Norton Simon

The Norton Simon Museum of Art houses one of the largest collections of fine art (as opposed to modern art) outside of Europe, and yet, I haden't heard of it until last week when I visited the museum with my Grandparents. Interestingly, the museum is only a few miles, if that, from the office in Pasadena where I drop of my paperwork and fossils every week. When I asked other people about it and they, even the art student that I asked, hadn't heard of it. But there it is, holding some of the most valuable paintings and sculptures in the world. If you are ever in the LA area and have a sence of class, go see the collections of the Norton Simon Museum. It is well worth the trip. Not only that, but unlike the Luvre or the Metrapolitin museum of art, the Norton Simon museum wont be crowded.

Work

Life is pretty decent for me here in So. Cal. First of all, I get paid to do what I love. Second of all, heavy equipment does the majority of the actual work for me. The down side however is that for every one fossil that I find, another 99 are likely destroyed by the machines without my ever knowing of their existance. Another disadvantage is that just about everything that I find has been run over by a bulldozer once prior to discovery. Other items, still in situ (their original place in the rock) are impossible to remove from their resting places intact and consiquentially need to be glued back together.
These days, all I work with is fish from the Yorba member of the Puente formation. I practically eat, sleep and breath the light tan shale.


For scale ; The orange dot in the lower left hand corner is a person, the white line is a drain pipe.

Title Change

I'm changing the title of the blog since I'm no longer a Califorian far from home. I've been back in California long enough and I intend to stay here long enough to warant a title change. That said, I think "The Hermit Crab" is a good title. It's just a working one for now, until I come up with something more fitting. After all, I'm not nearly as much of a hermit as I could be or as I was when I was living in a van down by the arroyo. That, and I'm not as craby as I Could be. I'd appreciate sugestions. It will let me know at least that I still have the occassional reader.

Sting ray deprives reptiles of just deserts

Steve Irwin, the crocodile hunter, is dead. He was not eaten by a crocodile, bitten by a snake or mauled by a goana. Instead, he was stung by a sting ray off the Australian coast. This is not the way that he should have gone. It just goes to show that there are old nature guys and bold nature guys but no old, bold nature guys.