Peoria, Arizona.
I always enjoy the views of the saguaro cacti on our hikes in Arizona. As I have commented many times over the years, this species of succulent is found only in the wettest desert in the world, the Sonoran Desert, mostly in Arizona and northernmost Mexico.
Those stately arms usually bend from a very short forearm area to directly vertical paralleling the main trunk. Occasionally, though, the arms appear to have a mind of their own and choose to follow a path quite unlike their brethren. On a hike along the Yavapai Point Trail in Lake Pleasant Regional Park, next to a stately, upright specimen, we met “Twisted Sister”. At least that is the name I gave it, the unusually shaped “arm” growth made me think of the heavy metal band of the same name.
About the photo: Captured on my Samsung S20U cellphone, I exported the image into Lightroom for basic tweaks, then on to Luminar AI. As usual, I remind you, dear reader, that you should be able to click on the image for a better view.
Postscript: I have been adjusting to a new computer after my old one “bricked”, I’ve been a bit behind in my progress on blog writing. The reason is the need to spend much time rearranging my photo library to fit an entirely different image storage model based upon limitations in these newest superthin, superlight laptops. For their advantages, they’ve given up internal storage space and lowered the number of available external ports. Probably my biggest disappointment is the lack of a full-size SD card slot, instead replaced by a micro-SD slot. That’s not a problem for my cellphone, but it will change how I export images from my D500. Someday I will share some of the issues that I have encountered as I adopted a new image storage model. For now, I’ll just say that my other computer was a lot less hassle.
John Steiner
Flare Legend Adventures
A few years ago I switched from a smallish laptop to an all-in-one desktop. It cannot be carried around like a laptop, but it has served me really well so far.
I have considered an all-in-one, they are stylish and don’t take up near the space of those desktop computers I used to own. With all of the traveling I do, however, I really like to take my computer with me.
Sometimes nature just goes crazy. Twisted Sister is a good example.
That is surely the truth!
Great shot of the “crazy cactus,” John. Your issues arising from your hardware conversion give me pause about “finally” upgrading to Windows 10. My main concern is that Lotus 1-2-3 (yes, I still use it) will not run under 10. I have begun saving my key Lotus spreadsheets as Excel files (I do have Office 2010), but after using Lotus for 35+ years and with hundreds of spreadsheets, I don’t want to risk losing something permanently. Yes, I know Windows 7 is no longer supported. I also know that millions of people still use it at work and at home. It is a very stable platform.
I have a couple of friends who are still on Windows 7 and feel no need to change. Truly I understand the potential for data loss in a software changeover. At one point, I lost my entire electronic flight log book which I’d kept in a database that is no longer supported or available.
I have avoided rekeying the 20+ years of flights into a new medium. It isn’t worth the effort. >grin<
Thanks, sir. No change is friction-less as you can attest.
These twisted cacti create a certain presence in the desert. As for changing technologies, probably our cavemen ancestors didn’t like changing axes; I think we are individually resistant to changes though we press our society to change.
I wish you the best with the changeover in systems. Unfortunately it’s always a headache. Hopefully nothing gets lost in transition.
Thanks! I am slowly getting used to my new work model. I do love the extra speed of the 11 Gen i7 processor.
[…] –John Steiner […]
The second best point is all the enjoyable points you get to do!