Tashkent, Uzbekistan) have even heavier heads, sometimes weighing up to 35-40 pounds.

They’ve adapted to their unusually heavy heads but they do need to hold onto their heads to keep their balance when curb hopping. A unrelated tribe in Kyzylzharma, Siberia is often mocked for their large unusual craniums. People can be cruel.

…

It is marshmallow season in PA. They are ripe and ready. There are several species differentiated by shape, color and texture. This is the eastern orb marshmallow. It is pure white and round with a firm texture. The western orb marshmallow is much softer.

The eastern orb is found mostly shaded woods and does well in rocky soils. They were common when colonizer first came to this area but are slow growing and were wiped out by overharvesting and deforestation. They since been replaced by store bought imitation marshmallows. The kind most of us are familiar with

They were thought to be extinct but have made a modest rebound. Horticulturalists have learned to cultivate them and they are beginning to show up in people’s gardens.…

Road grime can be insidious, especially if you are a hitchhiker, (especially especially if you are a long distance hitchhiker), or a hobo, or a nomad, or a pilgrim. Fortunately, people have set up roadside laundries to take care of that grime.

Currently, they are spaced about 300 miles apart from each other on a grid system, so you build up a lot of grime traveling between them. Their locations are indicated by hobo hieroglyphics scattered along popular migration routes.

They aren’t very big and actually don’t do a very good job getting the grime out, but at least the grime is clean.…

We know we have a problem with weapons. There are too many and they are to easy to get. There is no point in trying to take them away from people. It may also be less than wise (they have the weapon, you don’t).

A solution is to provide an alternative. Such an alternative is becoming widely available and is, as yet, largely unregulated. The solution is not in the weapon aas much as it is in the ammunition. As they say, “guns don’t kill people, bullets do.” So let’s replace the bullets.

The ammunition illustrated above can be launched with various weapons, such as a cross-bow, a modified shotgun or it can be flung manually like a javelin. It captures your prey without killing it. Maybe a few bruises but nothing more serious. These come in various sizes to fit various existing weapons. They all use the same principle of adherence.

There is currently a bill working it’s way through congress that will go a long way in making these the ammunition of choice for local law enforcement.…

It’s been a few months since Cicada Nation, since the rise and collapse of an insect empire.

Brood 10 has risen and fallen before. Great armies of mostly clueless, horny, hungry soldiers set forth and dominated the landscape. Great waves amassed in our trees, singing out, signalling to each other that the time had come to rise up and take over the world.

But they lacked a leader. A unifier. A great and powerful orator who could channel their exuberance. They also lacked stamina. Once they’ve satisfied their lust they croak. If you are going to have an army that pillages, it’s better if they don’t all just die after getting some lovin’

Fear not, Cicada Nation will rise again. …

The tension is palpable. The focus fierce. The stones are arrayed on the board and on each player’s rack. One wrong move and mass hysteria could break out.

The game proceeded. The players sweating in the dense, temperate summer air. I crept in to get my shot and then stealthily slithered away.…

It is quite a fad down at the Jersey shore. IBBA groups are cropping up all over.

It looks easier than it is. It requires quite a bit of discipline to manipulate your invisible beach ball, especially when it’s windy. Practitioners get quite a few benefits. Almost everyone reports more flexible shoulders. Others say they have better circulation and reduced blood pressure.

A few who have been doing it a while claims that it has given them clairvoyance and some have used it to win the lottery and to game the stock market.

I tried to join in but was quickly blocked by a rather burly fellow who indicated that IBBA is patented and a fee is required to even look at it.

I looked it up and found that I can get trained and buy an IBA franchise for $100K. I’m thinking about it. I have the space.…