other

Driving to my cabin at night I notice something in the sky, through my windshield, it’s a shooting star. I love the sky here so much.

Happy New Year!

other

It’s 4:19am Christmas day and I am framing photos I took in frames my apprentice little sister and I made and things could not be happier; this could be a really neat on-the-side job.

photography

Wheeeee!

(look close, feet airborne)

XP2 is awesome stuff, but I like HP5+ better. No dependable c41 development nearby…HP5+ is a clear winner. Time to stock up.

funny, other

The night before last night I walked down to the river to look at the stars, and in the beam of my flashlight the trees glittered madly like a million diamonds, and I’m looking at these trees and I’ve never seen trees look like that, I mean I’ve seen ’em sparkle in the winter but never this, and then this thought strikes me out of the blue: hey, that’s funny, it’s sorta like what trees look like when they got tinsel on ’em.

Yeah, right?

ideas

Asked about writing stories:

You always have this image, of the perfect thing, which you can never achieve, but which you never stop trying to achieve. But I think, that at the core of it, there’s this image that you have, this interior image of something that is absolutely perfect, and that’s–that’s your signpost, your guide. You’ll never get there, but without it you’ll never get anywhere.

photography

So a while back I forayed into film, here: http://wp.me/p14q4r-97. Since then, I have: bought a film SLR, a nice digital SLR and four lenses, and I have sold three lenses and a nice digital SLR.

So now, another first foray: development.

Ok, well sorta the first…maybe actually second. But lets just say these here were my first try, ok? I feel better that way.

For those of us: F3HP, e series 35mm, Kodak 400TX, Ilford chems

Last ado: when I got here I took some color film to the only film-developing guy in town, and the shots came out bluer than a song B.B. King wrote the day his dog died. I took these developed negatives to him for scanning, and half came out like these first five.

 

ideas

Is it any wonder that the human condition can be summed up so short and clear by saying we all just badly need a hug sometimes. ?

photography

Great, long and beautiful drive, even better: shared with mom.

Just in case it may not show through well in the one photo with the thumbs up, the thumbs up is actually for 4wd, not the icy road. Um.. on second thought it is for the icy road too. So it should’ve been a double thumbs up. my bad.

Also, review of the 1990 Jeep Cherokee Sport: really, really really cool and fun. Mileage, not terrible but not too hot either.

 

funny, stories

(from two weeks ago)

Moving in the landlord showing me around opens up this huge industrial freezer in the shed, opens it up and I see vacuum packed salmon fillets it’s filled with vacuum packed salmon fillets. Feel free to help yourself, I mean don’t eat all of it, but the wife and I definitely won’t go through all of it, we won’t be here much of the winter.

Today I woke up late, nine-thirty, ate breakfast at ten-thirty, early afternoon snack of a few crackers and peanut butter. Weeks of living on ramen and beans and bread, I finally go to the huge industrial freezer in the shed. Realization at this moment: not salmon fillets. These are HUGE salmon fillets. One is like three. This made me pretty happy.

Huge salmon fillet on the counter at noon, thawed out at five. Which was good because at five the hunger came, and it came raging. Burner on high olive oil and garlic and salt in the pan, hot, in with the huge fillet sizzle crackle sizzle, put the glass lid on to keep it moist, potato in the microwave, five minutes later flip the huge fillet other side and bit more oil and garlic and salt and more sizzling and the kitchen smells so good, potato done and steaming and buttered and salmon done and crispy and up out of the pan and onto the plate with the potato.

Epilogue
Woulda been better with a good beer. Dear first paycheck, please come soon. And it woulda been even oh so much better shared, but I’m not sure how to get that done; the paycheck doesn’t help much. Oh wait actually, doesn’t match.com charge money? Hmm.

stories

(from a week ago)

Neighbor and his little boy walking out of their cabin when I walk out of my cabin to go do some business in the bath house, Hey Dave we saw a rabbit gonna go get him, the little boy dressed up in his stalking cap and jeans and boots and toting a bb gun just like the one I got Christmas morning how many years ago, Sure let me just do some quick business and I’m there. In my jeans and hoodie. It’s cold out.

My neighbor takes the road up the left and the little guy and I go right to wait, but the rabbit was too smart saw and knew he was being flushed into the blazing sight of a bb gun wielded by a dangerous 7 year old, so the rabbit doubles back past pops who doesn’t take the shot so his little boy can have another chance. They keep going, I go back to put on gloves, hands real cold, they keep going, the rabbit’s gone and the little guy’s feet are really really freezing cold Daddy I need to go back to the cabin my feet feel like ice! Daddy I can’t walk my feet are ice! So my neighbor hoists up his little boy and I carry the .22 in my right hand and the little guy’s bb gun in my left and we walk back to the cabin, I can’t feel three of my fingers even though it’s not that cold out right now, neighbor says OK lets go over to the other thicket and find another one so we go, find the rabbit highway and split and start, I’m shivering and wondering which finger I won’t feel next and then a white dash and I see where he went. Hey over here lets head back to the main road I think he stopped close by so we double back and the big white rabbit takes a few more strides toward the road then up, my neighbor still hasn’t seen him but I know I saw him, I stay put he goes up on the road and up further and back into the woods and back down and finds the rabbit. I get closer, still can’t see, Ok I can’t see him still, you see him? You see him then, ok, you take your shot. He wanted to give me a chance, but better a rabbit than a chance right? Crack like snapping a small dry branch echoes muted through dry cold air and Yup got him. Lost feeling in two more fingers on my left hand and where there is feeling it hurts like hell and now my chest feels kinda funny but not woosy because a cute rabbit just got shot, but something definitely feels not right, breathing feels funny. My neighbor goes to his cabin to grab a bite to eat and I go to the bath house to warm up and when I get in and close the door I feel really not good and my head hurts and my hands hurt where I can feel them and my breathing’s funny.

Hands under warm water, hands under warm water, things get better and five minutes later all’s well. Body into shock from cold body out of shock thanks to warm water, it’s been a while since I’ve been that cold. I step out and my neighbor’s got the rabbit on the tailgate of his truck and ready to go and he shows me how to skin and gut it, half an hour, now there’s rabbit in a pot in the fridge marinating and hearty alaska rabbit stew tomorrow. We shoot the breeze about how chicken at the grocery store is just ridiculous, how you can eat rabbit every day if you want, there’s a lot of these guys around. Go out and an hour later you have a pelt in one hand and a rabbit ready to cook in the other. Can’t even get to town and buy chicken from Safeway and get back in an hour.

Well, I will have to go to town for the veggies, but I think that’s ok.

ideas, other

Half a million dollars and four to five years of both full time apprenticeship AND weekend coursework. A lot of time and money. That’s the name of the game for an electricity or gas (power generation/distribution) company to take a worker from entry-level apprentice to proficient wireman. And except for the time consumed by weekend coursework, the power company eats that. All of it. After the fact, it is another five years for the company to break even on their investment. Ten years after a worker enters an apprenticeship program, it is finally worth it. It’s the same story for many other trades.

For government recognition of proficiency in education, you’re looking at two to three years of part time coursework and six months to a year of on-the-job training.

I’m an American and I’ll have my electricity reliable, please. Thanks.

 

photography, stories

I don’t know what to say, but the names of some of the people and places and things. But really, the names of the people…

“–the way in which stories posses the power they do, by which they
actually change how people think, feel and behave, and hence change
the way the world actually is–”
(N.T. Wright, but really anybody who’s thought with even half a wit about stories and us humans and what it all is ought to have the same thing in heart)

…some of the people who were part of this story. Were? That’s tough. Really tough. Jorge. Magdalena and the other Magdalena and Catarina and her little brother, sharp as a tack, Angelina and the other Angelina, Mateo, Isabela who has a name-twin in town, “Alcalde” and Alfredo, one goofy and happy and the other goofy and sharp as a tack too, Sara and Amalia and Chepita and Pablito and Mingita and Mrs. Rosa and Jefe Roni and el Mosquito Paquito, Wuicho who’s so great at math and just a great little kid and walks and talks and is as though he were in his 50’s, and Diego who really is still a child somehow, and the one dirtbike that actually worked well. And more that I don’t even have pictures for, la pocaluz that became la resplandora through hell, the Paloma, the Tortugita, Meme, Don Chepe, El Mero-Mero chingonaso viejito Don Otto, la Negra y la trapeadora Ines. La Coyotilla (arrooOOOOooooo). The Pokis and Fiona and Shrek and Claudini and Luchis. Tripa el caballeron (also known by his buds as vejillo). Danery. La Capsinita and su esposito y el Capsinito. El Camion. Wuicho the mechanic and his pop Don Enrique and Venado the crazy, the pastorcitos and the shrink and the giant cranky guy and the half-dozen canchas in town, each it’s own place. Eatin’ some ceviche and having a cold beer up with the shusha. The Shush and his crazy daughters. Tamales. Tortillas. The Cuban doctors who I hardly understood, the annoying old one and chill less-old one. All the suegros and suegras and chabashitas and chabashitos. The market. And so much more, many more. Many many more. And also more hell than I’d ever thought could be on earth, too.

Isn’t that what a chapter of life’s supposed to be anyways? Well actually I can’t think that’s the whole, but it’s gotta be a piece. Right?