THE JOYS OF ASKING

I'M A QUESTION GUY----I navigate socially AND directionally by asking questions. Oh the doors good questions open---for example: Saw this in a pet shop--puppy snatchers caught on camera walking out with several valuable animals. I asked for details. The thieves were a team--used distraction. The owner a small pet shop owner could ill afford the loss. (I sympathized--and sent her a copy of my poem--why we keep pets---seemed much appreciated)

In what must be the biggest bike shop in the world---they had thousands in stock--- I asked to see the most expensive. Can you see the price tag? $7,200. Made of carbon fiber of course. A single wheel cost $2,200.

I asked what it weighed--he got a scale and showed me--15.59 pounds.

Asked this motorcycling couple about a mountain pass enroute to Laramie--they told me and shared that they were on their honeymoon--I asked if the windblown hairstyle was intentional--she smiled and I photographed the moment.

Asked this guy a harmless question to engage him---learned that he was returning from Illinois where he had just taken his father's ashes. The patch says "in memory of Al------".

Quality graffiti on the walls of an abandoned factory near Laramie---I found it---

and this----

by asking this guy--Dan Lewis---why he was prowling the ruins. He's a nature photographer and author of DIRT a non fiction book about ghost towns of Wyoming.

I asked this Bolivian guy why Bolivia was landlocked---no outlet to the sea. He said they had one but lost it in a war with Chili----are currently negotiating hard for a 2 mile corridor to the sea. He then showed me his hometown and the exact spot where Butch Cassidy was killed. His was a booth in a Laramie Festival.

Was quizzing an ex sheriff of Laramie about the Sheppard Murder (a previous blog) when he took me on a tour of his office, showing me this rare document---a copy of an invitation to an execution.

And finally showed me this---the actual safe blown up by butch cassidy in that famous train robbery. The tv in the background plays the movie dramatization.

RANDY PHILOSOPHIZES: Good question skills are an art form that makes personalities visible and differences obvious---a golden opportunity to absorb qualities I admire.