Moving Forward, But First a Look Back

It was a year ago that the status quo of the previous ten years ended.  My Dad had, first a heart attack and then a massive stroke.  It was quite a blow.  A year later a lot has changed some for the better, some not.  The good news is that we are all still here.  Tonight's photo was taken a year ago, when life forged a new path away from the status quo.

The Digital Age

As mentioned before in the blog the digital age of photography has changed the world quite a bit.  Once upon a time, a photo had a fixed cost that only driven higher by out of focus shots or shots of questionable need.  So when each shot had a fixed cost, photos that could not be deemed artistic, or worthy of a family album probably were not taken.  Digital is different, it forces (or allows) you to take photos of anything.  If the photo works super, if not meh.  It's digital so the more you take, the better the deal you got on your camera and equipment.  I have taken about 30,000 photos with my cameras so each shot has cost me about six cents, and that number continues to drop the more I shoot.  

Another thing the digital age has given us, is the camera photo, the Instamatic of the 21st century.  It allows the bored or momentarily distracted photographer a chance to snap a photo without pulling out the big SLR.   Tonight one such photograph, a lamp taken at The Best Bite in Cashmere, while waiting for a salami and pepperoni sandwich.  This is not a photo you take without contemplation in the film age, is it art, is it family album worthy, and by the time you get it figured out, the sandwich is there.
Enjoy
Dan 

Lighthouses

It has been noted about 100 posts ago that I am obsessed with lighthouses.  This belief is very strong in a particular person.  I don't believe I am obsessed with lighthouses as I noted 100 posts ago, in fact still most my photos of lighthouses are of the same lighthouse.  But still I am called obsessed, whatever and besides there are plenty of retirees driving around in RVs taking photos of lighthouses to turn into postcards to sell at gas stations near that particular lighthouse.  They seem to make enough money to put gas in the RV and eat a couple of meals at the Sizzler a week, so it can't be all that bad.  It was even a subject of a Walmart photo department ad, so it must be common.  Note I am not endorsing the Walmart photo department, my feeling about that place, can be saved for another post.  Anyway, lighthouses are photogenic and have a certain built in romanticism so forgive me for photographing them.  Tonight's photos are of the Hecta Head Lighthouse, photographed first in the 1960's by my Grandmother and then again by me on my 2001 road trip.  Note neither photo is all that good.  Also note, that Hecta Head has the strongest light of any lighthouse on the Oregon Coast.

Pushing the Limits of The Blogging, Or The Sixth Time I Have Stop To Congratulate Myself For Blogging

I once was so witty and fun.  My wit and funness drew the hungry multitudes from all corners of the globe to America's Finest Blog, why it even became the most popular blog amongst indigenous people of Sabah.  Over time it has changed however to less wit and less fun and now the indigenous people of Sabah prefer the wholesomeness of the Amish bloggers.  Well it is their loss.  I know I'll have wit and a sense of fun again, I just do, it has to be.  When I say this I feel the like the blogger equivalent of Sears and Roebuck.  A sad shell of it's former self.  As an aside, I can remember spending a lot of time at the Sears and Roebuck, its pretty much where my family did it's shopping in the 1970's.  Anyway I digress.  Besides, returning to topic of my sad self, does anyone blog anymore?  It seems so 2007.  Who cares I say, I'll continue blogging until the last reader of this blog dies.  I will also be cool, since it will be so utterly out of step with the real world of texting, emoticons and twitter.  Really I don't do this to be cool or relevant or anything, I do it because it is a cheap hobby (at least that is my reason in this post).  So tonight instead of looking backward on this the 600th post, I will glaze upon the future and all that it will hold for America's Finest Blog.  What curious readers could that be?  I can't say, because I mostly don't know, other than there is an election coming up and I still have tens of thousands of photos I can blog about or around.

Hey! That's My Name...

I don't know why more people don't take photo's of themselves next to signs with there names on it.  So amusing it is, or at least I think so.  I don't have photos of my Grandfather in front of the meat packaging busy that bore his name.  No photos of  my dad standing under the Gary Street sign in Wenatchee.  I however have photos of Cicely in Roslyn next to all the Cicely signs, Quin in Quincy and pictures of me in front of Dan's Market in Leavenworth.  I guess everyone else is missing out.

Roslyn

Today marks the 123rd anniversary of the arrival of black coalminers to Roslyn.  The miners were brought in by the Northern Pacific to help break a strike in the young mining town.  It seems that the white miners were demanding an eight hour work day, not an eleven hour day.  With the first train load of strikebreakers they were actually taken just north of town to Ronald and Mine #3.  With the strikebreakers came 48 armed guards.  It was the armed guards that caught the attention of the Territorial Governor, Eugene Semple.  Semple didn't like the idea of an armed militia running around Central Washington, so he ordered the Sheriff to arrest the guards and the strikebreakers on trespassing charges.  Mine #3 maybe didn't actually belong to the Northwest Pacific Coal Company, it was a matter currently in the courts.  Eventually the strike and the charges against the guards and strikebreakers were settled.  It was then that the black strikebreakers began to move into Roslyn, making it one of, if not the most, integrated cities in Washington.  Tonight pictures of Roslyn and Ronald.

Dan

 

Sea Stacks

A sea stack is a landform consisting of steep columns of rock.  They are created solely by time, wind and water.  The west coast is littered with them.  They can be awe inspiring and beautiful.  But if you drive down the coast needing to drive at too rapid a pace or without interest in the scenery, a sea stack becomes a foe.  Always there to taunt you, to remind you that the coast is still there and you are not at your destination.  To make matters worse, the twenty-three slow moving cars in front of you are all gazing in awe of the sea stacks. 

Jack

Recently I heard that Jack had passed on.  Jack owned The Tav.  The Tav is home to the Super Mother and many a college aged person, in Ellensburg.  For 5 years I went to The Tav, in fact my first and last days in Ellensburg I spent there.  I saw Jack often, either cooking in the kitchen or drinking Rainiers at the end of the bar.  I had  a couple conversations with him over the years and always had a, "hi how you doing."  One conversation sticks out, it was Rodeo Weekend in Ellensburg and I managed to get into The Tav to experience the absurdites, there were lines to get into the bars on Rodeo Weekend.  I found a buddy of my at a small table with Jack and the other cook/city councilman Jeff (?).  My buddy told me to have a seat and handed me a glass.  After the greetings we sat and drank Rainier and talked, well Jack talked.  I cannot tell you what the converation was about, the noise in the Bar made it impossible.  I can tell you that Jack laughed and laughed, and would slap me on the back and we would all laugh some more.  I will always have a fond place for that moment, we were just four locals in a sea of Western Washington new country cowboys, strangers in a place we called home.   

Goodbye Jack, I hope the Rainiers are cold in the sweet bye and bye.

The Love of My Life

It seems like each year around this time the topic at America's Finest blog turns to love and stuff.  That is because it is my wedding anniversary.  I feel remiss if I did not give a virtual shout out to my lovely wife, Cicely.  In the past I have said that I cannot image my life being better without her and I still believe that to be true.  We compliment each other well, and I cannot image not being able to enjoy her wit and wisdom.  I still believe that I am a lucky guy.  Here are some photos of Cicely looking very serious.  Have I ever waxed on about my enjoyment of serious Cicely, if not that is another post.

Dan

Oregon the Return

It has been 10 years since Cicely and I took our first trip to the Oregon coast.  Now we are about to sent of on our 4th trip.  This will be my 5th trip, I went once with my grandparents.  The first trip we took together, we drove west and found the coast at Tilamook and drove south from there ending up in the Redwoods.  Our trips since have taken us to no further south than Tilamook.  Cannon Beach has become our destination.  Tonight's photo is from our first trip down the coast.

In Times Like These

I could go on today about the Standard & Poor's, or Congressional Republicans, or the inability to compromise in Washington, or the Tea Party or personal absurdities, or drunken truckers on SR 522 and of course market crashes.  But I really don't want to speak about any of them. It is times like these that require you to stop and look around at the beauty that surrounds you.  A time to take stock and move toward simplification. Tonight proof that beauty is all around you.  Or that I have really odd vision of beauty.

Vacation Time Again

All my life, the second week of August has meant family vacation time.  It was like that as a kid and now it is like that with a family.  Not that I couldn't go on vacation in June or October or something, I could, well I think I could.  Anyway never mind.  August vacation time has some fond memories and almost all of them have to do with the ocean.  As a kid going to Ocean Shores, or as an adult going to Cannon Beach or driving down the coast or going to San Diego. 

As a kid, it was always the same, staying at the Royal Pacific, and getting in the swimming pool with my sisters and Dad, playing for hours in the sand.  I can remember going to the beach by myself to dig in the sand when I was 8 or 9 years old.  I always got to sleep on the hide a bed in the front room.  There was the Coffee shop at the Ocean Shores Inn and then there was put put golf.  Oh and driving on the beach, the ultimate expression of a Washingtonian.

I remember going to Ocean Shores after my Mom passed away, the place was different and not as nice, it had changed, the flea trap motels were gone, the Royal Pacific was gone.  The innocence of youth had passed on, or at least it seemed. 

Now we don't go to Ocean Shores, we enjoy Cannon Beach, Oregon.  Now while I get to enjoy the sublime ocean sunsets, I also get to watch my son enjoy the ocean through his eyes.

Retrospect

After Friday's post I began to think, why was that photo of me taken at the computer?  Four reasons come to mind, first it was neat that I was working a fancy computer.  It was neat that we had a fancy computer.  There is some sort of artist merit to the phone or lastly I didn't ever do homework, so this was picture worthy.  I did my homework, so that can't be it, the photo has no artistic merit and that leaves option one or two.  I think about mother, who I presume took the photo, it must have been something to have this computer, having grown up in the 1940's and 50's.  It was a different time so it had to be somewhat sci-fi for her.  Then again, she may have shot the photo for a completely different reason, the march of time and technology may not have crossed her mind.  I know when I see my son playing Angry Birds on my phone, I don't think in awe to my youth and think that my grandparents had a rotary dial phone and now my kid is playing Angry Birds.  If I did, I might think back to something my Dad said, when I got my first Legos back when I was about 4 years old, he told me that I was lucky because there weren't toys like that when he was a kid.  Anyway, a picture of the boy playing Angry Birds, not because of the technology, but because of the lighting. 

Progress

So, the old computer is getting a bit slow and is in need of some serious cleaning up.  I am annoyed by it's pace sometimes, but then I consider our first family computer, my sister had a TI-99, a marvel once upon a time.  But the first family computer was a Sanyo, that wasn't that much better.  I did use Word Perfect to write my 9th grade papers though.  It was big and had no speed or memory and the games were amazingly lame, it did however have an awesome monochrome screen, amber if memory serves me right.  That was 1984 (ish), when I started at my current job in 1999, the billing system was monochrome and looked as if it was designed for that Sanyo.  What's the point, I dunno, maybe the Sanyo is a comparison to the speed in which the debt celling is being raised.

Dan  

Tick Tock

As America waits for fiscal Armageddon, I have been struck by three things, first just how childlike everyone in both parties has acted.  Now to be fair there are probably men and women that have attempted or are acting as a voice of reason, problem is their words are being drown out by a few hundred adult 3 year olds.  I have also been struck by the number of people that are upset with the other party and has stated that my party is just cleaning up so and so's mess.  Who cares how the mess got here, it doesn't matter if it is Reagan's or either Bush's, Clinton's or LBJ's fault.  Placing blame now does not fix anything, it just wastes time and energy.  Third thing that has struck me, is the financial lack of concern.  The markets are down this week, but mostly due to economic data not the debt crisis.  It is likely, come August 2nd nothing will happen, the debt will still be paid and the country will still go on spending.  There are several options to kept the status quo going and there is the matter of the 14th amendment, which states that the validity of the public debt of the United States shall not be questioned.  Our credit rating may be slashed but that isn't likely to stop investment in the largest economy on earth.  In the end it is the lack of actual crisis that allows both sides, and especially the House Republicans, to not be willing to take what they have won and make a deal.  Instead knowing that nothing is really going to change, this is an opportunity to win votes in November of 2012 and to fill up the war chests.  

Now and Then

So Cicely and I went to Leaveworth this last weekend and explored the Wenatchee Valley.  As we did on our honeymoon, 9 years ago.  It was an interesting experience, one could not help but think about what was different or what was the same.  What struck me as interesting was that I have soften up enough or gotten old, one of the two and actually really enjoyed myself this time.  Not that I didn't enjoy myself the first time, this time it was better and an enjoyment on a different level.  My love for Cicely has changed, it is more complex and deeper now than back in 2002.  Leavenworth, on the other hand really hasn't changed too much, it has changed, a few stores have left and a few more have come.  Overall though the theme remains.  It isn't like we haven't been to Leavenworth in the last 9 years, we have been there several times, just not over night.  All this has got me to spent much time thinking about how other things in my life have evolved and changed through the ebbs and flows of time.  It is a reminder that everything is always moving, you can't always tell but today is not just like yesterday. 

A Good Day To Read

Tonight we look at a found photo from who knows when, and who knows where.  It does however show more people enjoying the outdoors.   It seems so luxurious to be able to lay back a just read.  No cares in the world just words.  I remember summers during my college years I would just sit back in the summer heat and read, not a care in the world.  I miss those days of being so carefree and penniless.  I also miss summer heat, but that is for other posts past and future.

Dan 

The Happiest Place On Earth

Today is Disneyland's birthday, so why not show some photos of the place.  Even though it is expensive and crowded and something of a pain, it is a bunch of fun.  When I first went to Disneyland, I was 5 and it was a blast, I enjoyed every minute of it.  The second time I went, it was expensive and crowded, and I enjoyed every minute of it.  I look forward to seeing it again and seeing it through the eyes and expressions of my boy. 

Couldn't Stand The Weather

Being from Seattle we are given to complaining about the lack of Mariner hitting and the rain.  Unlike Mariner hitting we are not the worst place when it comes to rain.  A lot of places get more rain than us, however it is years like this that lead to our misery.  After three days of normal summer weather, it has turned gray and damp again, I believe we are on place for 475 days of rain this year.  So to remind you of what we are missing, people enjoying a warm summer's day.

Another Great Fire

Today is the anniversary of the fire that burnt Quincy nearly to the ground.  The year was 1917 and six buildings were destroyed, so that gives you an idea of the size of Quincy in 1917.  Like so many fires that destroyed towns and cities, fire was cause.  This time it was the fire that was used to render lard at Warran Platt's butcher shop, the resulting hot grease caught fire and with the aid of a strong northwest wind the wooden town burnt quickly.  Burnt where Platt's butcher shop, Johnny Dormaier's general store, Axel Jonson's law office, Fred Renz's novelty shop (a rather odd idea in Quincy), a vacant restaurant and the Post Office.  Of those affected only the Post Office choose to stay.  Everyone else left town, one can presume that this was prior to the city putting up the "Quincy - Opportunities Unlimited" signs.  It seems that opportunities were rather limited after the fire.  Really you could say the opportunities were limited in Quincy up until the last few years when the cheap electricity actually made Quincy a desirable place.