Desert Decorations

We find a lot of random stuff working in the desert everyday. Brochures, plastic bags, half eaten lunches, and shot gun shells to mention just some of the eclectic garbage at large.

(Side note: I have been so lucky not to find any corpses as yet, though I hear one year they found a pile of euthanized dogs from the pound. How's that for depressing? Have your pets spayed or neutered.)

One of the supreme and somewhat abundant desert finds are balloons. Sure, we have your standard rubber balloons, but I mean the big, colorful, obnoxious, metallic, once-helium-filled balloons. Valentine octopus with a heart on each tentacle declaring it's adoration? Got it. St. Patrick's Day mug of foaming beer? Done. It's a boy! You bet.

Balloon finds are rated on a 5 point scale, derived from a weighted consideration of size, color, and originality. Though only given a 3.5 by group vote, I am particularly proud of today's find which I laboriously removed from a creosote some distance off transect. Complete with a bouquet of partially deflated rubber balloons, I wish the class of 2009 good luck in their ventures and thank them for covering our empty living room wall.



The opportunity to spell out "poop" did not go unnoted, you who are giggling.