With the calm and coolness of a man about to commit murder, this guy taunted the leaf before smashing it under his foot.  There was nothing I could do, because I really didn’t care if he smashed the leaf or not.  What I did care about was ensuring the final moments of this leaf would be recorded by me, so that no one could accuse me of fabricating these particular events.

The unmarked grave, somewhere near the Mexican border this leaf is now resting in will one day become a sacred and hallowed place, but until that time, it will just have to be a field behind an empty warehouse.

One day, this leaf will join it’s carbon family, and may become oil itself, or might become a part OF the oil, like his bottled friends to the right.  Either way, they will say that it went before it’s time.  It was sent to whatever is next through an act of murder.  Distraught over the loss of their friend, most of the other trees in the area threw their leaves to the ground that fall…  All except the pine trees, who didn’t seem to care at all.

Foreground: All that remains of the I.B Limited Miniature Railroad. Background: Dinosaur Cage.

The Navy’s 800 foot diameter dinosaur cage on the southern tip of Coronado Bay has contained some of the more vicious breeds of dinosaurs ever created through genetic engineering.  From 1964-1999, the USN denied the very existence of the cage and it’s contents, despite being located in plain view of the busiest beach in all of California.

In the late 1980′s an author named Michael Crichton was marooned on Coronado during a bridge closure and while exploring the Silver Strand in that interim, came upon the cage, and was inspired to write a novel that would ultimately force the United States Government to admit the existence of the cage, and the poor location they selected to place it.

You see, after having George Lucas read “Jurassic Park” to him as a bedtime story, Steven Spielberg decided to make a movie about dinosaurs…  REAL dinosaurs.  Spielberg and crew managed to steal a few dinosaurs from the cage, film them for Jurassic Park and expose the truth to the world.  Forced with seeing dinosaurs on the big screen that looked exactly like dinosaurs living in the cage the Navy claimed didn’t exist was just too much evidence.  In 1999 the Navy admitted the cage was there, executed the dinosaurs and abandoned the site.

Becoming smaller & smaller in our minds ever since, the site was then used as the location for a beach side miniature railroad, but was destroyed in 2003 by miniature plane enthusiasts during The Centennial of Flight Celebration Riots.

The Spider’s Eyes Are Like A Doll’s Eyes

        As this wasp tracked down and hunted the spider, one veteran of The Battle of Palm Springs and I were present. Knowing the last living thing this spider would see, besides the wasp that would ultimately see to his demise was me gave me reason to snap his or her photo as the light went out out it’s eye.

        The eye of the spider showed defeat and when the wasp dragged the spider under a shrub, I wondered if the spider had a mind anything like mine, and what terrors would be going through that mind, if it did.