November 3rd, 2009 - Specimen Day

Walt Whitman pronounced his autobiography, 'Specimen Days,' to be "the most wayward, spontaneous, fragmentary book ever printed" (That's probably because "On the Road" hadn't been written yet.)
Be that as it may, I'm stealing his title, or at least part of his title, for my post. (I thought 'Specimen Days' was a great book, BTW)
Partly because I'm normally wayward, spontaneous, and fragmentary myself, and partly because I was out gathering glowing UV pumpkin gut specimens with a tongue depressor at Springbrook the other night.

Autumn Leaves - 'The Blair Witch' shot.

I worked the desk at SB during voting night (they are a polling place, the election was another story in itself) and decided that as long as I was there I would stroll out to the pumpkin mess and scoop up some gooey samples for future observation under UV lights and a microscope.

The travesty of "The Killing Fields." Note the handy bludgeon.

I would try to keep the glowing samples separated by color and see if I could figure out what was glowing, or if they changed on their own after being separated from the pumpkins.

"The horror. The horror."

The horror of bad teeth.

It was misting/sleeting as per usual every time I even think about hiking at Springbrook (kind of an inside joke), so I decided I would focus more on the specimen gathering and just bring "The Little Camera" (Olympus Stylus - 850SW) this time.

"Yes, Mr. Jones, I think we have discovered your problem. It's Pumpkin Rot. There, there, don't take it so hard. Look at the upside. You'll be able to read at night without turning the light on!"

So I scooped my goop and took a few quick pics.
Here is an interesting series:

Mansonite pumpkin.

The Enemy Within.

Spooky bottom lighting. The oldest trick in the book.

Things were getting pretty gooshy. Good thing I hadn't cleaned my boots from the last time.

And so it goes. More later on the microscopy, after the biological and toxicological results come back from the lab. Hopefully we won't have to call in Steve McQueen, the National Guard, or Harry Potter.
But you never know.