Shadow Void

Nature Experence; Beaver Slaps

When I was in Boys scouts way back when, we did a ten mile hike at Starved Rock State Park in Illinois. This place is great if you live anywhere near it, you should make plans to visit it. There are cliffs, waterfalls, and just some pretty awesome sights. As the last part of the hike was upon us, it had started to get dark. We also found ourselves fairly close to the Illinois River. As we walked along the trail, we were talking and making noise. About that same time, we started to hear strange noises coming from the water. It sounded like someone was hitting the water with something. I could make out the shapes of something in the water and very quickly put two and two together. The noise was being made by beavers slapping the water's surface with their tail. Why would they do that? Well, beavers do that as a danger signal. Just thought I would share a little bit of my experiences in nature. There will be more to come.

Today; ( On Friday Morning )

I'm sitting outside as I write up this post. ( I did this on Friday.) One could think that since I love nature that I would be outside a lot during the day. However, it rarely works out that way. I've been avoiding being outside because of one of my neighbors who love across the street. ( That is another story for another day. ) I've allowed him to bother me so much that I just don't want him to see me. I've decided that enough is enough. I love hearing the leaves rustling in the wind. The wild raspberries are ripe and the robins are stealing them left and right, which is awesome by the way. Yeah, that's right, I love it. Usually the catbirds get into the act too but I haven't seen any today. ( It's okay they were getting their fill on Saturday. ). Sadly, my stay outside has come to end because I don't want to get locked out. My parents are leaving and they've been known to lock me out. It was nice to have spent some time outdoors and just be able to relax.

Hiking

I was able to get out with my one of my nephews and do some hiking out at Indiana Dunes State Park. I really didn't get any pictures this time around but it was so nice to get out of the house and out into nature. I loved it. We were out their early and saw three deer coming down to the lake for a drink. Of course we also saw some Canadian geese. He had fun hearing me talk about the some of the plants that we saw. Hopefully, we can get out again next month, and I'll be able to get some decent pictures.

Oh, I'm on spring break for the next week. Yeah!

Tonight's writing

I'm sitting here working on This Is Seth.  I can't give away anything that happens but I've working on it for awhile so far.  Just started chapter seven tonight, and I am already up to 13 pages well almost 14 pages.  I still have more of the outline to finish up on.  In fact, I might save what I have so far and sit down and work on it.  Wow...didn't realize when I started doing this writing just how much, time and energy gets put into it.  Well, I am going to sign off and hit the paper.  Bye all!

Not Just Hot But Funny

 

What I did this weekend?

Saturday, I got an invite to go to the zoo with my older brother and his family. We ended up going to Washington Park Zoo which is in Michigan City, Indiana. Cost me around $5.20 to get into the zoo, which is good. The only problem is that a lot of the animals were not on display. The cat house had one male Bengal tiger and one female African lion both of which were behind bars. The snakes were in this old castle type building which was always sort of spooky looking until they redesigned. They don't have a lot animals in the first place, so it was kind of depressing to not see some of the animals. They have four or five exhibits that are really cool. The grizzly bear exhibit is nicely done but a bit small. The cougar exhibit is also very cool though perhaps a bit small. They also have types of tamarin or marmosets on display the cotton-top marmoset and the Golden Handed tamarin. Their exhibits were furnished with live plants and were tall enough to accommodate some artificial tree trucks and branches the monkeys could climb on. The highlight of the visit was seeing a baby white tiger. He or she had the most beautiful blue eyes. It was nice to finally have a nice warm spring day. We also went up by Lake Michigan and walked up to the light house that is out on the lake. I don't know if I got a picture of the lighthouse, but I'll try to post pictures tomorrow when I have more time. Sorry this wasn't posted yesterday.

Turkey Run State Park

Firework

Coming up this weekend is going to be the Independance day as if I remind any of you. With July 4th comes fireworks and with fireworks, there is noise and the threat of fire and injury. I want to take a second to address fireworks and how best to save your pets and wildlife from being hurt by your celebration. First lets talk about pets, it's mostly dogs that I'm worried about though other animals might also be affected by the noise. I watched today as my brother's German shepherd, Mia, literally jumped half a mile at the sound of someone's firework. Dog do not like the noise that fireworks generate. If you have a dog that is usually an outside dog or if you normally let your dog out by itself to use the bathroom. I am asking that on July 4th, that you put your dog inside and keep it inside until the explosions of the night are over. Our shelters are already busting at the seams with strays. Many shelters see an increase of dogs at their locations. Dogs are scared of the noise and can be easily spooked by them. An animal that would normally never run away might be spooked into running away from the sound. I know of people who have allowed their dog to go out on New Years eve or the 4th of July only to have the animal take off on them. The pet was never seen again. In at least one case, it was News Year Eve and the dog was a pure breed.

I mentioned in the above paragraph that wildlife could also be hurt by your celebration. What I'm talking about is fire caused by a firework. If fireworks are illegal in your area. Follow the law and don't set them off. Every year in Utah it seems like there is at least one wildfire set off by fireworks of course this depends on how dry it is in many places. Fires can destroy our homes, other property, and acres of land used by wildlife. Be smart and don't let fires get a hold. Another thing you can try is having a bucket in place where you can put your kid's spent sparklers and make sure to have water in that bucket.

With that stay safe and enjoy your 4th of July!

The Gay Survey

The Gay Survey
1. How Old Were You When You Knew You Were Gay?

13

2. Have You Ever Had Sex With The Opposite Sex?

Nope

3. Who Is The First Person You Came Out To?

My brother and sister in law

4. Are You Out To Your Parents?

No

5. Do You Want Children?

Someday

6. Do You Have More Gay Friends or Straight Friends?

Straight Friends

7. Were You Out in School?

No.

8. Is Your Best Friend The Same Sex As You?

No

9. If Your Best Friend Is The Same Sex, have you ever kissed them?

See above answer

10. Have you ever done crystal meth?

No

11. Have You Ever Been In A Sling

No

12. Have You Ever Done A 3-way??

No

13. Have You Ever Dressed In Drag?

No

13a. Would you date a Drag queen?

No

14. Are You A Top/Bottom or truly Versatile?

Don't know

15. Have You Seen An Uncircumsized thingy?

Only in pictures and videos

16. Have You Had Sex With Someone of A Different Race?

Not yet

17. Have You Ever Barebacked?

No, don't plan on it either.

18. How Many Cher CDs do you own?

None

19. Name Of Your First True Love?

No real first loves, but a lot of crushes

20. Do You Still Talk To them?

No

21. Does size matter..?

I like to look at larger endowments, but not sure they are worth it.

22. Biggest Turn On?

The entire package

23. Biggest Turn Off?

Guys who are mean, liars

24. Ever Been Harrassed Because You Are Gay?

Not yet

25. Worst Gay Stereotype That Applies To You?

I don't really know. Being thin maybe

26. Ever Been To A Pride Rally?

Been to the parade is that the rally

27. Would You Marry If You Could?

Maybe If I found the right guy

28. Would you rather be rich and smart or young and beautiful?

Rich and Smart

29. Do You Sculpt Your Eyebrows?

No

30. Do You Trim Your Body?

Only done it once

31. Ever had sex with more than one person in a day?

Nope

32. Ever been to an orgy?

Nope

33. Have you dated your best friends ex?

Nope

34. Would you vote for Hilary Clinton if she ran for president?

I might depending on if I didn't like the other candidate

35. Do you want monogamy in your relationships?

Yes

36. Do you believe in true love?

Yes

37. Do you have any tattoos?

No and don't want one

38. Do you have any piercings?

No and don't want any

39. Would you date a smoker?

Wouldn't' want too

41. Do you know anyone who has died from H.I.V.?

Yes, a cousin who I never met

42. Do you know what Stonewall was?

vaguely

43. Wonder Woman, Xena or The Halliwell Sisters

Wonder Woman

44. Strangest place you have had sex?

Have not had sex

45. Strangest place you've woken up?

Nowhere Strange yet

46. Are your best years behind or in front of you?

In Front of me

47. Favorite porn movie?

Hmmmmmm

48. Are you in love now?

Nope

49. Ever been in love with a straight guy/girl?

Sadly, yes

50. Did you ever have sex with them?

Nope

51. Have you ever been to a nude beach?

Nope

52. Have you ever been to a bath house?

Nope

53. Ever had sex in public?

No

My mini-vacation

Going On A Small Vacation

Just so you know this was started last Friday:

I’m sitting here at my house while, I wait for my parents to finish packing or whatever it is that they are doing. Wouldn’t it make sense to have everything packed the night before with expect for the maybe the food? To me, it is totally logical. You spend the day before getting packed and going to store, so that the next day all you have to is pack the car, pack the food, and then go.

We are driving down to Nauvoo, Illinois, and we are camping at Nauvoo State Park. It’s at least a six hour drive down. Here, it is 7:00 and we still haven’t left yet. We’ve packed the car, gone to the bank, and now we are home again. Oh wait, we are again. This chaos is aggravating. I will admit that I am not the most organized person in the world, but I can’t stand being idle, being late, or not leaving on time. One good thing came from making a couple stops. I got batteries for my camera and a new memory card for it also. Oh lets not forget that they bought food also. Sadly, though it is 8:00 p.m. or around there, and we are still in NW Indiana.

We arrive in Nauvoo at or pretty close to 3:00 am. I woke up around 8:00 am. It was a beautiful. The temperature was nice, and there were cottontails in camp. At least six of them, they didn’t seem to mind me being around as long as I didn’t come to close. A little bit later everyone got up. We had breakfast, and then much to my surprise everyone sort of sat around. My dad and three nephews sat or stood by my brother’s mini-van and watched a dvd of "The Thing". Let’s not forget, they also had their electronic games. To me that isn’t camping. Sure, I had books and paper to write on. I also brought my magic the gathering playing cards. I just figured with so much to do and see, that we would be something.

Finally, we are going to go do something. We are driving out to Carthage, Illinois. Nauvoo by the way was a large Mormon settlement along the banks of the Mississippi. Right off hand, I can’t remember how many people were living there but, it was a fairly large city. There was some contention towards the church and it’s leaders, so much so, that at one point Joseph and Hyrum Smith were arrested and taken to Carthage. Joseph was the prophet of the church and Hyrum is his brother. They were held at Carthage jail awaiting trial. Sadly, they never saw their day in court. They were killed by a mob. Okay. so we visited the jail. After that, we drove out and saw some other things. We stopped at a small park, that has a waterfall in it. Sadly, there had not been enough rain for there to be water for the falls. We also stopped at a arch bridge, which was built at the time of the Mormons being in Nauvoo. I’m sure there has been some restoration done on it. After all, it’s been something like 136 years since the martyr of Joseph and Hyrum. We also went geode and fossil hunting, which was a lot of fun until I fell and gave scratched myself up. After, I got cleaned up and was going back to join my nephews and brother, a bunch of turkey vultures started flying overhead. We also went shopping in some of the little stores in Nauvoo. No, I didn’t buy anything. I wanted to be out seeing stuff. Dang sorry, no camera! After coming back to camp, we had lunch and dinner. Later in the day, we went to Iowa and watched a tugboat and a bunch of barges move through the lock. On Sunday, I went and tried to get a few pictures of the restored buildings in the Nauvoo restoration area. It was just too hot to do all that walking. We eventually packed up and left Nauvoo and headed for home. My dad and brother are train lovers, so they had stop at this steam engine that is parked in a riverside park in Iowa near Fort Madison. There is also a tiny restored fort, we stopped at. I managed to snag a few pictures.

* There is picture of two guys dressed as soldiers. I know the picture is bad but the guy in standing in back is really handsome. Wow…he was handsome. Any way, I am sure he was straight. Well, maybe pretty sure. Any way, enjoy the pictures!

Pictures will be posted in one of the photo albums.