Signal Hill Musings
About nature, travel, history, and the unusual – inspired by RD Seifried, framed by Tom Shafer
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ABOUT Signal Hill Musings
For Your Consideration
Guilt and Shame and Redemption on Me
A Collector of Crap
Poignant Pictures — and Memories
Cry, Baby, Cry
Peace Be with You — and 2022
To the Moon!
There Is Good in This World, and It IS Worth Fighting for
What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
NotShaferdamus 2022
Shine, Perishing Republic (and Geminids!)
To Sleep — Perchance to Sleep. Ay, There’s the Rub! (apologies to Will Shakespeare)
Why Are We Here, Neo?
What Are You Reading?
My Not-So-Brilliant Words
Buffalo Pizza
Gimme a Head with Hair!
You Know What I Like?
Yep, I’m Cat People
Hope, Joy, and Peace
I’m a Universist — and You Should Too!
I Ate Cap’n Crunch This Morning.
Fickle Index Finger of Fate
The Rafer Johnson Effect
Thanksgiving
Big Thanks to You, My Adoring Fans!
America’s Return to Space!
Scotland Travel & Golf
The Day the Music Lived!
Full Hipster!
The Fermi Paradox and the Six Million Dollar Man
Hipster Surgery and Guinea Pigs!
USOPM, IBS, ISS, NASA, 2020 CD3 — It’s an Acronym Outbreak!
The Penisaurus
Your Body is Amazing!!
This Teacher’s Fav Books — To Teach
Out with 2019 – in with a New Decade!
Answer: Brain damage. Alex, what is wrong with Shafer?
My Creepy MP3 Player
The Ignored
My Moonshot
Death Cheater
Five Dollar Frank
About Recovery — from Surgery
A Ruddy Sunset, George Herbert Mead, and Big Fat Jerk Tom Shafer in a Hot Tub
Surgery, finally!
Hey, Ian, We’re Keeping Montana!
Your Field of Dreams
Look What I Did!?
The Scariest Thing in the World
Dirty America
Kentucky Fried Chicken & Waffles!!!
Happy New Year, Christopher Columbus?
Not So Human Behavior
Bat-Humans, Blue Unicorns, and Other Fake News
Shafer’s Christmas Message
To Every Stupidity There Is a Surgery
Krampus Mania!
Ghost UFO!
Ancestry or Incestry: The Evidence is In!
Spooky Hallowe’en!!
What The X-Files, oh, and Thoreau, Can Teach Us about Life
Pay Out the Kazoo
WHAT THE IDIOM??
“Western Folk”
9/11
Shopping Carts = Doom!!
Hey, Jellyfish Brain!
Let the Forks Be with You (blatant Star Wars reference)!
A Dead Fly on the Landing between the First and Second Floors at Elmcroft
NOT POLITICS?!
Greed is Good in aMErica
Ukraine.
Thanks, Trump, for Ruining America
The Stupidest Country on the Planet
Boulder.
The Not-So Secret
Trump Presidency Defined!
Re: Senator Kevin Cramer and the Stupidest Week in the Senate
And Strut About Like So Many Monsters
The Turd, QAnon, Harry the Goat, and an Unnamed Pair of Tube Socks
Big Wednesday
Too Far!
Wanted for Treason, Sedition, and Subversive Activities
The Outrage
You Can’t Live Death
Open Letter to President Trump about COVID-19
President COPD
The President Who Cried Wolf
Shafer for President!!
Thank You, Christianity Today
Republican Party Renamed!
Onward Trumpian Soldiers?
Enough.
Fear This, Republicans!
Another Mass Shooting
1460 days
C’mon, correspondents!!
Brave Mr. Trump
Cheria Law
Hi, America. I wanna buy a tank.
President Post Turtle
The Michael Scott Presidency
He’s so Supervillian!
Naturelated
Just Your Average Solar Eclipse
Spring, the New Winter?
Solar Eclipse 2024!!
Name the Moon!
Bats!
Saturn, and the Pale Blue Dot
Thunderstorms are the Greatest Things Ever!
Fire and Smoke and Lungs — Oh My!
A Path to the Creek — and Thoreau
Spring Has Sprung?
The Green Comet!
The Animals ARE Talking to One Another on the Ohio Serengeti!
Fall Has Fallen
Thunderstorm!
Baby Cow Love
Spring Springs Again!
The Center of the Universe
The Power of Animals
What is Your Spirit Animal?
Nature, Thanksgiving Whisperer
GhostCat
Cuyahoga Valley National Park
Spring Has Sprung!
The (not so?) Great Conjunction
A Day in the Life . . . with Cats, Raccoons, and Skunks!
Comet NEOWISE
Camping, with Abe Lincoln and Fireflies
Faceclouds and the Atheistic, Agnostic Christian Buddhist
Happy Fiftieth, Mother Earth!
Proof That Stupid People Exist — Especially When It Comes to Our National Parks!
Betelgeuse, Coyote & Badger, and Mayor Pete
Why am I still in Ohio?
Winter Finally Finds Ohio
Meteowls!
Of Mouse and Cat
Tornado Anniversary
It’s a Blood Red Lunar Eclipse!
The Genius
Yep, I’m Jeep People
The Coolest Thing Ever Seen!
Coyote Beauty
Water
Lewis & Clark & Seifried & Shafer: 1804 – 2009
Lewis & Clark: Episode One
Lewis & Clark: Episode Two
Lewis & Clark: Episode Three
Lewis & Clark: Episode Four
Lewis & Clark: Episode Five
Lewis & Clark: Episode Six
Shtuff
AJF Conversations
The Best — or Worst!? — Movie Titles Ever
Big Time Wrestlers!
Dearly Beloved
Give Me That Old Fashioned Discipline!
My mom’s obituary
My Prettiest Resume
My Really Excellent Thesis!! So Good!!
My Retirement Letter — and some that are even funnier!
The Philosophy of Shāf
Preparation, preparation, preparation. Landing a job that becomes a career.
Rock Shows!
ShāfQuotes+
Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign
Snow
Some questions about the English language
So, You Think English Is Easy?
So You Think You Can Name a Rock Band
Who Doesn’t Love a Good Church Bulletin?
Why word selection and placement are so vitally impotent
Me-Me-Me Meme
Me-Me-Me Memes
COVID Memes
Political Memes
Pun of the Weak
Well, to be frank, I’d have to change my name.
My Pics
Our home
Our cats+!
Our trap cameras
Our sun and moon and planets
Our lunar eclipse, January 21, 2019
My Campsites+
My Jeeps+
Wild Animals!
Bugs on flowers!
Wildflowers at close range!
Acadia National Park, Maine
Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, Nebraska
Antelope Island State Park, Salt Lake City, Utah
Antietam National Battlefield, Maryland
Arches National Park, Utah
Badlands National Park, South Dakota
Battle Canyon State Historical Park, Kansas
Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site, Colorado
Big Hole National Battlefield, Montana
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Colorado
Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah
Caesar Creek State Park, Ohio
Cahokia Mounds UNESCO World Heritage Center, Illinois
Canaan Valley, West Virginia
Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona
Canyonlands National Park (Newspaper Rock), Utah
Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, Arizona
Chickasaw Cultural Center, Oklahoma
Cody, Wyoming, pow wow
Colgate Licks National Recreation Trail, Idaho
Colorado National Monument, Colorado
Columbia River Gorge
Columbus Zoo!
Corn Palace, Mitchell, South Dakota
Crater Lake National Park, Oregon
Craters of the Moon National Monument, Idaho
Crazy Horse Memorial, South Dakota
Cumberland Falls State Resort Park, Kentucky
Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Ohio
Devils Tower National Monument, Wyoming (including teepee camping!)
Douglas Lake, Tennessee
Dolly Sods Wilderness, West Virginia, Ghost Rock
El Cuartelejo National Historic Landmark, Kansas
Fallingwater, Pennsylvania
Flight 93 National Memorial, Pennsylvania
Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, Colorado
Fort Buford (old Fort Union) State Historic Park, North Dakota
Fort Columbia State Park, Oregon
Fort Laramie National Historic Site, Wyoming
Fort Necessity National Battlefield, Pennsylvania
Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site, Montana
Garden of the Gods National Natural Landmark, Colorado Springs
Gettysburg National Military Park, Pennsylvania
Glacier National Park, Montana
Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
Grand Canyon movie shorts (including condors!)
Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado
Great Smoky Mountain National Park, Tennessee
Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies in Gatlinburg, Tennessee
Great Smokies, Cades Cove horses
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, West Virginia
Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii
Hueston Woods State Park, Ohio
Independence Rock State Historic Site, Wyoming
Indian Mound Reserve (and Cedar Cliff Falls), Cedarville, Ohio
Key Largo, Florida, 2020
Key Largo, Florida, 2018
Lake Cumberland, Kentucky
Lincoln Home National Historic Site and Lincoln Tomb, Springfield, Illinois
Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, Montana
Little Jerusalem Badlands State Park, Kansas
Loess Bluffs (Squaw Creek) National Wildlife Refuge, Missouri
Medicine Wheel National Historic Landmark, Wyoming
Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado
Mexican Hat rock formation, Utah
Missouri River (from the Lewis & Clark trip)
Montezuma Castle National Monument, Arizona
Monticello National Historic Landmark, Virginia
Monument Rocks National Natural Landmark, Kansas
Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington
Mt. Rushmore National Monument, South Dakota
Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, Washington
Newfoundland, Canada
Niagara Falls State Park, New York
Oakes Quarry Park, Fairborn, Ohio
Ohiopyle State Park, Pennsylvania
Organ Pipe National Monument, Arizona
Olympic National Park, Washington
Pea Ridge National Military Park, Arkansas
Pearl Harbor National Memorial, Hawai’i
Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona
Pipestone National Monument and Blue Mounds State Park, Minnesota
Portland Head Lighthouse, Cape Elizabeth, Maine
Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park, Hawai’i
Rock Creek Station State Historical Park, Nebraska
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
Rocky Mountain young bull moose feeding
Rocky Mountain sleepy elk
Rocky Mountain mountain goats
St. Lucia in the Caribbean
Scotland
Scotts Bluff National Monument and Chimney Rock National Historic Site, Nebraska
Sedona, Arizona
Serpent Mound Historical Site, Peebles, Ohio
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Spirit Mound Historic Prairie, South Dakota
Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota
Toadstool Geologic Park, Nebraska
Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge in Eureka Springs, Arkansas
Washington D.C.
Webster Reservoir State Park, Kansas
Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma
Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota
Wind Cave supercell that spit out a tornado later
Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Yellowstone grizzly bear
Yellowwood State Forest, Brown County State Park, and Anderson Falls in central Indiana
Zion National Park, Utah
Random Places
Ole Richard’s Archives
The Passing of Legendary Richard Seifried
“Fog”
Sasquatch Lives!
My Christmas Letter 2019
Sunrise Experiences
Wounded Knee
All Living Things
The Beauty of Life After Death
The Warmth of Kentucky Cold
Butterfly Dreams
Mato Tipila
Pendulum Dowsing for Beginners
Coincidence or Not?
My Christmas Letter 2018
Aitu in Samoa
My Secret Seven Sisters
Sacred Nínaiistáko
The Melungeons
Vikings in Oklahoma!
The Mysterious Medicine Wheel
Mt. Eisenhower and Enlightenment
Blue Spring National Heritage Center
My Home Ohio
Boy Am I Hungry!
Grandpa Carey
Grandma Carey
Korean Paradise
Our Friend the Turkey Vulture
Little People
A Gentle Breeze
D-Day
Dairy Barns and Dad
Those “Special” Experiences
Winter Camping
Corn Creek and the Ranger
Arlington
Wiener Dogs and Baby Jesus
What Was That?
Julie and the Red-Tailed Hawk
Above the 38th Parallel
John Muir and Nature’s Rhythm
My Great Grandfather and the Great Plains
Harold the Fly — and Part II
Just This . . .
Global warming
What States’ Rights?
Republicans Don’t Love Children
Thoughts and Prayers — Again.
Good Catholic (?) Greg Abbott
2022 Midterms
Eight Billion Humans!
Put on your big boy pants, China!
Hope for the future overturned
SCOTUS strikes Roe
Semi-automatic response to gun violence
What the extremes in each party want
The wild Midwest! Yehaw!
Ron DeSantis and his aching groin
The Greatest Generation and COVID
Namby Pamby Florida (and Ron DeSantis)
Rep. Davidson reveals historical ignorance
Sen. Marshall can’t find easily-found info
Thank you, Australia
The Turd tries to ruin Kwanzaa
Cuckoo Lauren Boebert
The Rittenhouse verdict
R’s don’t censure Gosar
Gosar and the Bible
Super Patriots
If men birthed children
Winter Finally Finds Ohio
Snow piling up in early January 2021, with a brief Nakita cameo (look left)
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Some pics (click to enlarge)
Along the trail, Scotts Bluff NM
Flight 93 National Memorial
Molting bighorn sheep, Badlands
Craters of the Moon NM, Idaho
Newspaper Rock, Canyonlands NP
Beauty at Logan Pass, Glacier NP
Friendly coyote, Teddy Roosevelt NP
Moonrise, Devils Tower NM
Douglas Lake, TN
Antelope Island, Great Salt Lake
Bear Lake, Rocky Mountain NP
Hurricane Ridge, Olympic NP
Haystack Pass, Glacier NP
Moon jellyfish, Ripley’s Aquarium, Gatlinburg, Tennessee
Me, the Swilcan Bridge, Old Course
Antelope Island State Park, Utah
Orion launch, Nov. 16, 2022
Zion NP
Chipmunk, Rocky Mountain NP
Sleepy elk, Rocky Mountain NP
Finch looking at the moon
Our teepee at Devils Tower NM
Antietam National Battlefield
Gateway Arch, St. Louis
Western Brook Pond, Newfoundland
Wild Goose Island, Glacier NP
Canyon de Chelly NM
Mt. St. Helens NM
The moon from my backyard
Ring of Brodgar, Orkney, Scotland
Crater Lake NP
Freaky bee, Black Canyon NP
Carolina wren in the backyard
Sunset, Gettysburg NMP
Lovely Tom Shafer, Dolly Sods
Hoodoos, Colorado NM
Wild burro, Wind Cave NP
Glencoe Waterfall, Scotland
Our teepee, Devils Tower
Mountain goat, Glacier NP
Snake River & Mt. Moran, Tetons
Hello, Mr. Coyote!
Square Tower House, Mesa Verde
Meese, Grand Teton NP
Sleepy bison, Yellowstone NP
Serpent Mound, Ohio
Beautiful campsite, Badlands
Arches NP
Marmot, Rocky Mountain NP
Grand Canyon NP
Bryce Canyon, Utah
Bighorn sheep, Badlands NP
The Tetons
Bro-in-law Dave, Black Canyon
Sunset, North Sea, Scotland
Manatee, Columbus Zoo
Lunar eclipse, January 20, 2019
Foggy Portland Head Lighthouse
Aster, Glacier NP
Greenan Castle, Ayr, Scotland
Me at Haystack Pass, Glacier NP
The Storr, Scotland
Jupiter and Saturn
Buffalo Road, Wichita Mts. WR
Four stoned presidents
On vacation, work calls, WiFi needed, frustrated niece, “it’s my vacation!”, unauthorized photo
Shiprock Mountain, New Mexico
Red Eagle Mountain, Glacier NP
Webster State Park, Kansas
Happy 4th!
Supercell outside Wind Cave NP
Cody, WY powwow
Spirit Mound Historic Prairie, SD
Mookie
Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau NHP
Jordan Pond, Acadia NP
Along the trail, Arches NP
Hummingbird at our feeder
Coyote, Yellowstone NP
Great Sand Dunes NP
Zion NP
Hungry prairie dog, Devils Tower
Cumberland Falls
Key Largo sunset
Elvis Costello and the Imposters
Organ Pipe Cactus NM, Arizona
Grave Digger, taking a little rest
Campsite, Colorado NM
My Jeep, Monument Rocks, KS
2 cute pups dropped at our home
Multnomah Falls, Oregon
Niagara Falls
Pea Ridge NMP, Arkansas
Friendly grizzly bear, Yellowstone
Devils Tower NM
Washington Monument
Indian paintbrush, Mt. St. Helens
Ghost rock, Dolly Sods, WV
Cape Disappointment Lighthouse
The Thinker, Shafer version
Kīlauea Crater, Hawaii Volcanoes NP
Kayaking, Douglas Lake, TN
Young moose, Rocky Mountain NP
Fallingwater, PA
My Jeep, Yellowwood Forest, IN
Portland Head Lighthouse
Blue Hot Spring, Yellowstone NP
My flipflops, Rocky Mountain NP
Great Plains, Rock Creek SHP, NE
Rafting, New River Gorge
Fall in Ohio
Bee clinging to thistle, Cahokia
Grand Canyon NP
Missouri River, Teddy Roosevelt NP
Deer on our trail camera
Sergeant Floyd Monument, Iowa
Lightning, near our home
Darrin, the Road Hole, Old Course
Sunset over the nation’s capitol
Sleepy polar bear, Columbus Zoo
Campsite, Black Canyon NP
Rattlesnake, Agate Fossil Beds
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