Please pardon my absence. Everything is fine, and for those who've expressed concern, while I appreciate the sentiment I can assure you that there's nothing to worry about. I've recently decided to take a break and devote some time to other interests, namely sculpting and spearfishing, motorcycle adventure travel, and Native American rock art (among other things).
I've seen so much of the Southern Los Padres over the years that it's not inconceivable that I may be experiencing a degree of burnout. Then again, maybe I'm out there doing all my usual stuff and neglecting to tell anyone about it.
What this writing may be is a notification of my retirement from penning this page. I've been contemplating the idea of retirement for a while now. First, I don't write this page to bolster my self esteem, so it's not about satisfying a craving for attention or supporting my "fragile male ego". While I do enjoy writing these posts and sharing new experiences, and while it is true that through this page I've gotten feedback and ideas and met some really great people, there do remain some persuasive reasons to quit. Foremost among these is that I am mightily tired of so many people knowing what I've been up to. I am, at heart, a misanthropic introvert who doesn't much care what people think of me as long as they don't hinder what I want to do. That being said, there seems to be a subset of readers (including archaeologists, the USFS, USF&W, and the WWP) who are actively looking for a way to say "Gotcha Bitch!" when I stray into private property or into the Condor Sanctuary or when I poke my nose into some place I probably don't belong. If I am in fact retiring from writing this rag then I am getting those people back right now because you know what? I have every intention of going where I like, seeing what I want to see, and if I have no compulsion to share those destinations then I really will have become the ghosting brush ninja. So my methods haven't changed, I'm just deciding wether or not to have any kind of on-line presence at this point (I will be keeping my Flickr page for sure). That just about covers whatever I felt I had to say on this subject.
Meanwhile, do the voodoo that you do.
