I know the answer to the puzzle, but I'm going to have a little fun with answering at SKinman's expense ... Instead of reorganizing the photos, my story is going to use them sequentially:
On a dark and stormy night, SKinman looked down at his instrument cluster and was horrified. It was 53 degrees outside, and he was facing due North [1] ... His worst nightmare.
Kevin and Summer knew something terrible was happening [2] ... Did SKinman really travel North when it was 53 degrees outside?! A feast of seafood [3] couldn't even console them from SKinman's recklessness. Why? Because driving North when it's 53 degrees outside almost always sets off a series of unfortunate events. The last time such an endeavor was attempted, the end result was SKinman branding himself with "Three Bars" [4]. The team could only hope this instance would be different.
To prepare for the possible apocalypse, a Suburban was purchased, and a cattle trailer was attached to transport supplies [5]. What would happen?! Was there any hope? No matter where they drove, they couldn't escape the haunting fear of the end of the world (or more people getting branded). They passed by Sam Houston and felt his steely gaze piercing their souls with a warning [6]. They tried to hide in the shadow of the capitol building [7], but the fear followed them to Austin as well. Even holding a prestigious award [8] aloft into the darkness did nothing to assuage the terror of impending doom.
Then SKinman had an (extremely rare) "Aha!" moment ... If the series of unfortunate events always concludes with someone getting branded by Three Bars, why don't we proactively brand something with that symbol to prevent the intermediate suffering ... But what could we brand?
What about a bull? [9] There's no guarantee that the curse would be lifted if the branded being isn't a human, but it's worth a try, right?
A bull was selected to stand in and take the brand to prevent what was guaranteed to be the worst series of events ever experienced by SKinman and the SoftLayer crew, and as the brand was removed, the weight of worry was immediately lifted. To remind us of how to respond in the future, we memorialized the bull's sacrifice on a plaque as "The SoftLayer Bull" [10]. We asked for them to put "The SoftLayer Savior Bull" on the plaque, but they charged by the letter, so we shortened it and the "Savior" part is implied.
The moral of the story: If it's 53 degrees outside, don't drive North.
I know the answer to the puzzle, but I'm going to have a little fun with answering at SKinman's expense ... Instead of reorganizing the photos, my story is going to use them sequentially:
On a dark and stormy night, SKinman looked down at his instrument cluster and was horrified. It was 53 degrees outside, and he was facing due North [1] ... His worst nightmare.
Kevin and Summer knew something terrible was happening [2] ... Did SKinman really travel North when it was 53 degrees outside?! A feast of seafood [3] couldn't even console them from SKinman's recklessness. Why? Because driving North when it's 53 degrees outside almost always sets off a series of unfortunate events. The last time such an endeavor was attempted, the end result was SKinman branding himself with "Three Bars" [4]. The team could only hope this instance would be different.
To prepare for the possible apocalypse, a Suburban was purchased, and a cattle trailer was attached to transport supplies [5]. What would happen?! Was there any hope? No matter where they drove, they couldn't escape the haunting fear of the end of the world (or more people getting branded). They passed by Sam Houston and felt his steely gaze piercing their souls with a warning [6]. They tried to hide in the shadow of the capitol building [7], but the fear followed them to Austin as well. Even holding a prestigious award [8] aloft into the darkness did nothing to assuage the terror of impending doom.
Then SKinman had an (extremely rare) "Aha!" moment ... If the series of unfortunate events always concludes with someone getting branded by Three Bars, why don't we proactively brand something with that symbol to prevent the intermediate suffering ... But what could we brand?
What about a bull? [9] There's no guarantee that the curse would be lifted if the branded being isn't a human, but it's worth a try, right?
A bull was selected to stand in and take the brand to prevent what was guaranteed to be the worst series of events ever experienced by SKinman and the SoftLayer crew, and as the brand was removed, the weight of worry was immediately lifted. To remind us of how to respond in the future, we memorialized the bull's sacrifice on a plaque as "The SoftLayer Bull" [10]. We asked for them to put "The SoftLayer Savior Bull" on the plaque, but they charged by the letter, so we shortened it and the "Savior" part is implied.
The moral of the story: If it's 53 degrees outside, don't drive North.