Flowers #39A & 40A

I believe this flower belongs to the Columbine family, although I might be mistaken.  I must admit that I have a very limited knowledge of flowers.  I just like playing in dirt (although doing so causes me great lower back pain) and photographing the fruits of my labor!

Note: Sometimes I will check my photo postings on a computer at my local library to check their quality on a different computer than my own.  On two occasions, I have noted the quality of my photographs severely lacking.  This post was one of them.  If I was fortunate to have you view my work and you found the quality poor, please let me know via a viewer comment.

Steven H. Spring

An Ode To Facebook

Five long years ago…
Watching you strut your stuff.
Walking down the municipal court hallway,
My first thought was, WOW!  Did I ever fuck up!

Then yesterday I saw a picture of you on Facebook,
Standing right there next to my daughter.
I did not recognize who it was I was looking at,
Even after taking one more very long look.

It took me awhile to believe it was actually you,
It was like looking at a total stranger.
However, it said so right there in the caption.
My thoughts were…MAN, what the fuck happened?

Five long years ago, you were oh so hot!
But then on Facebook, most likely not!
Your clothes, your ‘do, you were then oh so bold,
But looking at you on Facebook now, you just plain look old!

Seeing is believing is what they always seem to say,
That my be true, be it as it may.
I just couldn’t get it through my head,
I didn’t want to believe it, no matter what it said.

The only thing missing was the grey,
It’s probably there, you just dye it.
Now days,  it’s so hard to gauge,
I guess that it’s to be expected, especially someone of your age!

I know I ain’t no spring chicken,
I myself am looking kinda old.
However, I’m a long way from being dead.
I may be losing my hair, but I’m getting more head.

Steven H. Spring

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flowers #10A, 10B, 11A & 12A

Dahlias are perennial plants native to Mexico, Central America and Colombia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flowers #247 & 247A

The Bird Of Paradise is a very unique, gorgeous flower native to South Africa and not to be confused with the 1965 number one country hit May The Bird Of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose by Little Jimmy Dickens and written by Neal Merritt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hydraulic Fracturing (i.e., Fracking)

In a move that will most likely both please and upset environmentalists, this past week the Obama administration proposed new legislation concerning hydraulic fracturing that requires companies drilling for oil and natural gas on public lands to disclose exactly what chemicals they are using in this highly controversial drilling process.  However, I was greatly disappointed to learn that this regulation allows these companies to disclose this information only after they have completed drilling.  This, to me greatly diminishes the true intent of this proposed law.  This allowance seems a little like closing the barn doors only after the horses have escaped.

I am far from knowledgeable about hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, but I have seen several television programs and have read numerous articles the past several years that documented known cases of groundwater contamination due to fracking.  I have seen interviews on television with landowners from Pennsylvania who talk of regretting their decision to sell the mineral rights to their property to the fracking industry because their groundwater became contaminated due to this very contentious and rapidly expanding type of drilling.

Several lawsuits have already been filed claiming groundwater contamination, dating back to at least 2009.  The EPA announced a year or so ago that it would begin investigating claims of water contamination linked to fracking in Texas, North Dakota, Colorado, Louisiana and Pennsylvania.  Contamination of groundwater is just one of several potential natural disasters that could result from hydraulic fracturing.  Disposal of the millions of gallons of contaminated wastewater as a byproduct of this type of drilling is another potential disaster just waiting to happen.

This past year, there were earthquakes in the Youngstown, Ohio region that were attributed to the dumping of fracking wastewater.  Ohio is fast becoming the principal region to dump this highly toxic wastewater from the thousands of wells drilled in Pennsylvania.  Granted, fracking could be a boom industry and help solve this nation’s energy dependence on Middle East oil, however, I believe we are moving entirely too fast in allowing the oil and gas industry carte blanche in the rush to drill for these precious minerals without the necessary studies to determine the full impact on our precious natural resources.

In addition to possible violations of both the Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water Acts, possibly the absolute worse fact about this particular process of drilling for natural gas and oil is the use of millions of gallons of precious water to crack open the Utica and Marcellus shale.  The next great war will not be fought over oil, but water.  Great Lake states, Canada and the water industry are already fighting politically over water rights to the five Great Lakes, the world’s largest source of fresh water.  In the rush to drill for these minerals, we are allowing for the possibility of a truly great natural disaster to occur.  Did we not learn anything from the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico?

Steven H. Spring

 

 

 

 

 

Trees #112 & 114

These two photos were taken in Yellowstone National Park, in northwest Wyoming, USA maybe in 1992 or 1993, a few years after wildfires ravaged the park during 1988.