Marty Essen's Blog, page 259

Winter should behave like winter

Marty’s photo of the day #2765: Having grown up in Minnesota, I enjoy the cold and snow of winter. Now that I live in Montana, all I ask of winter is that it behave like winter and stay below 32 degrees. But, thanks in large part to more than 30 years of Republican obstruction and denial, winters that behave like winters are becoming less and less common. Today the local forecast calls for 48 degrees. The steep mountain road leading down from our house will most likely become a hazardous layer of water flowing over ice by this afternoon. Weather does not equal climate, but the warming trend is undeniable. With that in mind, I need a cold weather photo for today. How about this iceberg I photographed off the coast of Antarctica?

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Do I have a monkey on my back?

Marty’s photo of the day #2764: Hmm. . . . I’ve been walking around this Amazon Rainforest village for a while, and something just doesn’t feel right. Do I have a monkey on my back?

Actually, this pygmy marmoset was
a Yagua girl’s pet. I gave her a t-shirt in exchange for a few minutes of
holding-time with the world’s smallest species of monkey.

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Swan Lake

Marty’s photo of the day #2763: Today we return to wildlife photos but stay in Italy. One of my favorite days in the country was when Deb and I got away from the cities and the touristy things and spent an afternoon walking along Lake Maggiore in northern Italy. Since that was just seventeen days ago, the weather was cool, the tourists were gone, and other than a few people here and there, it was just the two of us and an impressive crowd of waterfowl—at least ten species in all. The swans were my favorite.

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Venice, part 2

Marty’s photos of the day #2762—today features Venice part two of two: I remember learning about Venice, when I was in high school, and being absolutely fascinated. Also, several years ago I stumbled upon a wonderful novel by Megan Chance, “Inamorata,” that took place in 19th century Venice. So when the Within Temptation concert enticed Deb and me to travel to Italy earlier this month, Venice was another irresistible temptation. Just how does a city of a quarter million people function in the modern world without cars? What’s it like to walk through a maze of narrow alleys—and get lost like so many others before us? Two immediate observations were that the city felt extremely safe—even walking alleys at night—and I was so glad we visited during the off-season. I’d much rather put on a coat and share the city with sparse crowds than enjoy warmer weather while fighting swarms of tourists.

For today and yesterday, I’m taking a break from my usual wildlife photos to share with you a series of pictures I took in Venice. Enjoy!

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Venice, part 1

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Marty’s photos of the day #2761: I remember learning about Venice, when I was in high school, and being absolutely fascinated. Also, several years ago I stumbled upon a wonderful novel by Megan Chance, “Inamorata,” that took place in 19th century Venice. So when the Within Temptation concert enticed Deb and me to travel to Italy earlier this month, Venice was another irresistible temptation. Just how does a city of a quarter million people function in the modern world without cars? What’s it like to walk through a maze of narrow alleys—and get lost like so many others before us? Two immediate observations were that the city felt extremely safe—even walking alleys at night—and I was so glad we visited during the off-season. I’d much rather put on a coat and share the city with sparse crowds than enjoy warmer weather while fighting swarms of tourists.

For the next two days, I’m going
to take a break from my usual wildlife photos to share with you a series of
pictures I took in Venice. Enjoy!

Note about the first photo: Since
Venice is a city of water and foot travel, everyone must leave their cars on
the outskirts. We parked in a huge ramp and were lucky enough to get on the top
level. That allowed me to take as close as one can get to an aerial shot of the
city without being in an airplane.

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Smoky jungle frog

Marty’s photo of the day #2760: I photographed this smoky jungle frog in the Amazon Rainforest of Peru. Years later, I photographed several more smoky jungle frogs in Costa Rica. Although I have a hunch that, just like the fer-de-lance snakes in the Peru and Costa Rica, the common name for this frog covers species that are closely related, but not exactly the same. That’s just fine for most people, but the imprecise naming drives amateur and professional herpetologists crazy.

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The slow mass murderer

Hey Republicans! Did you see that your cult leader, Donald “The Slow Mass Murderer” Trump is trying to roll back yet another Obama-era environmental regulation? This time his administration is proposing to loosen the regulation on mercury, since it’s “too expensive to industry.”

Yes, the man you voted for, because his stance against abortion allowed you to pretend to be Christian, thinks that efforts to save lives and reduce brain damaged caused by mercury poisoning are not worth the cost. Now, I wouldn’t criticize you for being hypocritical if you had backed off early in Trump’s reign of terror and said, “Whoa! Trump was a mistake and we must replace him.” But no, you bastards still enthusiastically support the man. It will take countless years to know just how many millions of people the Trump administration ultimately slow murdered and maimed, but do know that the affected lives are on your shoulders too. Yeah, and many of you even claim Donald Trump was “ordained by God.” Some god you have!

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Father and son gentoo penguins

Marty’s photo of the day #2759: Here are father and son gentoo penguins that I photographed on a foggy Antarctica day. How do I know it’s a father and son? Over the years I have posted many “mother and daughter” and “mother and son” animal photos I’ve shot around the world. So this time, to be fair, I’m declaring the adult to be a male. Since male penguins take an active role in rearing their babies, I just might be right.

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At this moment, pretty much everything is better in Canada

Marty’s photo of the day #2758: We are in day two of what could be the biggest internet outage in U.S. history. So once again, I’m using my backup provider. What I’ve been able to glean from news stories is that the problem originates at CenturyLink. I don’t use CenturyLink for internet, but my primary provider obviously uses their network. Telecommunications companies are so intermingled that an outage with one company can affect countless others.

For nineteen years, Deb and I ran Essen Communications Corporation (ECC), which provided land lines throughout Montana. For much of that time we utilized the CenturyLink network. While I’m limited to what I can divulge on Facebook, let me just say that my personal experiences with CenturyLink were not pleasant and this huge outage does not surprise me at all. As of December 31, ECC will no longer be in the phone business—and we are thrilled to be out! Deb has her weaving business and weaving writing, and I have my talent agency, college speaking, and “Time Is Irreverent” book series to continue writing. We won’t be bored.

Add the internet outage to the ongoing Donald Trump-induced United States outage, and today seems like a good day for a peaceful photo that I took in Alberta, Canada. Ah, Canada! Where at this moment, pretty much everything is better than it is in the United States.

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Molting elephant seals

Marty’s photo of the day #2757: There is a large internet outage in Montana and Idaho this morning. My main provider is down, but my backup provider is working just fine. Unfortunately, my backup provider charges if I go over their limit, so I’m going to postpone the multi-photo idea I had for today. Instead, let’s travel to Antarctica for a single photo I shot of some molting elephant seals. These are female elephant seals. That’s why they don’t have the elongated proboscis.

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