Proof of Life
Bozeman, Montana
2025
(Photo by Connie Blackwood)

Some of you may be wondering why I quit posting POTDs back in April. One obvious explanation would be that I had kicked the bucket unexpectedly. If you thought that, you were close to being right. I went to Mayo Cinic in Rochester, MN for a two day routine heart checkup. I ended up being admitted to the hospital and staying there for 179 days plus a couple weeks  as an outpatient. During that 6+ months I had three open-heart surgeries, two heart attacks and a minor stroke. The last surgery was to get a heart transplant. This photo of me was taken just a few days ago after returning home. I’ve recovered considerably since earlier in the summer when I weighed some 125 pounds or so, looking more like this:

That’s me on the left. 🙂 On the right is Lily a service dog trained to entertain patients. I still have a lot of rehab left to do but notice small improvements almost daily.

Anyway, that’s my story (the short version). I’m not sure when I’ll be in a position to start regular POTDs again, but I’m hoping to once the dust settles around here. So stay tuned.

Saddle Sore
Chloride, Arizona
2025

Ghost Town Spirits #2
Chloride, Arizona
2025

Make that spirits light, since it’s just root beer and sarsaparilla.

Ghost Town Spirits
Chloride, Arizona
2025

Ghost Town Matryoshka
Chloride, Arizona
2025

So, inside of the ghost town of Chloride, they constructed a smaller fake ghost town, and inside of that fake ghost town they constructed several smaller doll-house scale ghost town buildings. The concept of Matryoshka dolls taken to a whole new level.

Dead and Down
Chloride, Arizona
2025

For reasons that seem to defy logic, at least mine, some folks in the near-ghost town of Chloride decided some time back to construct a fake ghost town right off the main drag. In spite it’s obvious redundancy, it did provide some entertainment as well as photo ops.

Reclining Nude
Chloride, Arizona
2025

Before her anorexia got the best of her, Mabel was considered quite voluptuous and could often be found assuming alluring poses for her many admirers.

While Chloride, Arizona is often referred to as a ghost town, in fact quite a few people make their homes there and there are a few businesses as well. By all appearances though, it’s a hard-scrabble life there, much like I imagine it has been for its entire life as Arizona’s oldest continuously inhabited mining town.

Dots and Dashes
Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada
2025

Getting to the Point
Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada
2025

Conflagration
Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada
2025

Perhaps influenced by the name of the locale where I encountered it, these clouds–even though they are just clouds–suggested to me an image of the sky on fire.