Monthly Archives: September 2013

And The Spirits Rose

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Sometimes images become important by what they don’t do rather than what they are supposed to do. The accustomed thinking is that photos should be tack sharp and clearly tell a story by showing you every aspect of the scene you are depicting. Follow the rules, in other words.

I’ve found that there are many times when the rules don’t count, like when you’re sitting cross-legged on the hard packed earth down in a kiva and everyone else has left and suddenly you are faced with the silence and the realization of where you are. This a sacred place for many people and it has been for hundreds of years. It may not be part of your belief structure or mine but there is no denying a sense of spirituality and power when you quietly sit and try to understand what went on here.

Fortunately there were many people on this tour and the rangers weren’t keeping a close head count and didn’t notice one head was missing so I had time to experience this place in a way that you don’t usually get to. Leaning back against the wall, smelling the scent of very old earth and feeling the sense of ceremony and tradition that permeated the atmosphere, it was easy to imagine the presence of others, the ancient souls that became more and more alive as time passed.

Somewhere down the line the rangers did a head count and discovered there was one missing and came back to get me. Busted I had time for one more image before I was herded back to the flock. When I got home and processed the images I found that this last one had moved out of the rule structure and taken on a life of its own. The glimpse of shadowy, fading ancients moving up the ladder comes to my mind every time I see this image. I can smell the scents, feel their presence and hear their chants. Some times its good to break the rules.

Thor’s Revenge

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Well it looks like we can’t have one damn holiday go by without some kind of self-induced catastrophe happening. Many of you who have been following the progress and accomplishments of the Institute are aware of our meteorological department and the amazing progress we’ve been making in the area of manufactured weather.

Manufactured weather is not  a new subject, there are others dabbling in this field, the US government, Leroy and Maurice, the 4-H club in Elkhart Lake, Indiana, and others, but I’m proud to say none have made the strides we have here at the Institute.

This is due in great part to the efforts of our head meteorologist, Thor. We don’t have a lot of background on Thor, he just appeared one day and took over our small, mostly unused weather station and began to manufacture weather. The rest is history, or as close to it as you can get around here. Things were going very well until we began to notice small changes in our weather pattern. The occasional tornado where none had ever been recorded before, small but destructive Tsunamis that occurred on some of our larger reservoirs, a dust storm that buried nine farms east of town so deep that all you could see was the top of the truck antennas sticking out of the sand and some other events that can’t be mentioned due to ongoing litigation.

Thor was called into the directors office and asked to explain some of the events that were occurring. His answer was to set the directors desk on fire with a small lightning bolt, or maybe it was a bic lighter, it all happened so fast we couldn’t tell, and scorch the office cat. That’s when we knew we had a problem. This whole weather making thing had made him drunk with power.

Intoxicated with his ability to create havoc he retreated into his laboratory and locked the door. We tried to get in to control him but the door, one of those sliding patio doors with the screen door that sticks, stuck as soon as we tried to open it and we were helpless. All we could do was lean up against the screen and watch as he worked his madness.

Unknown to us, Thor had been jilted by one of the local girls that lived in the small quaint village you see in the image above and he was crazy, crazy with rage. He would have his revenge. The poor unsuspecting village is the same one that grew up to support the growing needs of the Institute and of course we feel an obligation to keep them safe so they can continue to support us in the manner to which we’ve become accustomed. But now here we were, helpless, all we could do was watch as Thor sent lightning strike after lightning strike against the helpless serfs, I mean citizens below.

We knew we only had minutes to solve this terrible problem and save all those helpless folks below. Lots of ideas were quickly passed around and just as quickly rejected, mostly because they were unbelievably stupid, but one idea was put forth that might save the day, or night actually, by now. It seems that the laboratory was a building that was on its own electrical meter and due to an oversight by our business office the bill hadn’t been paid, so the power had been shut off. Rather than pay the bill our maintenance staff had simply run a 50′ extension cord to the next building and was running off their power.

The solution then was simple, send one of our most expendable staff members, I mean volunteers to go over, grab the cord and pull it out of the wall. This was done by simply performing Rock, Paper, Scissors until one staffer was left and then pushing and kicking her until she ran over and bravely jerked the cord out of the socket. The flash of the plug leaving the socket was spectacular, I mean totally freaking incredible. It was like one of Thor’s lightning bolts.

That did it. The storm immediately abated, the lightning stopped and other than the fact that over half the village below was burned to the ground everything ended well. We couldn’t find Thor even though we looked and looked. It was as if he vanished into thin air. Lucky for him because the authorities have some pretty tough questions for him. Our gallant but brave staffer is in ICU but is not in critical condition, we’ve graciously given her a five-day medical leave of absence to recover before we post her job online. We’re just thankful here that things weren’t worse than they were. This could have been really bad, not to mention damaging to the institute’s weather modification program. But due to the quick action and firm direction and leadership of the Institute’s director this mishap was handled with extreme professionalism. Thor’s job as head meteorologist has been posted online so if you know anything about weather and you’re interested in working in a lively but fun environment send us your resume. Who knows the job could be yours.

Have A Great Labor Day

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Those of you who have been around in this world for a while know that behind every storm there is the promise of a brighter day. Some times you have to work to find it but the effort is always worth it.

Have a Great Labor Day

Traffic On The Runway

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Everyone knows about the hassles of flying today. The crowds, the lines, TSA, extra charges for baggage, ugly people being allowed to be in the same line as you, having only one of your shoes come out on the conveyor, being told that the missing shoe isn’t on the conveyor and could you step over here please, the list goes on and on. But what isn’t widely known is that the congestion, and dangers of flying has entered the wildlife world.

The risks of flying seem greater lately with the increase in air traffic and reports of collisions and near misses a normal occurrence and nearly a daily event. An example of this phenomenon is just the other day a JAL flight out of Narita took off in a westerly direction the exact same time a British Airways flight left Heathrow in a northerly direction, the aircraft were barely 4800 miles apart. How there wasn’t a collision has been the main topic of conversation around the local air controllers’ water cooler ever since. It is estimated that by using this logic, and why wouldn’t you, there are nearly 800,209 potential accidents a day. That’s scary enough to put you off your eggnog without even trying to do the math.

If the possibilities of the comingling of two aircraft in mid-air aren’t enough there are threats of air traffic controllers striking, baggage handlers striking, food concessionaires striking, people writing about aviation employees striking, striking, it’s a wonder that you can get from point A to point B anymore.

This is just as true in the natural world as it is in the unnatural one. A case in point is the mystery that occurred in Bosque del Apache, a heavily used flyway in New Mexico, in December of 2009 when Flight 19, a squadron of Sandhill cranes stationed out of the wetlands near Socorro, New Mexico attempted a daylight landing on runway 00-Bravo during the morning of December 5th. With clear skies, an unlimited ceiling and no reported obstacles they were on their final approach to land when there was brief squawk of “Mayday! Mayday! Abort!… ” and the transmission ended.

The five Sandhill cranes that comprised that flight were never heard from again and to this day their whereabouts are unknown and the disappearance has never been explained. For weeks an area wide search was conducted without any results. “It is as if they have simply flown away” said one government searcher who wished to remain anonymous as he was not authorized to speak about this matter.

It has become one of the legendary mysteries of our times and one that has become the daily fodder of conspirator theorists everywhere. After all Bosque del Apache is only 143.79 air miles due West from Roswell, New Mexico and you’d have to have been abducted by aliens and probed to near exhaustion not to know the importance of what is located there.

Fortunately, as far as this mystery is concerned, runway 00-Bravo is one that the Institute has had “funny feelings” about for years and we had placed a hidden camera there without the knowledge and permission of the Powers-That-Be just in case something Very Weird might happen there someday. Well, as you can see it was really lucky we did because in going over a piece of long-lost digital film we came across this extraordinary image of Flight 19 actually attempting to make that fateful landing. How’s that for having your crap together?

Of course our image of Flight 19 and what really happened to it has been plastered all over the government billboards and forums and derided as being fake and made up and a visual lie, but we know the truth and now so do you. We will not be silenced, and black helicopters on silent running, hovering night after night over the headquarters building here at the Institute don’t scare us either. In fact nothing human will make us stop writing and unless we are actually abducted ourselves by some kind of ungodly alien kidnappers, the truth will out. Stay tuned for further bulletins about this secret Gov…..

Note from the ISP Blog relayers: Unfortunately the above post was truncated and ceased publishing suddenly. We have been unable to reach the Institute headquarters to find out what the problem is. In fact there is some kind of electronic blackout over that entire area that we are attempting to identify but as of right now there appears to be a government sanctioned news suspension in effect. We will report any changes in this situation as they occur. At this time we are not accepting calls regarding this startling development. Thank you for your patience.