Pat's Walking Photos

Most Decidedly NOT A Walking Photo: Greetings. Clearly I haven’t been walking or shooting photos, and I can’t completely explain it. It’s like a switch was flipped or something, and I really need to flip it back…for so many reasons.

But at least I haven’t been completely idle. Over the last year or so I’ve been working on an album of my original songs, and as you can see, it has become a real enough thing that it has Actual Cover Art. In fact, it’s so dang real that I’m currently taking pre-orders for the thing here – even if you’re not up for pre-ordering, you might find the page interesting because it gives some background on the project and you can watch me yammer on about it if you’re so inclined (not for the faint of heart…or the time-constrained).

I’m very proud of this creation, which will officially release in mid-April. It features 11 songs I wrote myself and one that I co-wrote with a Grammy-winning songwriter, plus it boasts a cavalcade of pretty cool guest artists who gave in to my cajoling and pleading and came into the studio (one of them remotely from Norway!) to add their talents to the proceedings.

I’d love it if you took a look at the pre-order page, and at the rest of my site while you’re at it. I’d love it even more if you decided to actually place an order – it’ll help with my mountain of production costs – but of course there is absolutely no pressure. I just wanted to show you what I’ve been up to. Questions, feedback, etc. are all welcome.

Today's Walking Photos: So we got some snow here. From the ostensibly friendly ramp-guarding snowman, to the… whatever… this? Is? Demonic elf? Rampaging Pumpkinhead Santa? People sure have their own ways of celebrating the season.

Today's Walking Photo: Caught this cool view of the moon through a tree whilst walking home from having dinner with my brother. Taken with my iPhone, no less. You heard of these things? Those nerdy types over at Apple just might have something promising on their hands there. Just a hunch.

Today's Walking Photo: Sorry for the graphic content, but I took this action shot for a reason. Twelve years I’ve been walking this neighborhood, and there’s no way I could possibly estimate the multitude of bags of dog feces I’ve walked past over that time. (Relevant posts here and here.) They’ve been countless. In the hundreds at least, if not over a thousand. And it absolutely stumps me. 

WHY BAG IT UP IF YOU’RE JUST GOING TO LEAVE IT ON THE GROUND.

WHERE IS THE LOGIC-PROCESSING REGION OF YOUR BRAIN AND WHO REMOVED IT AND WHY.

WHAT EVER MADE YOU THINK YOU DESERVED A DOG.

Anyhoo…in the midst of all that slow-boil frustration, I always swore to myself that if I was ever fortunate to have a dog, I’d model correct poop-handling protocol. Today, I’m happy to say, was my first opportunity to do just that. Sweet Durazno did her business on our walk this afternoon, and I did WHAT ANY SANE AND RESPONSIBLE HUMAN WOULD DO, and I’m documenting the result. 

Fun fact: IT’S ACTUALLY NOT A DIFFICULT THING.

Yesterday's Walking Photo: Have to say, still working out the logistics of walking with the new dog, who is unceasingly sweet but is not yet quite down with the idea of just walking for walking’s sake, AND who initially at least prefers to go walking with my lovely wife a bit more than with me. (We were advised pre-adoption that she definitely takes to women more readily than men; some negative history with males is suspected in her Oaxacan street dog days. 🙁)

That’s all by way of explaining why I took this photo yesterday but haven’t managed to post it until this evening; everything is just a bit out of whack these days. But on to the photo.

Here you see a remarkably large Halloween display with its central focus being an impressively huge variation on Frankenstein’s monster (car included in shot for scale). I call it a variation because a) it appears to have…fangs? and b) its outfit, which is not reminiscent of any film depiction of the monster I’ve seen (apart from the enormous footwear), evokes the appearance to my eye of Frankensteins…priest-monster? I dunno. Something’s off.

Today's Walking Photo: Pretty pup watches kids at play.

Today's Walking Photo: Anyone else feel like there’s a Hemingwayesque short story in the making here? Or at the very least, some sort of Transformers origin story? Like, a global-warming-fighting Dysonbot with crutchrakelimbs and all-terrain iron casters maybe? But Dysonbot’s fatal flaw is that while it does run, its motor needs replacing…and only a truly dedicated human climate warrior – Claire, let’s say – has the knowledge, skills, and heart to design and build a solar-powered motor that will get Dysonbot back in commission just in time for the climactic battle with MegaDiesel CarbonBootprint.

Today's Walking Photos: Oh look – someone’s added a brand new poem to the neighborhood poetry post! And oh look – it’s a poem about the 12th anniversary of Pat’s Walking Photos! And oh look – the poet is none other than your humble walking photo purveyor! (fleetingly visible in the first photo…)

The actual anniversary was Friday – 9/17/21 – but walking activities were impeded by music activities, which has been kind of a trend here of late. I apologize for that, and I’ll use this auspicious anniversary as motivation to improve my consistency. As noted in the poem, sweet pupper Durazno is also supposed to help in that regard, but unfortunately she had a little accident last week on a hiking trip with my son and got a minor cut that required stitches, so she’s restricted from outdoor walks for a little while until it heals. But rest assured that when she’s cleared by the doc, she’ll be out there with me as much as possible. I’m so excited.

Today's Walking Photos: Remember when I mentioned I had a surprise in store? Wellllllllllllll…meet Durazno. She is a rescue from Oaxaca, Mexico, brought home to us by our son Alex who works with the wonderful organization Caravana Canina which rescues, spays/neuters, vaccinates, feeds, deworms, fosters and finds homes for hundreds of neglected dogs. Durazno had suffered a broken foreleg prior to being rescued (probably hit by a car); after surgery to repair the leg was unsuccessful, amputation became necessary. She’s also a cancer survivor, but despite all of that she does NOT miss a beat. She's a sweet, sweet girl and we are overjoyed to welcome her to our household. (Well, MOST of us are overjoyed. See the last photo for a glimpse of the burgeoning Durazno-Walter lovefest.)

Click the photos for additional info/comments in captions.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that I’ve wanted a dog all of my life. As a child we couldn’t have one because two of my siblings had nasty allergies that made it impossible. As an adult I’ve always had cats, partly because I married someone who preferred them, but also partly because I found that I really liked them. But that yearning for canine companionship always lingered. So this is quite a big thing for me and I’m just kind of over the moon. I daresay Pat's Walking Photos should get a bit more interesting in the coming days, weeks and months…

Today's Walking Photo: This one warrants clicking (or double-clicking?) to see the enlarged version. At first glance I thought this was a bee or wasp so I was prepared to give it a wide berth…but then a closer look seemed to show that it’s not like any bee or wasp I’ve ever seen. The head is the wrong shape, and those wings! What’s going on there? Also it was just ambling along on the ground rather than flying, so I’m not sure it was healthy. But if anyone can ID it from this suboptimal photo, I’d be interested to know of course.

Watch, it’s probably a giant Asian murder hornet and I should have alerted the authorities.