Catching Up

A couple of my faithful readers have recently admonished me for not being diligent with my blog entries. To these I must confess I have been most negligent. These are the dog days of summer and I have been lazy as a dog myself.
Two weekends ago I met up with a friend from Polson over in Ranchester where we camped Saturday night. A hot weekend, too hot to camp and too hot to fish even if the Tongue River was not slow, low and algae ridden, so we lazed around and talked and listened to music until the batteries ran out on both the XM and the ipod.
Last weekend found me again in the Bearlodge Mts, but the heat kept me from hiking or fishing, so me and my dog just hung out, took an evening and a morning photo-hike, and got some reading done. The temperature was over a hundred both Saturday and Sunday, and without rain for a while all was dry and the roads thick with dust. The photo of the tower was taken on the way back and made cool looking with PS.
Now, this weekend I am hanging out in town, the first weekend since last April I have spent a weekend here. They say record heat (106 today), and even Barley says he’d rather stay inside. So reading “The Best American Short Stories” edited by Michael Chabon. For a brief review, let me say, the BASS series has finally gotten it right again, for the last decade they’ve been too concerned with the form and the story has suffered; now they are back to good story telling. The other reading is a couple photo books by Freeman Patterson. I can say whoever reads his books will either become a more observant person and a better visual artist, or become a more frustrated artist. Patterson makes it all look so easy, but the nice thing about it, he tells you how he makes (not takes) a photo.