Lucky I wasn't the tax collector.

It was a beautiful saturday today and I was driving down 238 between Applegate and Provolt and I saw a dead skunk on the side of the road. I saw it yesterday, but didn't have time to stop. I pulled over, got the tripod set up (borrowed from my ex-wife), got a few good shots, and headed back to the truck. I read somewhere that a good photographer takes care of their equiptment after every session, so instead of my first instinct (to lay the camera+tripod on the seat and drive on), I carefully began the process of disassembling the setup, resetting camera settings to my chosen defaults, and bagging everything up.

It was then that I noticed a pair of good ole boys crossing the road to come talk to me. The conversation went like this:
Guy 1: "Hey there, whatcha takin pictures of"
Me: "That dead skunk back there"
Guy 1: "Really?, What for?"
Me: "I have a website that I post pictures of road kill on."
Guy 1: "Thats wierd. So you're not takin pictures of the house? My wife sent me out here to see if you were the tax collector."
Me: "Nope, see..." I show him the photos.

At this point a big dirty guy in coveralls comes driving up the side of the road in a backhoe. He skids to a stop, with the front loader bucket up under the front of my truck, probably a half inch from touching the front tires. He hops down, says "hi" to the other guys, and comes and looks at the photos too. The same type of conversation happens, but this time, I tell them "Yea I live just up there in Williams" to which the reply is, "Heh, you can have the skunk if you want, I hear they barbeque them things up there."

After we chat for awhile, all laughing at this point, they all go off on their separate ways, and the big backhoe guy gets back up in the seat, starts up the monster, and yells down "Good thing you weren't the tax collector, I come prepared" as he waves a folding stock assault shot gun over his head.

So anyway, heres my choice from the shots I took: