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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 […]
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 […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4595: My dad, Paul W. Essen, died twelve years ago this week. As anyone who has read my book Hits, Heathens, and Hippos: Stories from an Agent, Activist, and Adventurer knows, my father was a born again Christian to the extreme. In fact, he even believed his god wanted him […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4586: As many of you know, Nellie had TPLO surgery on her left-rear leg four weeks ago. She’s doing great, but won’t be fully recovered until sometime in January. Until then, the veterinarian’s instructions are to not let Nellie climb stairs, run, or jump. That means keeping Nellie on a […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4583: We are three-and-a-half weeks into the eight-to-twelve weeks of Nellie’s recovery from TPLO surgery on her left rear leg. The worst is over, at least for Nellie. As you can see, much of the hair has grown back on her leg (which had been shaved clean), so she doesn’t […]
Marty’s photos of the day #4575: Nellie is not ready to play with the big stick yet, but yesterday was a significant day in her recovery from TPLO surgery (Doggie Tommy John) on her left rear leg. Early in the morning, Nellie and I traveled to Missoula to get the staples taken out of her […]
Marty’s photos of the day #4570: Ten days have gone by since Nellie’s TPLO surgery (think doggie Tommy John surgery) on her left rear leg, which means that Deb and I have only seventy-four more days of waiting on Nellie paw and foot. Yeah, the novelty of all of us camping out on a mattress […]
Marty’s photos of the day #4569: This is me, looking through the hole in Deb’s and my canoe after a hippo bit through it and lifted us six feet into the air. For the whole story, click here for a video from my college show Around the World in 90 Minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ChLv0RlsHs&t=4s (Photo taken in […]
Marty’s photos of the day #4563: Nellie’s recovery from TPLO (Doggy Tommy John) surgery on her left-rear leg—Day #2. Nellie is such a trooper! Last night Deb and I slept with Nellie on a mattress on the floor of our great room (something will be doing for the next eight-to-twelve weeks). The mattress is much […]
Marty’s photos of the day #4560: Today is Nellie’s 4th birthday! Well, give or take three months. When Deb and I adopted Nellie, a little over three years ago, she had been a stray. So no one really knows her exact birthday. I chose Halloween for her because she’s a black dog. As I’ve mentioned […]
Marty’s photos of the day #4557: Fun with snow! You’re looking at the good version of “fun”: the view from my writing room window this morning. The not so fun version of the 7 inches of snow we received was that Deb and I were without electricity for about 5 hours yesterday (the heavy snow […]
Marty’s photos of the day #4554 & #4555: Ha! I had completely forgotten about these signs until I found them by accident this morning, while going through my photo files. I had to search my list of college shows to figure out where they were. They’re from my show in the Krueger Auditorium at the University […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4553: I’m back in Montana after two performances of “Around the World in 50 Minutes” on two Davidson-Davie Community College campuses (in North Carolina). Both shows went great and both drew way more people than the college expected, so it was happiness all around. After yesterday’s show, I drove straight […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4543: So as it turned out, Gilligan, the Skipper, the Professor, Ginger, Mary Ann, Eunice, and Thurston, were actually marooned on Vancouver Island! About the photo: While camping in a remote area along the Johnstone Strait on Vancouver Island, Deb and I found all sorts of abandoned items hidden in […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4541: Deb and I have enjoyed two long camping trips into Canada with our dogs. The first was in 2002, when Deb and I took Kate and Annie on a 5,572-mile-long adventure to the very top of Canada, which became part of my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4518: Deb’s and my two-week-long vacation on Vancouver Island was a fallback vacation that we decided on only two weeks before we departed. It truly was a “winging-it” adventure. Previously, the Covid-19 Pandemic canceled our Bonaire trip (now planned for next year), and then massive forest fires canceled what was […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4514: This tail belongs to a gray whale named Indigo (read on to learn how I know that). While working on my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, Deb and I experienced multiple close-up humpback whale encounters off the coast of Antarctica. The whales would approach […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4512: While working on my first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents, Deb and I experienced multiple close-up humpback whale encounters off the coast of Antarctica. The whales would approach our Zodiac (a small rubber boat) and—just when it looked like they might capsize us—they’d dive under […]
Marty’s photos of the day #4504-4506: Thanks to my dog, Nellie, for filling in for me during the past two weeks. Now that Deb, Nellie, and I are back home, I’m taking over my posts again. (Nellie fans don’t fret: she’ll be back again). I’m still sorting through the 1,500 photos I took during the […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4503: “Woof everyone! Nellie here. Dad is busy packing, so I’m taking over his post today. Mom and Dad were going to take me all the way to the top of Canada, but that trip got canceled because huge forest fires are blocking our way. Apparently these fires are burning […]
