Deacon thirsts for your blood.

Actually, he’s a sweet old dog, though a bit crotchety and prone to barking. He turned 16 back in December, is mostly blind and hard of hearing, but still has a great appetite. He also has a great sense of smell — he can be asleep in our bedroom, but will wake up and start barking when I open the fridge in the kitchen and take out food.  ..bruce w..

You say you want a revolution?

Sorry it’s taken me so long to post here. I tried last night, but I was so exhausted that I kept falling asleep while composing this post and resizing my photographs so that they weren’t each 5 MB in size. I was tied up here in DC pretty much all day today (Sunday) and got back to the hotel this evening.

Obviously, the live-blogging didn’t work out. Having what was at least a few hundred thousand people, most of whom had cell phones, all within a relatively small area appeared to saturate the local cell phone circuits. I was having a hard time just getting any signal on my iPhone; I got repeated “Unable to connect to phone network” (or words to that effect). My Acer (with AT&T GSM connectivity) either wouldn’t connect or would lose the signal after I did connect.

Saturday morning, around 8 am, my wife Sandra and I walked down to Freedom Plaza, thinking we were going to be early. A good sized crowd was already there, and it was growing by the minute. Mind you, this was a full hour before festivities at Freedom Plaza were supposed to start, and three-and-a-half hours before the march up to the Capitol was supposed to start. The crowd rapidly filled up the plaza and the streets around it.And kept growing and growing and growing.

The age range here was quite broad. There were babies, children, teenagers, young adults, thirtysomethings, middle-aged folks, and the elderly. There were a surprising number of people in wheelchairs. There were some dogs, even. People were friendly, outgoing, and gregarious; I had several people just turn to me, introduce themselves, and ask where I was from.

Almost all the signs were hand-made, though a few had been professionally printed.

This was one of my favorites.

One of the few professionally printed signs

This would be a recurring theme in the talks at the Capitol.

One could still ask this question.

And more signs:

Another favorite.

The crowd quickly filled the section of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of Freedom Plaza, then kept growing towards the Capitol.

This was just about the time that the rally at Freedom Plaza was supposed to start.

DC Police parked several cars on Pennsylvania a few blocks down, but the crowd finally grew too large, and they moved them out of the way. People started marching towards the Capitol around 10 am, and the official march started around 11 am, with a drum-and-fife corps in Revolutionary era outfits setting the beat. They were quite loud, very good, and very effective.

Along the way, the march passed the National Archives, where I thought the following engraving was significant:

"What is past is prologue."

Many protesters were lining Pennsylvania and joined in the march as it passed, as we all headed to the Capitol.

There were also hundreds already on the West Capitol lawn when the march got down there. The lawn started filling up fast.

Mind you, this was nearly an hour before the march was supposed to start down Pennsylvania Avenue.

And the people just kept on coming.

Again, this is nearly an hour before the march was supposed to start.

Once it filled, protesters were directed to the two side lawns. They then started to file onto the Mall, though they were commanded by the DC Park Police to stay off the Mall’s grass because another organization had it reserved.

The crowds stayed, too. Here’s the crowd at the end of the program (about 4 pm Eastern time); you can see how they’ve spilled out onto the Mall.

Yes, that's me and my sweet wife.

If I had had any clue that folks were going to challenge the size of the crowd, I’d have spent more time photographing it, and from different angles. It was massive.

And one last reminder:

..bruce..

I’ve got a new camera (a Nikon D-5000) and have been trying it out. This (above) is Howling Wingnut, known simply as Winnie. And here’s her sister, Barking Moonbat, aka Marti (short for Martian — which Sandra thought she looked like as a puppy):

Here’s Winnie again, showing off her fierceness:

Meanwhile, here’s Marti with Laverne:

Oops. Have to board our plane soon.  ..bruce w..

Winnie on the hunt

For the last three or four days, Winnie has spent much of her waking time standing out by this portion of the fence, staring along the side of the garage. She was trying to actually dig her way under the face — moving the rocks with her paws — which led me to put the long metal strip down. Finally, yesterday, I went around to that side of the garage to see what she could be staring at. I picked up a length of gutter drain pipe — and a small, frantic creature slid out.

This wee bunny then made the mistake of darting away from me, through the fence and into the enclosure with three highly excited MinPins. It hid under the pine tree you see the first photo above, but Winnie rooted it out, got it in her jaws, and ran into the house with the bunny. I rapidly followed and with some difficulty got the bunny away from Winnie, sure that it was injured and possibly even dead.

Nope.  As far as I could tell, the bunny was just fine, if probably terrified nigh unto death.  It was, as you can imagine, just too cute for words, and I actually took about 70 pictures of it. As you can see, Winnie was still anxious to get her jaws into her prey:

The rabbit actually seemed oblivious to Winnie's frequent leaps

In the end, I took the bunny and the segment of gutter drain pipe in which it had been hiding over by the propane tank, some distance from the house and near a lot of thick grass. I set the pipe down and put the bunny at its entrance — and the bunny quietly crawled into the pipe, doubtlessly grateful to have escaped being a snack (or toy) for a pack of MinPins.  ..bruce w..

During this time of year, California is in its “dry season” and most of the grasses have gone brown and dormant. This can give the rolling hills of the central range a golden color that can make for some great photos.

These were taken with my trusty Nikon D40 about 15 minutes before sunset.

Not just all old fogey taxpayers

And as we walked up to the Colorado State Capitol, we saw that Denver’s Finest were ready for anything:

Be on the lookout...

More after the jump.

Even though we got to the Capitol about 45 minutes early, there was already a sizeable crowd:

The Colorado Legislature was in session in that building during the rally.

And there were plenty of signs out:

The sign on the left says, "I hate that you made me a protestor."

The chanting and cheering got quite loud at times; we were told that the Legislature could hear us.

Did Jefferson really say that?

Some of the Republican state legislators (and their staff) came out to cheer the crowd on (a few came down and spoke as well):

Sometimes leadership is getting out in front of the crowd

By now, the crowd had grown to at least a few thousand (the Denver Post estimated it at 5000, but I think the total was more like 3000):

Here’s a shot from across the street:

Lots of people there, you betcha.

And the large crowd brought more signs:

There's a small sign towards the back that reads, "Where is John Galt?"

That sign with a gold frame has a copy of the US Constitution

Well, then.

The yellow "Don't tread on me" flags were quite popular.

Sandra, being a long-time rabble rouser, was having a great time:

Ask the OB/GYNs of Utah Valley Hospital about Sandra's crusades sometime.

And, of course, extensive police intervention was required:

You can cut the tension with a knife.

I actually have a lot more pictures, but they all tend to look like the ones above; you can only show so many pictures of white middle-class folks carrying hand-lettered signs. It was a great rally. ..bruce w..

...than to curse the darkness.

Happy Earth Hour, everyone!

There are a few candles lit here, believe it or not.

I may leave these on all night! Naah.  ..bruce w..

My first thought was: “So, whaddya think? Sauteed? Roasted?”  ..bruce w..

Heh.  ..bruce w..

The gallery of Bavarian Christmas photos explains:

The troll-like Perchten or Krampus emerge when it gets dark. The gnarled and gruesome figures stomp through the Christmas markets of Bavaria, scaring children and sometimes even give women a spanking.

Cool! Here are two more comments from the gallery:

Viewed by light the Perchten don’t look all that scary, but some people still think their appearances may scar little children for life.

Is that the point?

The Perchten/Krampus tradition is growing more and more across the country and often is accompanied by a lot of alcohol these days.

Not a surprise, as Dave Barry would say (hat tip to his blog for the link). Be sure to look at the whole gallery; the Perchta above is one of the milder examples. ..bruce w..