This is for CoreyBlack. Since the new year began, things in Chicago have been strangely hectic and unsettled in unsettling ways. I haven’t been able to make the comments in galleries that I’ve wanted to, and it’ll be a few days I suspect, before I’m able to get around to that in the best way. It’ll be a short while until I can get out and take new photographs. I have enough of a backlog, but there will come times (soon) when I post something that doesn’t have the year 2009 on its timestamp. This isn’t the last woodlouse photo I’ll post, but it’s the last one that I took. Back in November I was in the truck yard, a normal occurrence. I’ve seen more of that place than I’ve seen of Corey, and there was a time when Corey and I saw each other every day. I suspect that has something to do with the fact that we lived together and spent a LOT of time watching the X-Files and a deliciously giddy, dumb show called “Cleopatra: 2525” by the talents that brought “Xena: Warrior Princes” and the historically anachronistic “Hercules” to syndicated tv. As it stands now, Corey and I see each other when we can, and we even watch the X-Files. He has yet to see the truck yard in person, but to be honest, he’s missing nothing. He has an automotive interest, but there are better, socially-safer places to see old beaters. Needless to say, I see more of the truck yard than I do of Corey and Corey is the ONE person in this city who makes things a bit more than tolerable. He’s my best friend, after all, even though he does steal my French fries. He’s like a cat in that way, he’ll eat your fries, then express surprise that you’ve caught him doing so…never mind that he’s obvious about it. It’s an endearing quality though, very cat-like, very comforting. And so all of this is to say that in lieu of great company with Corey, I often spent time in a dirty, rust-scented truck yard taking pictures of things with more legs than any mammal will ever possess. Photographically, this is the last woodlouse of 2009, captured in November, when most of the species either migrated or burrowed. This particular beauty was exposed, along with a couple of millipedes that were unusually pale and probably on their last legs—a disturbing feat since millipedes possess so many legs. This particular critter was not interested in being photographed, and well, I was not interested in giving up, and so we compromised. This is the result. There is a millipede in softer focus, that strange little squiggle just beside the woodlouse. THEY weren’t interested in being photographed either, and it’s a shame that these pale, half dead critters were the only examples of the breed that I ever saw in the truck yard. I’m sure that there are toxins in the soil; I have no doubt of that; I’ve heard the mysterious noises that the trucks make as they start, and I’ve seen what drips out of them. The truck yard is a part of my life, at least for now, and it’s something I’ll remember when I’m once again where I need to be, but until then, in honor of a friend who must share me with a piece of dubious Chicago real-estate, here is a more pleasant aspect of the truck yard, a shy resident, recently molted…the last woodlouse of 2009, and a promise of more to come. As always thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, it means a lot, and always will.