Well, I get one night off this weekend. After that, I might not get another one for two weeks. That's one thing I like about my job, I never have to worry about making plans for the weekend.

The camera needed some exercise, so I stopped at mills Road Park on the way home from work. It was a rather gloomy fall morning....

Naturally, I had to visit the frog pond and see how the frogs were doing....

The crows were flying about cawing their backsides off again, making sure everybody was awake....

Most of the wildflowers were drying up a bit, but there were still a few colorful ones out....

They were still juicy enough to keep the bees busy....

There was a murmuration of starlings by the parking lot....

There was even a killdeer flying past. I missed it completely, didn't even know it was there until I saw it in the corner of one of the starling pictures....

Finally, I have a weekend off! Two whole days, I feel like I'm on vacation. I decided to go out carousing when I got off work this morning and wound up at Big Bone Lick State Park.

Seems I wasn't the only one carousing this morning. There was a hawk (either a Cooper's Hawk or Sharp-shinned Hawk, I can never tell the difference) hanging out with the crows....

This is very unseemly behavior and once the hawk realized the Paparazzi was on hand, he fled away in shame, just like John Paulk....

I arrived about 9:00am, just in time to catch the last of the mist rising off the lake....

Don't ask me what kind of bird that is. I was taking a picture of the mist and it flew right into my shot. Those white things that seem to be hovering in the air are spider webs on the trees in the shadows....

Here's another shot of the misty lake, this time without any interloping birds or spiders....

Speaking of interloping birds, I decided I would take a dignified self portrait with the misty lake as a background. Just as I took the picture, those blasted crows flew right overhead cawing their backsides off....

There were also some dragonflies out carousing this morning....

And the bluejays made as much racket as the crows....

I had a heck of a time getting a shot of this turtle sunbathing. When I first saw him, I was on the wrong side of the log and there were too many branches in the way for a good shot, so I had to sneak around to the other side of the log without scaring him away. Took me about a half hour. Turtles are very sensitive to vibration, so the moment a big fat human like me takes one step, the turtle will sense it and dive in...

Fortunately, I'm very easily distracted, so while I was inching my way around to the other side of the log, I kept seeing things I just had to stop and look at. That made my progress so slow, the turtle never noticed a thing. In fact, by the time I got where I wanted to be, one of his buddies climbed up on the log and shouted a hearty greeting....

The turtle log....

All those nights checking the trailers in the north lot at work have finally paid off. There are deer in the woods around the plant. I see them sometimes at night and hear them making their noises to warn each other of the strange human lurking about. As I was coming back from the lake, I recognized that same noise and starting following it to the deer and finally got a half decent deer picture. This is the first time I've ever been able to get a picture of one where you could actually tell what you were looking at....

Yep, still testing. I do a lot of YouTubing these, so I had to see how that works....

This is just another test post. I'm reposting one of my MySpace blogs to see how it looks here....

Kentucky is currently undergoing a drought. 86 counties, mostly in the eastern and western parts of the state are officially in "extreme" drought, while the central region remains in "severe" drought. Sadly, the drought seems to be taking its toll on the state's marijuana crop (see http://www.startribune.com/484/story/1409320.html). I live in Northern Kentucky, which hasn't been quite as hard hit as other parts of the state.

I stopped off at Mills Road Park on the way home from work this morning where some of the effects of the drought are more evident. You may recall this photo of the overgrown pond taken in July....

Here's how that pond looked this morning, not much more than a big puddle now....

One result of the shrunken pond is that the frogs were much easier to find than on my last visit....

Frogs were pretty much everywhere....

Some of the larger frogs could barely submerge themselves in the shallow water....

They sat morosely on their logs, looking over their dwindling pond and praying to the frog gods that the weekend would bring enough rain to save their home....

Here in the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area, yesterday was Riverfest, the big Labor Day shindig that, according to the news, drew in half a million people just to hang out on the river all day and watch some fireworks. Some of them came down Saturday to make sure they had a good spot. The Boat People were everywhere...

For those of us who live right there on the river, it's more annoying than exciting. I didn't dare try to go anywhere yesterday. If I had, I'd have never gotten back home. So I wandered down to the river to see what there was to see.

The birds who live in the park next door had the same problem. Most of them had the sense to fly off somewhere else, but a few brave souls hung around...

Some even ventured out to see what these crazy Boat People were up to...

There were Cowboy Boat people...

And Pirate Wannabes...

Sometimes, the Boat People misbehaved and had to take a time-out off of the boat...

The Purple People Bridge...

Some of them wandered onto land wearing decorative hats...

Under the bridge....

The Coast Guard and local authorities tried to keep the Boat People under control...

Even the Kentucky National Guard was on hand to harass... er, control the crowds...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 23, 2006

Contact: Wayne Besen,
Phone: 917-691-5118
E-Mail: wbesen@TruthWinsOut.org

TRUTH WINS OUT TO COUNTER EX-GAY CONFERENCE IN CARROLLTON

This Conference Is A Masquerade of the Misguided And Sends The False Message That Gays And Lesbians Cannot Be People of Faith, Says TWO

WHAT: Truth Wins Out (TWO) will counter an ex-gay conference in Carrollton and show participants of Living Hope/Lasting Change that they can be loved and accepted for who they truly are.

This symposium is a masquerade of the misguided that shatters families, ruins lives and can lead to suicide, said TWO Executive Director Wayne Besen. Living Hope should stop using distorted images of gay life, outdated science and slanderous stereotypes to scare people into attending its conference. We also reject the false message that gays and lesbians cannot be people of faith.

WHO: Wayne Besen, Executive Director, Truth Wins Out
      Other Participants TBA

WHERE: Outside the Vista Ridge Baptist Church
      3601 Huffines Boulevard, Carrollton, TX (8:15 AM - 9:30 AM)

BACKGROUND: Living Hope is part of Exodus International, a group of recloseted homosexuals that purports to pray away the gay. Some of their methods include exorcisms, lipstick seminars for lesbians and repossessing mens Calvin Klein underwear because it is deemed too gay.

Two of Exodus co-founders, Michael Bussee and Gary Cooper, left the group to marry each other. In 2000, Exodus Board Chair, John Paulk, was photographed by TWOs Besen in a gay bar in Washington, DC. So-called conversion therapy is rejected by every mainstream medical and mental health organization including The American Psychiatric Association and the American Medical Association. At the American Psychological Associations annual meeting in New Orleans this month, the APA released the following statement:

For over three decades the consensus of the mental health community has been that homosexuality is not an illness and therefore not in need of a cure. The APAs concern about the positions espoused by the National Association of Research and Therapy of Homosexuality and so-called conversion therapy is that they are not supported by the science. There is simply no sufficiently scientifically sound evidence that sexual orientation can be changed. Our further concern is that the positions espoused by NARTH and Focus on the Family create an environment in which prejudice and discrimination can flourish.

TWO is a non-profit think tank and educational organization that counters right wing disinformation campaigns, debunks the ex-gay myth, and provides accurate information about the lives of GLBT people. Besen, the groups founder and Executive Director, is the author of Anything But Straight: Unmasking The Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth.

Looks like I'm going to be out at work again. I was out a few years ago, back before I got into the ex-gay thing and tried to go straight, but most of the folks I worked with are no longer with the company or scattered around in other departments. (I'm in a different department now, too.)

A couple weeks ago, there was a letter in the Lexington Herald-Leader claiming that gays can change. The writer based her evidence on "seminars" she had attended. (Love Won Out, maybe? John Paulk is a wonderful example of how gays can change )

Anyway, that letter was just the usual propaganda and I felt compelled to respond. They printed my reply in today's edition, which you can check out here (scroll down to"Cannot change").

Should be interesting to see what happens. The Herald-Leader is the paper everyone at work reads. One of the guys on first shift brings it in everyday and leaves it in the breakroom and everybody else on all three shifts picks through it the rest of the day.

Judging from previous experience, I can pretty much guess what will happen. One or two people may say something, but most of the rest will pretend they never saw it. A couple people will stop speaking to me, and a few others will suddenly become more friendly.

I won't try to guess who will do what. When I came out before, the people I expected to have the least problem with it were the ones who started avoiding me. The biker types that I figured would be most homophobic turned out to be the most supportive.

Guess I'm just not a very good judge of character.