Minolta XG-1
©Tim P
With a little help from Photoshop
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
4/02/2006
4/01/2006
3/31/2006
3/30/2006
3/29/2006
3/28/2006
3/27/2006
3/26/2006
3/25/2006
3/24/2006
3/23/2006
3/22/2006
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
3/17/2006
3/16/2006
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