You just never know where you might be when Nature decides to put on a show.
I mean, looking at this picture -- and keeping in mind that I live in the Puget Sound region of Washington State, a place full-to-overflowing with Sierra Club Calendar beauty -- where would you guess that I stood as I photographed this sunset? In one of the forested meadows of Mt. Rainier National Park, perhaps? Or maybe in the dramatic and remote North Cascades?
Nope. I was standing in the parking lot of a Costco store. And though I will admit that I -- yes, my own Environmentalist Self -- had just finished shopping in that store (they do sell some organic stuff) and I suspect Costco is run by fine people and I know that perfectly nice human beings work and shop there, I have to say that, whenever I go to Costco, the place creeps me out with a major case of the Over-Consumptive Guilt Willies. I mean, does the average human really need 48 AAA batteries? Do postage stamps or camera digital memory cards need to be sealed in plastic packaging that could cover a Volkswagen?
Anyway, the Costco parking lot where I stood when I took this picture...and, if I die right now, it’ll be from an overdose of Environmental Guilt, with added complications of whatever toxins flood a brain that’s OD’d on Irony.
