16,990

 

“Be skeptical, ask questions, demand proof. Demand evidence. Don't take anything for granted. But here's the thing: When you get proof, you need to accept the proof. And we're not that good at doing that.”

 
~Michael Specter 

 

17, 990 people died because of Donald Trump. THIS DRUG DID NOT AND WOULD NOT WORK! I knew it then, and I know it now, and so does everyone else, well, not the dead obviously. Donald John Trump is a fucking, opportunistic MONSTER, and I just know if he is reelected he will cause even more folks to lose their lives. I pray that those going to the polls next November will remember not just him telling a frightened America to drink bleach, but that he encouraged American's to take Hydroxychloroquine when he knew there was NO PROOF it would be effective against Covid-19. 

 

 "What do you have to lose? Take it."

 

~Donald John Trump

May 18th 2020

 

When was Trump diagnosed with Covid-19?

Friday October 2nd 2020

 

Please read the article in Politico.

 

And then watch the video below.

 

Here is the current trends from the CDC data tracker. Please check it out. Please Mask up. Please seriously consider getting you vaccinations caught up. 

Here is a map of states with the highest Covid rates.

Newsweek

 

 

Please take care of yourselves. We all have the information at this point, don't get complacent. Don't think for a moment this thing is gone. It's not. It continues to mutate, and it will do so for years. I am fairly sure I only have about 15 visitors, give or take, but I care about all of you. I don't need a big audience. I am just grateful for all who visit my posts. 

Thank you.

 

 

 

 

 

Whispering... It Will Be Better!

 "Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come,

 whispering, 'It will be happier'... ."

~Alfred Lord Tennyson

It's the last day of 2020... whew... I made it! Alan and I made it! We are okay, we didn't get Covid-19, despite the surging numbers in San Joaquin County, Covidiots in the wild, like the couple I spotted at Walmart, while we shopped for Thanksgiving dinner and selfish co-workers Alan has to work with! We have done all we could to keep ourselves free of the virus. We both wear a mask when we leave the house, and we wash our hands often, but there is a new mutation of Covid-19 that is 70% more transmissible than previous strains, so who knows what we can do now to avoid it. This mutation was first identified in England, and surprise, Donald Trump did not do a thing about temporarily halting travel from that part of the world! He knew this was happening, thank God Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the truth about this strain. All it took was his own diagnosis of Covid-19 earlier in 2020, to make him see the light!

Anyway, I was looking back through my image folders from 2020 to maybe do a post with my favorite photos from the year, but I decided to just post the photos that were most important. I narrowed those down to those which dealt with two main catagories... Politics and the pandemic. As important as this years politics was, especially to me, it was the pandemic that effected me the most profoundly. I have spent the better part of the last four years living in fear of Donald Trump, and what he was capable of doing with all the power he was handed in 2016, but it was Covid-19 that outdid him when it came to deadly potential. Unfortunately, Trump and Covid-19 ended up becoming codependent. They have been quite the team!

 

I wanted to make the post about my joy over the win of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, because believe me I do feel that joy, but I just couldn't! So, these are the photos that stuck with me. The signs reminding us in California that there were simple things we could do to stop the spread. Unfortunately, residents of San Joaquin county, the county I live in, still have a problem doing the simplest of things to help themselves, and those around them. Oh well, you can't fix stupid. Right? So, forward, march. 2021 will begin in less than 24 hours, and personally, I don't plan to look back. But, I do have an album on Google that will document the year in photographs, all the words worth mentioning will be documented in history. As for my personal 2020 history, there are moments good and bad I won't forget, like how I burst into tears of joy, upon learning Joe Biden had chosen Kamala Harris as his running mate. I slept so good for several nights after that. It was a relief I can't really describe, but alas it did not last, it was broken by some scary, bonehead move Trump did, that I don't even remember now. Strange how Trump moments bleed into each other like that!

2021 will be happier. I will do more photography. I will learn more about birds. I will finally fullfill a lifelong ambition of baking a Lady Baltimore cake from scratch. I will read a book that has nothing to do with politics, although it might be a historical biography. I will get my health back on track, and drop some of the Trump weight I have gained. 15 pounds might be good! I will keep a more realistic schedule. I will disengage from all the doom and gloom. I will stay informed, but I will not go back into drowning in politics. I will finish the home improvement projects we have started, and I will spend more time with Alan than I do with Trump. Trust me, my worrying over Trump killing all of us, took over a huge part of my life. I can't get that time back, but I can march into 2021 with my eyes focused on the future. These ideas are not resolutions mind you, they are just my idea of hope.

 

 My favorite Leaf Of The Day

Stockton, California

October 10th 2020

 Nikon

 

 

 

Her Happiest Season

 "Autumn was her happiest season. There was an expectancy about it's sounds and shapes: the distant thunk pomp of leather and young bodies on the practice field near her house made her think of bands and cold Coca-Cola, parched peanuts and the sight of people's breath in the air. There was even something to look forward to when school started... renewals of old feuds and friendships, weeks of learning again what one half forgot in the long summer. Fall was hot... supper time with everything to eat one missed in the morning when too sleepy to enjoy it."

~Harper Lee

Go Set A Watchman

Look at that sunset. I took that photo, as the sun was setting over the Altamont Pass, at the end of a very good day. It was December 5th, a beautiful day, that had all of the gifts autumn could possibly provide. We were on our way home from the Bay Area, after a long day out, and I was tired from the day, which is a good thing, but I just had to have that sunset. Spending a day with the camera makes me happy, but spending the day with the camera, and returning home tired from it, makes me ecstatic! It means I saw beauty, and even if I only manage to refill my file only a bit, I am usually happy, because it means I took my time and really put thought into my surroundings. 

 

You would think that would be a given... right? Well, yes and no. Sometimes I just can't break through my own relentless head noise. And sometimes the ambient light looks one way in the car, and another way at curbside or even deep on the rice patties, depending on if I am photographing some curbside art, autumn leaves, or Sandhill Cranes. Photography is never the same twice. You can prep in a general sense, but I can't count the number of times I have packed all my requirement. Light meters. Tripods. Cameras. Headed for a location, only to find that I had to fight some unforeseen circumstance, be it natural or man-made. Self made catastrophes happen too, like forgetting my small wallet that contains extra SD cards. That's happened an embarrassing amount of times. That's the difference between an amateur and pro, I guess. But, even with all of the work, mental and physical, it's worth it, no matter what season we are in!

Every year I photograph somewhere between 100 and 500 autumn leaves. About 91 become, Leaves Of The Day, and the remaining are used in other projects, while some are never featured anywhere. Last year was a really difficult year for my project. I couldn't find much color during autumn, in fact most of it took place during winter of this year. It was such a difficult year I wasn't sure we would get through it, but we did, and I was glad I had saved some leaves back in case. This year was a much different story, and I have decided that beginning this year, I will share as many of the unused leaves as possible, because like the featured ones, they are what the life of the year was about. California lost so many trees in 2020, to wildfires, or drought conditions. Climate Change is affecting and diminishing the  color and life of California. It's painful to watch. I don't know what the state will look like in 10 years. It may look more like autumn in upstate New York, which would be amazing, or it could be treeless, I don't know, but one thing is for sure, the state is going through big changes, so the history of autumn 2020 means a lot to me. It is my happiest season.

The Leaves Of Autumn 2020

And Today's Featured Leaf Of The Day

#87

~Carly

Stockton, California

December 17th 2020

 

The Test Of A Man's Character

 

"Nearly all men can stand adversity,

 but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."

 

~Abraham Lincoln 

 

Right?

Donald Trump has now lost Arizona. The only states left to call are North Carolina and Georgia. This is only the second time that the state of Arizona has gone for a Democrat, the first being Bill Clinton, in 1996. Before that, you'd have to go all the way back to 1948! And to think, all it took was an out of control pandemic to unseat the worst president, Donald Trump, this nation has ever seen! He's still refusing to concede, although the Republican party does seem to be losing it's patience with his immature insistence that he won the election by "lots." Yes, he said he won by "lots."

 

 Sigh. 

 

~Carly

Stockton, California

November 13th 2020

A Month Of Sundays Or 30 Days

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower."

~Albert Camus

 Well, the election is under a month from now. Or exactly 30 days, depending on how you choose to measure it. November 3rd in any case. A month of Sundays. Three weeks into our vacation. A date on the calendar. It feels like time is standing still, and yet here we are on our 13th leaf for this autumn. We got here so quickly. It feels like the next 30 days will be the scariest of my life. History will save it for beach reading one day, if there is a one day. Lord I am tired, and maybe a little tender, but getting lost in the leaves makes me so happy and takes my mind off all the scary stuff. Just think... that pretty little leaf is one of a kind, I will never see another one exactly like it. That has always felt downright magical to me. No autumn day should ever be wasted indoors, lost in despair.

 

~Carly

October 4th 2020

Stockton, California 

Friends With Leaves

 

"Fallen leaves on the ground are the

 golden song of immortal creativity."

~Amit Ray

Bliss Beauty and Truth: Living with Positivity 

Of all the trees I count on to provide me with autumn leaves, that one above just happens to be my favorite. Giving up my almost daily visits to my tree, was one of the most difficult aspects about leaving the Bay Area. I have been visiting that tree, in autumn, for over a decade. Its beautiful, and it was, at one time, my go to for the first day of autumn. I still get down to the Bay Area several times during the autumn season, but it's not like being able to see it's progress daily. Oh well, I have made friends with a beautiful tree on Ben Holt here is Stockton, and I am happy with that tree as well. I am sure if I ever leave Stockton, I will come back to visit my Ben Holt tree and miss it as much as I miss my tree friend in Cull Canyon.

 

~Carly

October 3rd 2020

Stockton, California

One Autumn Leaf Four Emotions

"I loved autumn, the one season of the year that God seemed to have put there just for the beauty of it." 

~Lee Maynard 

 I came across the most beautiful leaf yesterday. So pretty, in fact, that I ended up doing several versions of it. It was a really windy day, and there was this beautiful leaf standing up to it, curbside, in a puddle praying to not get hit I am sure. So many colors, which to me are like emotions when I look at leaves, because if a leaf is as pretty as this one is, all kinds of emotional memories can pass through my heart. Autumn is so beautiful. I see lots of Fall decorations using earth tones, but the leaves tell a much different story, and this one has the story of a whole year written in the book that will be this year's autumn, and we are only on page two!

And Now Today's Leaf Of The Day

~Carly

September 23rd 2020

Stockton, California

 

The Path Forward

The reflection of the sun, as filtered with smoke from the Central and Northern California wildfires.

"I don't know whether you can look at your past and find, woven like the hidden symbols on a treasure map, the path that will point to your final destination."

~Jodi Picoult

Handle With Care 

Okay, time to get caught up. My last post, before I broke for the season, was dated March 23rd, which means there is a lot to share here as far as my photography goes. So, less words tonight, more photos from the last 6 months or so. Happily, despite the pandemic, I managed a fair amount of new photography, mostly shared on Twitter, and Google photos, of course. I keep forgetting to update my Twitter TL to link directly, I am not sure what they mental block is all about but from now on, no excuses. It's time to get my shit together. It actually feels good to be motivated, its been a while since I felt that way. Hey, it was bound to happen at some point... right? I mean how long could I continue hiding from life?

Enough with the wordiness. Time for the photographs to speak.

This was just a sampling of my work since January, I did a lot more photos and subjects. If you'd like to see more click on the link below to be redirected to my Google album for this year. Feel free to leave me any feedback you want, just be respectful.

Ellipsis 2020 

Carly

August 24th 2020

Stockton, California