Marty’s photo of the day #4620: For my final picture of the year, I’m posting the untouched photo for the cover of the First Edition of my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents. That’s a tailless whip scorpion on my face, and my wife, Deb, shot the photo in the Amazon […]
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Month: December 2023
Gray whale
Marty’s photo of the day #4619: Gray whale, photographed this past September off the coast of Vancouver Island.
Nellie’s X-rays
Marty’s photos of the day #4617-4618: Yesterday Nellie had her final appointment with the surgeon who created her bionic left-rear leg. What you are looking at are two X-rays from that appointment. The first photo shows a view of five of the six screws inserted into Nellie’s leg. TPLO surgery (Doggie Tommy John) involves removing […]
Pleasing the Hockey Gods
Marty’s photo of the day #4616: Deb and I live in Montana, but we are originally from Minnesota—the State of Hockey. Therefore hockey is our winter sport. We’re also intelligent people, so naturally a sport that features a trapezoid and reliance on geometry adds to its appeal for us. Last year, for Christmas, I bought […]
Sea otters
All clean
Marty’s photo of the day #4614: At the beginning of July and at the end of December, one of my chores is to totally clean and sanitize the two snake vivariums (I spot clean as needed the rest of the time). This is a five-hour process that turns into a workout, as I end up […]
40 buckets of sand and 40 sleepless hours
Marty’s photo of the day #4613: My Christmas weekend so far: Deb (wife), Nellie (dog), and I live on a private gravel road in the mountains of Montana. We have three neighbors above us, and the climb to our houses on that road is steep and often icy in the winter. Our two newest neighbors […]
Antarctica
The Book Club
Marty’s photo of the day #4611: Earlier this week, Deb, Nellie, and I watched “The Book Club: The Next Chapter” (where the characters travel to Italy). The movie was good, but not great. Mostly Deb and I would take turns blurting out, “We were there!” and Nellie would bark out, “Where are the dogs?” So […]
Nellie’s bionic leg update
Marty’s photo of the day #4610: Seven-and-a-half weeks have passed since Nellie got her new bionic left-rear leg (TPLO surgery to remove a ligament, reshape/refit the bone, and install a metal plate with 6 screws). Nellie’s recovery is coming along on schedule. She doesn’t limp anymore when outside, but still limps sometimes inside—especially after a […]
Once Christians can set aside Jesus’s disdain for money . . .
Marty’s photo of the day #4609: Once Christians can set aside Jesus’s disdain for money as depicted in the Bible, the rest is easy to accept: The enormously wealthy Catholic Church declaring individual bankruptcies to avoid paying court-ordered penalties for child sexual abuse, mega churches and televangelists shoveling in the money while virtually ignoring the […]
One million children sexually abused
Marty’s photo of the day #4608: A few years ago I publicly asserted that over 1 million children have been sexually molested in Christian churches. While I doubt I’m the first to make that claim, two things have surprised me: The first is that I haven’t seen the media ever make such a claim. The […]
How many bankruptcies would this cover?
Marty’s photo of the day #4607: At this time of year, I often think about my born-again Christian father and the arguments we used to have. He was the kind of Christian that believed the Bible was the literal word of his god. That, of course, meant that the Bible had to be either written […]
What would “putting God into our schools” look like?
Marty’s photo of the day #4606: ’Tis the week before Christmas, and as has become my tradition, I’m going to dig out some of my photos from all over the world, showing the wealth and power of Christian churches, along with the hypocrisy they bring. But please, don’t blame me. I’m only stating inconvenient facts. […]
Looking for . . .
Marty’s photo of the day #4605: Six-and-a-half weeks have passed since Nellie got her new bionic left-rear leg (CCL removed, knee refitted, and a metal plate with six screws installed). Deb and I have one more week of sleeping with her on the pullout couch mattress placed on the great room floor before moving up […]
Within Temptation 2024
Marty’s photo of the day #4604: It’s hard to believe that five years have gone by since Deb and I saw Within Temptation in Italy. Their latest album is awesome, and they remain one of the best live bands in the world. And (hint, hint) if my wife would like to go to the Netherlands […]
Jago River
Marty’s photo of the day #4603: This is the Jago River in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It took Deb and me five days to canoe down it and about 30 minutes to fly back over it. For more on this, see my second book, book, Endangered Edens: Exploring the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Costa […]
Yellow-crowned night heron
#1 priority fire in America (2000)
Marty’s photo of the day #4601: Here’s an old photo I would never post in the summer, because too many of my Bitterroot Valley Montana friends would freak out, thinking the fires were here again. This is the fire of 2000, which at the time was the #1 priority fire in America. Deb’s and my […]
Waves crashing in
Marty’s photo of the day #4600: Here’s an old photo, taken with a cheap film camera, of my wife, Deb, standing alone on a beach in Kauai, with huge waves crashing in. I was able to clean the shot up a bit in my photo program, including removing an object that made her look like […]