So, funny story…

As it turns out, one of my secret ‘trespassing to birdwatch’ spots is apparently also a local cop’s ‘drink his morning coffee in peace’ spot.
I should note that I am clearly trespassing. I mean, it is signed and fenced off.

But, hey, I know enough about the law to be dead wrong about my rights.

One gate is always open. That makes it like a swimming pool: an inviting nuisance.

They invited me with their nuisance.
Now, “technically” none of what I just said is true. But it **could be true** if it weren’t false.

That’s enough gray area for me.

So, I do a little (finger quotes) trespassing (finger quotes).

Big deal. Is that really a crime?

Well, yes, but I was being figurative.
Being a smooth criminal, I had crafted a perfect plan to enter the property undetected:

I look around from the main road and if no one is coming, I barrel through the gate and whip around the corner like I’m trying to stash a getaway car,
…and then, as a man who entertains all possibilities and plans for the unexpected, I had a contingency plan in case caught.

I’d just go right ahead anyway with the relaxed confidence of someone who is clearly driving an old Honda on important, official business of some kind.
Which brings us back to the beginning of the story…

There I was, barreling through the gate and around the corner only to find a police car literally **in. my. secret. spot.**

Contingency plan: activate!
I mean, in for a dime, in for a dollar at this point…

So, I drive right up next to the police car and roll down my window.

Officer rolls down his and looks at me all confused.

So, I smile wide, hold up my camera and say “I hike around in here for birds. That’s cool, right?”
Officer was like “Well, technically it’s trespassing…”

To which I laughed and rolled my eyes as if to dismiss the concept of trespassing as even an offense altogether.

Then he just looked at me for a minute while I smiled.
Then he laughed, picked up his coffee, and said “Yeah, I hear ya. I don’t give a shit either.”

Then he told me about where a couple eagles like to hang out and I told him about the post the osprey likes to perch on.
And then I went on my merry way.

Next time, I might bring a thermos of coffee and an extra pair of binoculars.

There’s a buddy movie in this, right?

Birdman and the Heat or something.

//

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More from @TheRealHoarse

24 Nov
I really can’t spend the next year arguing with people who are somehow AGAINST pushing for better communications from Dems.

So, I’m just going to block anyone peddling stupidity about how sucking at communications is somehow fine, necessary, unimportant or unfixable.
Seriously, I mostly hate Twitter lately.

Before Trump was elected, all of my existential screaming at the movie screen while the people in the horror movie couldn’t hear me happened off Twitter.

I didn’t join Twitter until the election.
It sucked the absolute life out of me.

As someone who understood his narcissistic personality disorder from the jump, that helpless screaming into the wind sucked the absolute life out of me.

The triggering of Trump’s narcissism was PTSDish enough.
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24 Nov
Conflict of interest laws exist for good reasons.

“Everything that looks like a potential conflict is one.” is not one of them.

“Every actual conflict of interest materially harms the public.” is not one of them.

1/
Conflict of interest laws exist because, at least in part, because of the understanding that even the *appearance* of a conflict can erode *public faith in government*.

The agency most responsible for enforcing federal conflict of interest provisions is the Dept. of Justice.

2/
There is no entity in our entire government that better understands:

1) Even appearances matter

2) Public faith in government matters

3/
Read 10 tweets
24 Nov
In every ad agency pitch for a big account, there is that one client who rolls their eyes at even the topic of messaging.

It’s usually a finance guy or ops person invited as a courtesy.

They sit there like a bubbling teapot until they inevitably boil over…

1/
…and blurts something out like “I don’t understand why we need to do all this. 🙄 We just need a good slogan like Nike.”

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You were supposed to just sit there and eat your bagel, Frank from Finance.

2/
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Cerulean. It is cerulean. And you didn’t choose it. You were made to choose it.

3/
Read 16 tweets
23 Nov
Today is my happiest anniversary.

Fourteen years ago, after nearly not surviving his first 24 hours, my son came home from the hospital.

His Homecoming was the single happiest day of my life.

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I will spare you the full narrative of his early birth and crash and struggle to survive.

I’ll spare you the weepy thanks to 28 doctors and nurses who literally saved my son’s life.

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My son is a healthy teenager now.

All that is left of that early trauma is two little scars - almost invisible - on the side of his rib cage where they intubated him to vent air from his tiny torn lungs.

3/
Read 12 tweets
20 Nov
When I was a kid, this place was a dump.

1/
I mean… it was literally a dump.

Back before we realized we were poisoning the absolute shit out of the ecosystem, any place unsuitable for easy development was treated as worthless.

This was a pristine wetland.

They turned it into a garbage dump. A landfill.

2/
Every Sunday, my father would drive me home from New York City to suburban New Jersey.

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Where I stood taking these pictures was a massive, sprawling dump. An endless line of garbage trucks rolling in to unload.

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Read 15 tweets
20 Nov
Everything kind of sucks so I’m just going to post a few bird pics that made me happy this week.

This is a northern harrier. A “gray ghost”. A male.

Striking, beautiful birds.

I’ve seen a gray ghost only once before.

1/?
I literally filled up my computer with pictures this past year.

Was up til 3 am archiving and deleting to make room.

It was a chore but I found a bunch of pics I meant to go back and clean up but hadn’t.

Like this early morning red-tailed hawk.

I think he noticed me.
Serious bird photogs don’t bother going out on shitty light days.

A white sky is the worst. You can’t get good birds in flight pics against a white sky.

I don’t care. I go out anyway. It’s about the activity not the output for me.

That’s a peregrine falcon. Amazing birds.
Read 7 tweets

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