Tampons, Tampons, Everywhere

But more on that later.

: )

This post is dedicated to my friend Lisa J., who told me she loves my flower pictures and even suggested that I put together a flower calendar. ’Course, I can’t even get my shit together enough to finish The Lovely’s 8-picture flower photo collage, so I wonder what the chances are of me getting my photos organized enough to come up with 12 full months??!

: )

I discovered — thanks to the newest addition to my book collection, Wildflowers of Tennessee, the Ohio Valley and the Southern Appalachians, sent to me by the aforementioned Lone Pine Publishing — that the blue flowers from the previous post are, in fact, chicory (which also happens to be a word I really like).

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As we all know, I am quite a novice at wildflower identification; I have to say, though, that this book has already helped me identify several different species — and I was able to find chicory in, like, 2 seconds, thanks to a color-key guide in the front of the book. And I am pleased to see that the area covered includes the southern half of Illinois, so, combined with the Kansas and Illinois wildflowers Web sites, along with my handy-dandy Farmers Almanac , I am now FULLY armed and dangerous ... or dorkterous ... or whatever.

I do not yet know, however, what these are called.



I am not quite sure why I like coneflowers so much ... nor why I often mistakenly refer to them as cornflowers. Perhaps I like them because they remind me of daisies, somehow.





Rambling off in a different direction:

The other day, someone called in a news tip that there had been a 5-car wreck on the interstate, not far from our town’s exit. I grabbed the Olympus and headed out, with my usual mix of excitement and trepidation.

I have to tell you, there is a bit of a rush involved when you are shooting accident scenes, fires, storm damage, etc. I am always very leery about what I will find, though, especially at the site of a car wreck, because sometimes the scene can be quite gruesome. And there is always the possibility that someone has been seriously injured or killed.

(There is also the possibility, when a wreck has occurred, that your own car will be crashed into by all of the people involved in the gaper’s block that inevitably ensues.)

Anyway, I drove across the overpass near the airport — one of my favorite spots to shoot sunsets — and could see that the wreck had occurred on the stretch of interstate between that overpass and the next one to the north. So I drove up to that one, crossed it and tried to figure out where I could park and how I could get to the crash site, preferably without having to hike half a mile or more. (Hey, I was on deadline!)

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Luckily, right about that time, I spotted a former colleague who now works for a rival newspaper. I say “rival,” but the truth of the matter is, in relatively small media markets like the ones we work in, I believe it is generally understood that the No. 1 goal is to provide accurate information in as timely a manner as possible to our readers or viewers or listeners, and we all try to work together to achieve that goal.

“Hey, I found a spot up here where we can get within 20 yards of the interstate,” Becky told me. “But we have to climb over a fence and walk through some woods.”

“I’ll do it!” I said.

“Well, if you’ll do it, I’ll do it!” she said.

(Gotta love professional peer pressure!)

We parked our mobile news units and headed for the crash site.

First thing I noticed was a car that was flipped over, near the median. (I later found out that the vehicle’s driver had fallen asleep and the car, which was southbound, had crossed the median, struck 2 northbound cars and rolled over. I also learned that the driver had been ticketed for improper lane usage ... which seemed like a case of adding insult to injury, but, I guess, technically, she had definitely not stayed in her lane!)

The second things I noticed were a couple of helicopters, coming in for landing, right on the interstate.

Next, I saw a man kneeling in the grass of a ditch along the side of the interstate. I do not know for sure, but I strongly suspect he was the driver of one of the cars.

I also noticed that there was a huge amount of debris scattered all about. Including tampons. Everywhere. Kotex. Super, I think. (Honestly, that’s not my brand.)

: )