My friend the prickly pear...

This is my friend the prickly pear. I feel I must tell you how we met. While driving the Apache Trail I pulled off at a lake overlook. Another car had pulled over with two older couples and we chatted. They were quite impressed with my camera and what I was doing. So I was all puffed up about that.

Well I go down the embankment to get the perfect picture with that impressive camera. The ground is mostly small lava chunks and dust. So I squat to get the right angle for the picture, the whole time knowing that the folks I had visited with were watching from above.

Well I slipped in the cinders, went to my knees and slid down the hill a couple feet right into Mr. Prickly Pear. Of course my first look was up the hill to see if they were watching this very professional exercise. And, yes they were so I had to make it look like it was all in the plan. So I stuck there (literally) and continued taking pictures.

Finally they left and I could begin to dis-entangle myself from the cactus. As I backed away, I realized that from neck to knees, I was bringing most of Mr. Prickly Pear's needles with me. I sneak back to the car, get in, close the doors so no one else can witness this and begin to extract what seemed like an infinite number of needles.

Finally after an hour of picking, I was ready to proceed. However, remnants of Mr. Prickly Pear stuck with me for three of four more days as I continued to find more.

So much for the great photographer!