April 10 - Lisa's Musings (on squirrels) and Every Day Life

If you're familiar with Ann Arbor squirrels, you know they're not shy.

And if I were a little smarter, I'd have had my long lens with me to take close-up photos of this guy.

What you can't see is this squirrel's prize.

A big, fat, sweet, cherry donut prize.

While parked along State Street, near the athletic admin building, I spied this guy or gal, not sure which, racing down the sidewalk with a huge donut in his mouth.

He zipped up that tree to a nice comfy branch and began to pig out.

Since I had a few minutes before my assignment, I had to see if I could get close enough to him to snap a few photos without spooking the little guy.

Needless to say, he was an bona fide Ann Arbor squirrel -- he could have cared less that I was under the tree shooting photos as he happily munched away.

Yeah, he kept an eye on me, but I think he sized me up pretty quickly and realized I wasn't a threat.

One problem was the sun, which was in the wrong place to get the best angle.

The second problem was that I failed to bring all the photo equipment I should have with me at all times.

I'm kicking myself for not having a long lens with me.

Leaving a lens at home is like heading out with one pen. Which I also did.

What happens if the pen quits working? Like it did, despite having lots of ink in it.

And if a tall building had caught on fire while I was in town? Which it didn't.

The point is, I know better.

I've been doing this for longer than 5 minutes -- even if at times it doesn't seem like it.

So because I failed to follow a photographer's golden rule -- I missed a great photo opp. One that I'll never have again.

But I did get lucky in the pen department when I found a stray one on the floor that worked.

At least fate saved me from looking really stupid.

A reporter without a pen? Or paper?

Doesn't look too good.

A photographer without a key piece of equipment.

Really dumb.

But, I did have the flip cam with me, so we'll see how the video turned out.

And as for the squirrel ... my guess is he's either racing around Ann Arbor on a sugar high or sleeping it off somewhere.