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PROGRAMMING NOTE from the Author and Archivist


So obviously I just stopped blogging on this platform. I'll get back to it eventually. Or not. I'm taking a break from all social media. It seemed necessary for my mental health.

The last few years have been busy and … challenging:

- 2015 Happened.
- 2016 Let's call it The Lost Year. (Obviously words failed me.)
- 2017 about broke me. Literally. Mentally.
- 2018 was ridiculous, proving 2017 was just a warm up. (Good thing I was already broken so it couldn't hurt as much.#2018TrashCanFire I thought things were going okay, but maybe not?)

- 2019 was such a blur. I know there were highlights, but then stuff happened and carried into the next year...

- And then in March#2020 really took a turn. Who can even categorize 2020? Do we dare?


I kinda want a do-over of some of the last few years. But life doesn’t work that way.


So for now, I'm hunkering down. Regrouping. Trying to stay safe and sort some stuff out.


Stay safe everyone. Stay well.

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Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Vacation Photos - Fauna aka My Visit to Manland

My vacation was primarily spent in the company of family, which these days is predominantly female. To offset all the estrogen that my poor father was being exposed to, we took a special trip one day to "Manland." Officially known as the Sportsman's Warehouse of southern Utah, this is a HUGE building, jammed packed with fishing, hiking, and camping gear, with an emphasis on hunting. A GINORMOUS emphasis on hunting. Lots and lots and lots of HUNTING.

It was literally staring you in the face!

I'm not usually a chicken when it comes to this stuff,
but in here you have to gobble it up.


The bears in "Manland" are not cuddly.
Though, they are technically "stuffed animals."


The special hour or so that we spent in "Manland" gave me a new insight into a lot of things. I have a new understanding of what every straight man who ever went shoe shopping with a female companion must be feeling. Equal parts utter panic, nausea, dread, fear, loathing, and a serious "fight or flight" reflex. I promise, now that I know how this feels, that no straight man in my life will have to accompany me to a clothing goods store -- EVER!

I also got another insight into my parents -- one that's hard to juxtapose with years of childhood. Intellectually, I know they grew up when hunting and camping was more common, and weren't unfamiliar with handling firearms. It's another thing to see them browsing, "window" shopping as it were, for possible future heirlooms.


Their reaction to me?
Be a "deer," and go amuse yourself in the aisles.

Yes, I know that's an elk and a moose. I even was able to identify their various calls on the nature videos that were being shown in the "media" section. Thank you very much. I'm not TOTALLY nature incompetent!

My thanks to the staff of "Manland" for not throwing me out for acting like a total East Coast snob and tourist. I did try to be discrete with the camera. However, the Grammar Police Girl that I am, I just had to snap this one.

COME ON ALREADY!!!