Canon S500
©Tim P
Yesterday's cloudy Saturday evening walk along the Potter Creek Trail.
4/09/2006
4/08/2006
4/07/2006
4/06/2006
This photo was taken by a friend. It's at Tin City, which lies at the extreme western tip of the Seward penninsula. It's about as far west as you can go on the North American continent. There's a tram to the top of the mountain, where there's a facility situated. This photo was taken at the top and looks out over the Bering Sea. I liked the photo, so I'm posting it though it isn't mine.
4/05/2006
4/04/2006
Canon S500
©Tim P
I took this yesterday, driving home from Kenai. The weather sucked. All mixed snow and rain. The kind that builds up on the road as a layer of slop and sends you hydroplaning if you get out of the beaten path. This building is just south of the Girdwood turnoff. About 10 minutes after I stopped to take this photo, I was rounding a curve and the person in the oncoming lane lost control and began skidding all over the road. They crossed the center line over to my half of the road. I took my foot off the gas to slow down. I was doing around 60 when I let up on the gas. I didn't dare touch my brakes or I would have lost control too. As the car continued to veer into my half of the road in front of me, I was able to swerve to the right and pass by them with about two feet between us at the closest point when we passed. Looking in my rearview mirror, I saw them eventually regain control.
We both continued on our way. A brief moment in time. Yet the rest of the way home I couldn't help but reflect on how my life might have been irreversibly changed had we had that collision. I felt very lucky & thankful. I got home about 20 minutes later. It was late and had been a long day, driving to Kenai & back. When I walked in the door, my daughter was there to greet me. I gave her and my wife and extra tight hug and kiss. I poured myself a glass of wine and sat down to enjoy being at home with my family, the end of just another day. It could have been so different. I don't know who the other driver was, but I'm sure whoever he or she was, they may well have been doing the same. Some days you really appreciate the little things in life, that you usually take for granted without a passing thought. Anyway, that's my rant and I'm stickin to it.
4/03/2006
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3/31/2006
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3/19/2006
Something different today. I scanned this old photo last night and was trying to clean it up. (My wife and daughter are down at her mom's for a week, so you see how I spent my wild & crazy Saturdaynight) Met with limited success, but I was fascinated with it because I hadn't looked at it in a long time. I cropped it to more easily see the people in the photo.
The photo was taken sometime in the late 30's. The only thing more I can add about when was that it was around 8:42, probably p.m. and it was during the Christmas season (note the Christmas tree). To the extreme right, behind the bar is my grandfather. Next to him is my Uncle Nick, my dad's younger brother.
What I find amazing about old photos, especially ones in which you know something about the people in them, is their ability to bring back memories that you hadn't thought about in ages. I remember being in this building as a young kid. It had long since been closed. The bar was still there and so were the booths. The other furniture had long since been removed. As had almost everything else. I can even remember the musty smell and the light.
It was called the South Erie Grill and was located beside a bridge that crossed a river where there were several steel mills located. My dad and uncle told me that on paydays the place was wall to wall with workers cashing checks, buying drinks, lined up three deep at the bar.
The steel mills are gone now. So is the building. When I was around 8 or 9, it was seized by the state via eminent domain to make room for a new bridge that was replacing the existing bridge and was to be built adjacent to the existing bridge. The building was in the way and had to go. I can still remember my grandmother and other adults in the family sitting around the kitchen table discussing it.
This past November, I went back there for the first time in 18 years. The now, not so new bridge is still there, but there's not much left on either side of it these days. A 'bridge to nowhere' of another sort.
Quote for the day: "Puritans, it is said, are bothered by the idea that someone, somewhere, is enjoying himself. Paleo-puritans thought that this would condemn you to hell. Neo-puritans think that it causes cancer, obesity, and heart disease. Both of them are bound and determined to remove all the joy from our lives, for our own good. Thanks for your concern, but no thanks." - S. Denbeste
©Tim P (Click on photo to enlarge)
3/18/2006
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3/04/2006
Bridge to nowhere?
I read Thursday that Alaska's two infamous 'bridges to nowhere' were included in the federal budget despite the focused derision of the MSM and blogosphere. I have to say, I can't see any real reason for the Gravina Narrows bridge in Ketchikan.
However, I can understand building the Knik Arm bridge from Anchorage across the Knik Arm. Despite the braying and caterwauling, there is a real need for this bridge. Anchorage faces water to its south, west and north. We have the narrow and winding Seward highway around Turnagain Arm to the south. There is only the Glenn Highway to the northeast heading out of here in the other direction.
Across Knik Arm sits a vast amount of what the naysayers have mischaracterized as worthless swamp. Hardly. There is a vast amount of very good land on the other side of Knik Arm. Such a bridge would significantly shorten the trip north on the Parks Highway by bypassing the circuitous route around Knik Arm. It would relieve the pressure of development in Anchorage, which is reaching maximum density and open up vast amounts of new land. A bridge, would not only help the economy with its construction, but would greatly aid the state's economy with the development that would occur on the other side and let's face it, Alaska's economy has limited options.
Ofcourse that's not what you'll hear from the mainstream media (MSM) or many of the braying herd of punditocracy on the internet. Not when it's easy to take cheap and shallow shots with the implied nudge and wink that it's all a waste, but no real facts to back their case. So the main arguments are left to those who would like nothing more than to shut Alaska down to any development, or those who are transients here haveing been here only a short time and who plan on leaving in the not so distant future. They don't have to worry about the ramifications of running off their mouths because they'll be long gone in a few more years and finally the herd of chattering jackasses in the MSM and internet to whom this is mainly a political point scoring parlor excersize.
I can just imagine these naysayers gnashing their teeth over the bridge above. "Costs too much!" "The land to the north is useless!" "Why waste the money when we have so many more pressing needs!" The timidity of vision they possess is breathtaking. Had they been around when the Goldengate, George Washington or Brooklyn bridges were built, they too would have been 'bridges to nowhere.'
©Tim P(Click on photo to enlarge)
3/03/2006
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2/21/2006
Minolta XG-1, Kodak T-Max 100. I took this same photo with my Canon S500. You can see it here for comparison. Powerline Pass, looking back down the valley.
©Tim P(Click on photo to enlarge)
2/20/2006
2/19/2006
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