Great blue Heron

in flight. There was not one but three herons vying for attention at Frances Short Pond today. Few people and cold conditions helped I think. I practiced panning bursts with a manual lens set to infinity. Lessons learned: keep the aperture as small as possible whilst maintaining a sufficiently fast shutter speed.

       I am ashamed that I lost my cool on the Interstate this afternoon. Traffic flow was good; everyone maintaining reasonable speed and distances; overtaking nicely and returning to the inside lane ( here's where I get into trouble Kathy calls the passing lane the inside lane and I believe it is referred to by law enforcement as lane 1; and of course to confuse matters further I will refer to nearside and offside. I digress). I could see traffic in the passing lane ahead becoming a little knotted such that an eighteen wheeler had to undertake to get past this 'knot' of vehicles (four wheelers of course). Other vehicles in the 'knot' followed the truck and undertook (American drivers pay scant attention to lane discipline; I just thought it was how to drive on LA freeways and so I'm just as guilty) the obstacle, a BMW immaterial, which driver seemed to be absolutely oblivious to what was going on around them. By this time I had caught up and I was damned if I was going to undertake. Plenty of room now for the driver to change lane and let me pass. Did she heck (Kathy confirmed it was a female driver) showing bias again. Now they, the ubiquitous 'they' slowed and attempted to brake check me slowing from seventy to sixty . . . . anyway I let emotion get the better of me and flashed lights and honked my horn. Not the most sensible thing to do and I was remorseful for my own poor behaviour.

       Further up the road the highway patrol had stopped a large SUV for reasons that would be patently obvious to a layman. Was that load secure? Did they realize it obscured the license plate? and what about that window tint? Don't you think it's too dark? Wasn't but a few miles along the road the same SUV passed us well over the posted 75, plate still obscured.

Thanks for your indulgence if you read this far. Extra: the road goes ever on to who knows where. Approaching Petrified Forest northbound on US180.