The pictures with this post are from our last walk down the beach on Saturday. While we were walking, six large black birds circled lazily overhead of us. I’m calling them vultures, but I don’t really know what kind of raptor they really are. Sibley’s doesn’t show that either the turkey or black vulture ranges as far north as the U.P., but I don’t believe that eagles congregate like these birds did. There was one exception, years ago, in Missouri. It was a very cold winter’s day and all the open water had iced over, all except below the locks, which were left partially open to keep the gates from freezing up. On that day we saw fifty bald eagles congregated around the only open water for miles around. It was quite the sight.

I’ve written about my friend and co-worker Steven Pogue before here. He got his fifteen minutes of fame last month, when he was cited for giving another motorist the finger. He was supposed to go to trial tonight, but the City of Baldwin’s prosecutor called up Steve’s ACLU lawyer and offered to drop the charges in exchange for Steve’s promise not to sue. This arrangement was quite agreeable to Steve. He was ready to put this incident behind him. His planned defense was to be a first amendment argument; he was simply exercising his freedom of speech. I guess you could say that this makes Steve a bit of a freedom fighter? Coincidently, Anne and I watched “My Cousin Vinny” on Netflix, last night. It has a great courtroom scene that culminates with the prosecutor saying, “Your honor, the prosecution would like to dismiss all charges.”

I spoke with Dave at work today. Dave is always a great source of blog fodder and today was no different. He had a book on his desk called, “It’s a Book” by Lane Smith. It looks like a children’s book, but is so much more. It wouldn’t be too surprising if Dave did have a children’s book on his desk, he has the best at work Lego collection. It fundamentally violates the premise of “It’s a Book”, but since it was uploaded by the publisher and adequately captures the feel of the book, I offer this link to a YouTube version of “It’s a Book”.  In the book, the last time “It’s a Book” is spoken, it is embellished, “It’s a Book, Jackass!” I got grief over vacation, because while everyone else had their noses buried in a book, mine was in my iPhone. I guess that maybe at the cabin, I was the Jackass?