Roadside America Attraction #2 The Lumberjack's Lumberjack

 

"Adventure, creativity, and novelty... is human nature

And I am a Human! Journey is it's fate. And I am traveling it." 

 

~Tahreem Rahat

 

 

This is my second post of, Roadside America, attractions, as I meander my way around the Central Valley, in search of all things of novelty. My first post came at the end of December, and featured the A&W Root-beer family, in Lodi, California. This time around we are a little closer to home. This cool lumberjack is from right in my own town, of Stockton! I am not sure if he carries the name of Paul Bunyon, like some similar statues do, but no doubt about it, he is a fitting mascot for a restaurant named Lumberjacks! I can't believe this is my second post, and I am doing one so similar as the last one. There is a lot to see in the world, and even right here in the San Joaquin Valley, but I really dig these statues. 

 

When I was a little girl, my parents would visit some friends in Hayward, California, and we would drive right by, Mike The Muffler Man, on Mission Boulevard. I was intrigued that my friend Mike was always there, like a great big protective friend. I'm not sure where I thought he'd go, but he made me smile, so I didn't really want to think about not seeing each other one day. Strange what a child's mind will attach to. That fascination, although to a much less degree, endured. Whenever I have been in Hayward, and anywhere near the corner of Mission Boulevard and A Street, I just had to pass my old pal Mike. Can you tell that I am wildly over sentimental?

 

 

~Carly

 

 

What Fog Hides In Itself

 

"If you want to see what hides in itself, don't wait for the fog to disperse! Instead of waiting for something to happen in this short life, do something immediately! Enter the fog,"

 

~Mehmet Murat ildan

 

Almost every day since the beginning of January has been foggy! It's the San Joaquin Delta, so sure it is! And that is good thing, because I haven't had a lot of experience with doing photography in the fog, but what I have done in previous years, I have enjoyed very much. I am hoping to do a lot of new stuff this year, not just with my photography, but with life in general, I am just starting with learning my way through the fog, in an effort to find my way. 

 

~Carly

Remember The Alamo!

 

 Cosumnes River Reserve

Lodi, California

January 10th, 2021

 

"Never say more than is necessary."

 

~Richard Brinsley Sheridan

 

 As of later today, Donald John Trump will officially go down in history as the only president, so far, to be Impeached twice. We are living through extraordinary times. I feel like someone should be knitting something, like when Betsy Ross knitted the flag. Is there such a thing as an Impeachment flag? Nah... probably not. But doesn't that seem about right? Like there should be some wildly artsy thing happening? I imagine there might be a hillbilly off somewhere writing a special song for the soon to be ex-president, or perhaps a poem. Shrug. I am thinking of making some Impeachment scones for the occasion, I mean days like this don't come along everyday, but oddly enough, they have come around three times in my lifetime. Rickard Nixon, William Jefferson Clinton and of course the overachiever, Donald Trump.

 

Richard Nixon, of course, never actually faced Impeachment because he was smart enough to shut up, write a simple resignation letter and accept a full pardon from Gerald Ford. Clinton learned what happens when you aren't even as smart as Richard Nixon. You run your mouth, lie to Congress, and you get Impeached. Luckily, he wasn't forced out of office by the Senate, but what a sad time that was for America. I was so disillusioned, but all these years later I realize that I probably wasn't so much disillusioned as just plan sad that such a man, who governed brilliantly, had fallen so far. It still makes me sad when I think about all the damage it caused. But Trump is a completely different story. It wasn't a shaded stretch of the truth or a lie to congress, no, it was inciting a coup against the government of the United States. Our country. 

 

It's unforgivable. And so is the fact that he continues to run his mouth to the masses, to incite Civil War, in a selfish attempt to hold off the inevitable... jail. As of right now, that might be the last thing he has to worry about, Hell at least jail would mean there will be a roof over his head and food in his stomach. Two things he could be missing soon, as his equity drops. As of right now he has been kicked off most social media platforms, lost his contract with the PGA, the ability to process credit card receipts through Stripe, a host of other partnerships and the biggest of them all, Deutsche Bank called it quits on him yesterday. I'm waiting for a Breaking News alert saying Melania has filed for divorce. I'm not actually waiting for that, but it wouldn't surprise me if it happens before we reach June.

 

Well, anyway, today is going to be a long day, so I will leave it here with a letter from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs from yesterday, vowing to do their job and keep their promise to do due diligence. The second letter is from Vice President Mike Pence. I'd like to think he isn't invoking the 25th Amendment because he doesn't want to kick a man when he's down, but I know he is just a milquetoast coward, so there's that. I do have to hope Pence writes a book one day, and hopefully he will share why Trump chose, The Alamo, as his last Batshit stand. LOL. Oh well, holy Hell, I always did say Trump was one Impeachment away from charging up San Juan Hill! CHARGGGGE!

 

Leaves... Strange In The Silence

"There is something strange in the silence of a winter view: Something seems to happen,

 but nothing happens,

 as if all reality is frozen."

 

~Mehmet Murat ildan

 

The bark, on the tree on the left, looks like a ghoul vomiting autumn out of it's soul, as if it is fed up with autumn's blissful intrusion into it's body. Last autumn was a little too hopeful it seems, it healed too much, and winter clearly resents that. Look at the pain of the last five days. We are barely into winter, January, and the new year, and we have already had unparalleled tragedy erase the joy of all those things, but look at the remnants of autumn and try to not smile... it's so impossible, it's so heartbreaking. Winter, is casting a deep fear stare on all of us. It's jealous eyes threaten more of it's cold burning rain and fog, but how does one accurately prepare for things that can't be fully known or imagined until they arrive? The fog of Covid-19 and the cold burning rain of insurrection strike all around but there is such refuge in strange silence of the last of the autumn leaves, or the sweet sound of a gaggle of Snow Geese, in mid-flight over a quiet San Joaquin Delta shoreline. For now. But winter is always watching, and it's beginning to burn with cold jealousy.The heart reels.

 

 

 ~Carly