{"id":2646,"date":"2012-07-12T18:45:27","date_gmt":"2012-07-13T02:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/?p=2646"},"modified":"2012-07-12T20:24:24","modified_gmt":"2012-07-13T04:24:24","slug":"summer-visitors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/?p=2646","title":{"rendered":"Summer visitors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/blogpix\/asphotog400.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"533\" alt=\"[IMAGE] Alex at the lens\" \/><\/p>\n<p><font color=#4F4E81>&#8230;click to listen:<\/font><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"\/RealAudio\/Intermezzo-bassflute-harp-excerpt.mp3\" style=\"text-decoration:none\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/ASIntermezzoCD1.html\" style=\"text-decoration:none\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/blogpix\/moregn.jpg\"\/><font color=#4F4E81>&#8230;about the music<\/font><\/a><\/p>\n<p><i><font color=#346513>An excerpt from a restful new release.<\/font><\/i><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-count=\"none\" data-via=\"alex_shapiro\">Tweet<\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Despite all the beautiful beautiful beautiful things I see when I&#8217;m in the air,<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/blogpix\/rainier-delta.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"228\" alt=\"[IMAGE] Mt. Rainier\" \/><br \/>\n<em>Zipping past Mount Rainier&#8230; oooh&#8230;<\/em><br \/>\n<span style=\"clear: both;\"><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/blogpix\/approach.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"268\" alt=\"[IMAGE] On approach to SJI\" \/><br \/>\n<em>Approaching the narrow South Beach area of San Juan Island, with other isles in the background&#8230; aahhhh&#8230;<\/em><br \/>\n<span style=\"clear: both;\"><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m celebrating being in the midst of a three month stretch during which my feet are not leaving the ground.<\/p>\n<p>I sail and hike and kayak and scramble and drive around this beautiful beautiful beautiful place. When human visitors come to my doorstep, I take them along for the adventures.<\/p>\n<p>And every day, when non-human visitors come to my doorstep, they take me on <em>their<\/em> adventures.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/blogpix\/alexandeagleatdesk400.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"203\" alt=\"[IMAGE] Wind\" \/><br \/>\n<em>Escher-esque: editing a twilight photo I had just shot of the eagle on the rock in front of me, while the eagle is on the rock in front of me.<\/em><br \/>\n<span style=\"clear: both;\"><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/blogpix\/passingpod.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"251\" alt=\"[IMAGE] orca pod\" \/><br \/>\n<em>A pod of orcas glides by my toes.<\/em><br \/>\n<span style=\"clear: both;\"><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/blogpix\/divingorca.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"308\" alt=\"[IMAGE] orca breach\" \/><br \/>\n<em><strong>YIPPEE!!<\/strong>. Or something like that.<\/em><br \/>\n<span style=\"clear: both;\"><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s hilariously distracting when I&#8217;m on a business call and these guys are hurling themselves out of the water in front of me (I will never get over my great fortune to work at a desk with this view, instead of, like, an airshaft). Sometimes I giddily describe the scene to whoever&#8217;s on the phone. And other times (during more, uh, <em>professional<\/em> calls), the person on the other end has no idea that as I&#8217;m oh-so-professionally discussing whatever professional bit of professional stuff we&#8217;re talking about,  I&#8217;m silently going <em>!!OHMYGAWD!!<\/em> and clicking away on my camera. Sometimes.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/blogpix\/hums.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"509\" alt=\"[IMAGE] hummers\" \/><br \/>\n<em>Also airborne are these folks. Except in the brief moments their teeny tiny feet curl around the feeder.<\/em><br \/>\n<span style=\"clear: both;\"><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p>And then there are the land-based guests.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/blogpix\/foxaliens.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"353\" alt=\"[IMAGE] fox\" \/><br \/>\n<em>This fox comes around regularly, and has mastered the art of the marvelously pathetic, pleading stare. The aliens do their best to ignore him.<\/em><br \/>\n<span style=\"clear: both;\"><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/blogpix\/foxcritic.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"373\" alt=\"[IMAGE] fox\" \/><br \/>\n<em>I can&#8217;t quite tell what he thinks about my music.<\/em><br \/>\n<span style=\"clear: both;\"><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/blogpix\/milesandalex.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"533\" alt=\"[IMAGE] fox\" \/><br \/>\n<em>Until he comes to the door and reports to me in no uncertain terms exactly which notes I need to change.<\/em><br \/>\n<span style=\"clear: both;\"><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p>So, that&#8217;s this week&#8217;s chamber of commerce visitor tourism overview. Stay tuned for more Island Adventures with Al! <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/blogpix\/alex-tractor.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"561\" alt=\"[IMAGE] grader\" \/><br \/>\n<em>Yes, I AM behind the wheel of a road grader. Don&#8217;t even ask&#8230; is that the theme to Green Acres I hear?<\/em><br \/>\n<span style=\"clear: both;\"><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8230;click to listen: &#8230;about the music An excerpt from a restful new release. Tweet Despite all the beautiful beautiful beautiful things I see when I&#8217;m in the air, Zipping past Mount Rainier&#8230; oooh&#8230; Approaching the narrow South Beach area of San Juan Island, with other isles in the background&#8230; aahhhh&#8230; I&#8217;m celebrating being in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2646"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2646"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2670,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2646\/revisions\/2670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}