In the blink of an eye...

...a shot is fired.
A shell casing is ejected.
And the clip ejects vertically.

Ejected...

Casing the joint...

Very fun day at the range shooting some high speed photos as well as some firearms.

Shelled...

Seven year slumber
Crawl up from depths in the night
Subterranean

Only two-hundred and some-odd days 'till beach weather...

Bring on the cold.
I loves me a brisk walk on a Fall beach.

Seventeen year brood...

These little critters stay underground for many years and then all emerge together.


They molt and leave their shell behind. They take some time to unfurl their wings and let them dry so that they can fly away in search of mate for the next seventeen year brood.


Be sure to click these next two for desktop sized images.


I think this is my favorite of the bunch.

'chele sells seashells... after winning a "WIIF?"

Seashell... violence or defense?

I'm amazed at how my brain works sometimes... I go off on tangents.

I was thinking of a snappy title for this post; then I got to thinking of how things in nature often have a violent, aggressive look to them. A snail grew this shell as a defensive shield. A hermit crab may have taken up residency at one time also for defense. Ancient humans may have found larger versions to use as jewelery or weapons. Getting hit by one of these would hurt! Heck... stepping on one would hurt.

I then thought about other creatures like lampreys and hotostomias guernei. I guess if you lived in the dark with intense cold and pressure you would look like that too.

Then you get into parasites. I won't post a nasty link for you, but do a google image serch if you dare. Nature can be demented at times.

Tangent again... anomalies. Extra limbs, abnormal growths, brundlefly... ok, that's pushing the science fiction envelope a bit. Which brings me to Tom Cruise... (joking)

On to the desktop image...