Autumn Stratus And Nimbus

 

"Sometimes places, create inhuman monsters."

~Stephen King

The Shining

Living in America, sometimes feels like we are all, average republican or democrat, living in the Overlook Hotel, and it's hauntings come at us daily. The demons are diseases, and the lack of SNAP benefits, the mass firing of researchers at the CDC and so many more things that I can't count represent the two little girls in the hallway! The last Covid-19 information gathered was a couple months ago, and it named two variants, Nimbus and Stratus. I've had "Captain Tripp's" twice now, and it's left my body with Long Covid. I am falling asleep three hours after I wake up, my hair is falling out, and my taste buds, after 4 years, is still bothering me. I don't want to get it again, but it seems inevitable. Why doesn't MAGA see it? Why doesn't MAHA see it? Trump couldn't care less about our health. He doesn't care about whether or not anyone eats, and while all this pain is happening, he is throwing Great Gatsby parties, and showing off whatever hideous plans he has for the white house decor. What happens when Covid-19 evolves into a variant we can't treat, and he ignores it's presence because he doesn't want to look bad? I've tried really hard to stay informed, now there is virtually no data. 

"Maybe he sells fear, because he has nothing else to sell."

~Stephen King

The Stand

Halloween Countdown Film #8 &7 It and The Stand

 

 IT

By Stephen King 

 

IT: I'm every nightmare you've ever had.

 I'm your worst dream come true.

 I'm everything you ever were afraid of.

 

 

The Stand

By Stephen King

 

Mother Abagail:  "It's time now to give your will over to the will of God.

 It's time to make your Stand."

 

Once again, I am probably making a political statement with these choices, but that's all beside the point, I love Stephen King's books, and I thought these adaptions were horror perfection! They are great on a windy, rainy afternoon, but if you're watching it while suffering from Captain Tripps, Uh, I mean Captain Trumps, oops, I mean Covid-19, it can feel really surreal, like you've suddenly found yourself in a Stephen King book. but really, aren't we?

 

 

“This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.”

 

~T.S. Eliot,

  The Hollow Men

 

 

Halloween Countdown Film #22... Salem's Lot

 

Ben Mears is a haunted man. Haunted by his past. But it's not a ghost that's haunting Ben, but rather misplaced regret, and the monstrous grief we all face at one point in our lives. As Ben returns to his home town of Jerusalem, to face those fears and regrets that have left him a deeply damaged, he begins to realize his was right to the voice deep inside that told him to RUN!

 

“The wind makes you ache in some place that is deeper than your bones.”

 ~ Stephen King,

  'Salem's Lot

 

“The town knew about darkness.
It knew about the darkness that comes on the land when rotation hides the land from the sun, and about the darkness of the human soul”

 ~Stephen King

  'Salem's Lot 

 

 

 

 “If a man dethrones God in his heart, Satan must ascend to His position.”
~Stephen King,

 ’Salem’s Lot

 

 “The basis of all human fears, he thought.

 A closed door, slightly ajar.”

 
~Stephen King,

 'Salem's Lot

 

Halloween Countdown #29... 1408

  

 "Hotels are a naturally creepy place... Just think, how many people have slept in that bed before you? How many of them were sick? How many... died?

 

Mike Enslin (character)

Based On The Short Story, 1408

By Stephen King Stephen King 

 

Tonight's film is 1408, starring John Cusak and  Samuel L. Jackson. If it's a story by Stephen King, it must be a psychological horror story, capable of spinning you into a nightmare, even if all you are doing is sharing a bowl of popcorn with your favorite person, and hugging your favorite cat! I used to enjoy going to movie theaters to watch scary movies, but not so much since Covid-19. For me, it's much more terrifying allowing movie monsters and all things supernatural into my home. How do you sleep right after having the candy corn scared out of you? Suddenly, unfamiliar shadows are everywhere! This story points out how terrifying it can be to leave home! If you've ever had a horrible vacation, you will certainly have had a better time than Mike Enslin did! 

 

 

 

LP.8.1

 

“No one can tell what goes on in between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell. There are no maps of the change.

 You just come out the other side.

Or you don't.” 

~Stephen King

  The Stand  

 

 COVID isn't over, but the latest strain seems to be milder than some previous strains. Summer always seems to bring some relief. I can't much information at the CDC, so I am relying on other sources like the World Health Organization, Nebraska Health and John Hopkins. Here is the recent information...

 

Nebraska Medicine

Please, still wear your masks. Please keep yourself safe. If you have Kaiser, you can still get home tests for free, and now they have tests that detect the flu as well as COVID. The vaccine is safe, and apparently effective, so don't believe the conspiracy theory nonsense. The last time I had Captain Trumps, ( COVID-19 XEC ) was in December. It wasn't pleasant, but wasn't like original Omicron either. Since I recovered, however, I am extremely tired. I sleep a full night and a few hours later I am feeling tired and achy. Much more than I was before. Of course some might point out that Donald Trump wasn't the president in December when I was sick, and the aches and pains began in February, so is it the remains of XEC or is it Trump? Who knows? But either way, I am still wearing my mask when I go out in public, washing my hands several times a day, and I practice safe distancing when at all possible.

And I make no apologies for that!

 

Please take care of yourselves.

 

 

 

 

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #15/The Poetry Of Horror

 

“Your hair is winter fire
January embers
My heart burns there, too.”

 
~Stephen King

  It

 

That's one of my favorite quotes from movies ever! It's romantic, sweet and innocent, all at the same time. If you have never read the book, or seen the original TV mini-series, please do. The 2017 theatrical remake lacked soul in my opinion. I felt no emotional connection with the characters, but I sure did with the original. It haunted me in many ways, for a long time. Just the way a story, when told excellently, should. It's the pure poetry of horror.

The Colors Of Autumn

 

“But when fall comes, kicking summer out on its treacherous ass as it always does one day sometime after the midpoint of September, it stays awhile like an old friend that you have missed. It settles in the way an old friend will settle into your favorite chair and take out his pipe and light it and then fill the afternoon with stories of places he has been and things he has done since last he saw you.” 

~Stephen King

  ’Salem’s Lot

 

I spotted this little Dark-eyed Junco a couple days ago in Castro Valley. My favorite park is coming alive with color! My favorite tree is off to a good start, and in the shrubbery beneath it were a couple beautiful spiders to play with! It struck me that this bird offered the best of Summer and Autumn. Brown and black, with just a touch of red. It blended into the fallen leaves so well I nearly missed it! Had it not been for my favorite birding app, GoBird, I would have missed it! We picked up the sounds of several birds we need for the 2024 file, and all signs point to it being a great place to really get in touch with autumn. We still haven't found the Brown Creeper, but it will be this year's quest. In birding one needs patience and luck. Mostly luck!

 

   

Drab And Empty

 

“Some birds are not meant to be caged, that's all. Their feathers are too bright, their songs too sweet and wild. So you let them go, or when you open the cage to feed them they somehow fly out past you. And the part of you that knows it was wrong to imprison them in the first place rejoices, but still, the place where you live is that much more drab and empty for their departure.” 

~Stephen King

  Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption

 

No, I haven't forgotten to post some trivial dribble about my life, I have simply been busy with painting the awesome room, a winter storm and a lack of inspiration. Call it the winter doldrums. Call it depression. So, anyway, I have decided to take a short break from posting. No worries, just till next Monday, February 12th. I need to finish the painting, and get out with the camera and find the photos... the horror, the beauty, the mundane, the glamorous, the spooky or whatever appears before me. It's all waiting, I just need to find it.

 

Migrating, Perhaps?

 

“The wind makes you ache in some place

 that is deeper than your bones.” 

~Stephen King,

  'Salem's Lot

 

Just a couple months ago I was standing on the Bat Bridge, wishing for a cool breeze to float by, and now it is here. Not unusual for November, in fact I happen to love it, I just wish the wind would usher in more birds. So far the variety has been bleak, at least it seems that way to me. Maybe that's why I see a bird in those autumn clouds. A Bank swallow to be exact. I watched them fly in and out of their nests, under the bridge on, Thornton road, last spring, and now I see a big one soaring through the clouds on it's way to who knows where? Migrating perhaps. Do you see the bird shaped cloud? How about you? What do you see?

 

Now do you see the birdy?

#1 The Stand, By Stephen King (1994)

 

 

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

    Not with a bang, but a whimper.

~T. S. Eliot

The Hollow Men

There are 10 days left until Halloween 2023, my favorite holiday, so hopefully every day until then I will be able to post something fun, in addition to my usual musings and Autumn leaves. First up, one of my absolute favorite horror stories of all time, Stephen King's, The Stand. If you have never seen this movie, or even this version of the movie, be sure to watch it. It's a long endeavor, around 5 hours total. It had to be 5 hours long, the book was about 800 pages or so. There was a recent remake that, in my opinion, didn't quite do it. But that's just me. It's Stephen King, therefore there is a lesson for everyone, and for all time.

 

Pop some corn, sit back, and enjoy the film. 

Be sure to visit tomorrow to see what scares I have planned next!

Because, Of Course.

 

“That wasn't any act of God. That was an act of pure human fuckery.”
 

― Stephen King,

  The Stand

 

Elon Musk wants Trump's attention so much, I am actually embarrassed for him! Ever sense he took ownership of Twitter he has been actively ruining it. He has lost money. He hasn't paid his bills. Hasn't paid some techs he fired at the beginning of the year. Rebranded Twitter X, I still haven't figured that move out yet! He put a giant X on the Twitter building, without permission from the city of San Francisco. He refused to turn over Trump's DMs to the DOJ and was fined $300,00 for his efforts to block them. I could go on but why?

 

Musk has already deleted that post and has one of his engineers speaking with the community to try and have a summit! So who knows? Fucker. The joke is really on him. It's a requirement that to feature a social media app in the Apple Store and Google Play, it has to have a block feature for security reasons. Foolish man. If it is carried out I still have the choice of riding it out like I have all along, or pulling the plug. I am sure what I will do. Complacency seems to be my friend. After all there is the Mute button.

 

"The muting is better, anyway. More like burying them alive."

 

~Michael McKean

Twitter 8/18/23

 

 

 

 

Ben Mears And Rob Lowe

 

Preston Castle Wall

Ione, California

May 7th 2022

Minolta

"There comes a time in your life when you have to choose to turn the page, write another book or simply close it."

 

~Shannon L. Alder

 

Preston Castle

Ione, California

Nope, not closing the book yet. Well, maybe the Twitter book, but that remains to be seen (see history). What do I mean by see history? Well, Elon Musk... the jerk... is trying to manipulate the price of the stock, and he has already said he would reinstate Trump, and you know how I feel about that, and I am not alone. Some of this shit is already firmly planted in history. The deal may not happen. We will see. If it does goes through, history will have a lot to say about it. 

 

But meanwhile back in the present. 

 

I'm not closing any doors either. I'm working on my health. Covid forced a giant detox of my eating habits. Before Covid, I ordered lean meat on my sandwiches, sliced extra thin, served with a jar of mayonnaise. Now, mayo is pretty much verboten. I can't tolerate mayonnaise, or anything oily. No fries. No jalapeno poppers. No mozzarella sticks, but there is some super healthy stuff I can't handle either. I can't have spinach, or lettuce, or any other leafy stuff like cilantro. Weird. I LOVE salad, always have. I am a veggie girl. But since Covid, I get a queasy stomach from it. Sigh.

 

I can't do much about most of it, but ride it out and hope it all goes back to normal one day, but I'm done with fucking waiting, I am taking lead and jump starting the process. Dr. Williams gave me a guide for kicking my sense of smell and taste back in. I purchased an aromatherapy machine. The sense of smell and taste go hand and hand. The idea is to choose a scent, and retrain my body to recognize it. Hopefully it will help my sense of taste if I use the same formula. I also purchased a sound machine to maybe help me get my body retrained to some healthy sleeping habits.

 

I can do this.

 

As for the mental exhaustion, again it's a matter of closing the last chapter on what happened last autumn, by closing the storage room. Hubby and I will be cleaning out the last of it next week, and that will be that. The door will be shut, with four months left on our contract at our current home. Hopefully Eric, the owner, will renew our lease, and I can take a little longer to recover, without another move. I'm trying to not think about it. I'm good right now. There is a roof over my head. I am relatively safe. And I am about to buy an air fryer to help me get back into the swing of cooking. I miss baking too. Alan has pretty much been doing everything since my breakdown, the poor man is well trained in being married to a nutjob. Sorry, chronically depressed person.

 

But he knows I eventually get back up, and I guess I will again this time too. What choice do I have? Suicide will always be sitting there, reminding me of it's availability, but, well, you know. Robin. I am trying really hard to not give up this time, in that I came so close to going though with it last fall. I have so much that I haven't shared about what has got me to this place, but as we move along I am sure the details will make themselves known. I just need to process things and go from there.

 

Now, about the "Lowe" in the title of this post. It refers to Rob Lowe. You might remember I posted about his visit to the Central Valley, when he filmed the first episode of, The Lowe Files, back in 2019. His love of the supernatural lead him to film the first episode at Preston Castle, in Ione, and that helped me find something to enjoy out here. I struggled in the first few years, as there isn't a lot to see, and photograph in and around Stockton. But Preston Castle changed all that. As did the town of Ione, Ca. The castle itself is mighty spooky and at the same time glorious. Like all truly spooky places it has a deeply troubled past, which intrigued me. In the next few years I photographed it many times over. And there is a very photogenic graveyard nearby and one of my favorite autumn trees to feature every year in my autumn leaf project, sits nearby in a small park and ride near the creek. 

 

I'm still grateful to Mr. Lowe, he will never know it, but he helped me heal. I experienced a lot of pain between 2015 and 2019 when he visited here. Because of his visit, I was interested about something again, and even slightly amused about how Preston Castle could have easily served as Hubie Marsten's house from Stephen King's, Salem's Lot, that Rob Lowe starred in. It's easy to pretend it was Ben Mears who visited here, and let my child's mind take over for a bit. Are there really ghosts roaming around among us? Perhaps. Are there vampires sleeping in an eerie house on a nearby hill? I don't know where they sleep, but I can say without a doubt that yes, there are vampires among us. That's what's got me to where I am right now.

 

Damn those vampires.

But Thank you, Ben Mears and Rob Lowe. 

 

"But when fall comes, kicking summer out on it's treacherous ass, as it always does one day sometime after the mid point of September, it stays awhile like an old friend who you have missed." 

 

~Stephen King

Salem's Lot

 

You might recall that this is my 

favorite quote to begin autumn with. 

 

 

Pack Up All My Cares And Woes...

"We never know which lives we influence, or when, or why.

 Not until the future eats the present, anyway.

 We know when it's too late."

 

~Stephen King

 11/22/63

 

... Blackbird Bye-Bye

 

 I was in the East Bay last week on business, so I decided to stop in Castro Valley to do some photographs at Cull Canyon Park, and grab a quick bite at the College Avenue Burrito Shop. About half way down Castro Valley Boulevard, I saw this cool lady on a corner, waiting to cross the street. She was a lady of style and sense, who made me smile. I have no idea who she was, or what she found so interesting on her phone, for all I know she was taking my photo, but to see someone like her taking Covid-19 this seriously, with such style, humor and flair, made me feel better for a little while. I have rarely seen folks without their masks in the East Bay, but no fully masked human could beat the impact of this woman's statement of just how easy, and fun, masking up could be. Hey, it looks like Captain Trumps might be around for a while, one doctor recently said we will probably be wearing masks a year from now, so perhaps I need to think outside the deadly virus accessory box. Although, nothing says "out of the box" quiet like wearing a baby bonnet on your face, while shopping at Walmart! Shrug. I'd do it again! LOL!

 

~Carly

Stockton, California

December 16th 2020

The Wind Takes Everything

 

"In the end, the wind takes everything, doesn't it? And why not? Why other? If the sweetness of our lives did not depart, there would be no sweetness at all."

 

~Stephen King

The Wind Through The Keyhole

 

So much good happened yesterday. An uneventful Electoral College count, with the exception of a rude man attempting to intimidate Stephen King regarding the win of Joe Biden. The rollout of the first Covid-19 vaccine injections and the supply shipment, and at the end of the day, the resignation of Attorney General Bill Barr. Democracy won, and it is the beginning of the end of the monster that has haunted us for the better part of a year. A monster so terrifying, it makes Donald Trump seem like an old and dear friend that you would, and could, trust your last dime to. The monster of Covid-19. As good as yesterday was, along with the sweet came the bitter... we crossed over 300,000 dead in America. Much of it driven by lies, misinformation, and folks unable to give up the urge to gather, despite the Grim Reaper walking past us.

 

According to the Los Angeles Times, the county I live in, San Joaquin, continues to suffer under some of the worst statistics in this state, if not the country, as we have reached zero ICU beds available as of this past weekend, and perhaps as low as minus 30% ICU bed availability by this coming weekend, which is the weekend before Christmas. Sad times. I feel it when I hear about it, or do any research into it, but it's cold outside now, the wind is blowing cold ominous winds across the farm country, and storms are building, which makes it all worse. It's natural for days to grow dark, it's expected this time of year, but this is different, and I don't even have the laughter of leaves to console me. They have fallen, and they, for perhaps the first time since I began my autumn leaf project, are  reminding me of the seasons of my life, and what it means to die. Will I see another autumn on this earth? Or am I an autumn leaf of 2020? Am I the last leaf of the year, unaware that the next cold breath of the wind, will serve as my natural enemy when death comes claiming?

 

 

~Carly

Stockton, California

December 15th 2020

Inhuman Monsters

 

"Sometimes human places, create inhuman monsters."

~Stephen King

The Shining

It's October 31st, the day I love most to fear. Halloween. Otherwise known as my favorite holiday. This is a special Halloween, than any I have spent in my life so far. See, not only is Halloween, but tonight is the second full moon of the month, making it a blue moon, and it will be visible in all three time zones! That hasn't happened since, October 31st 1944. This year the holiday, is mostly lost to Covid-19 and Donald Trump. He has taken yet one more thing from me, and all adults that are still children at heart, but with any luck, Tuesday will be the beginning of the end of his failed, miserable career as a politician, and the beginning of his career as an inmate in whatever federal prison is lucky enough to find themselves burdened with him next year at this time.

 Maybe I am hoping for too much, after all, the black cat is out of the bag, he doesn't plan on going anywhere, he will cheat his way into staying in the Hell of his own making. What a sad human he is. In the human place of politics, he really is the inhuman monster, completely created out of other peoples desires, and ambitions. Hatred and greed. Sometimes I think Stephen King is more of a prophet than author of horror. But I imagine Mr. King would say... who didn't see that evil coming one day, it's not like humans listen to their better angels. No matter, Trump may have caused Halloween to sit a year out, but he can't change the cycle of the moon, and if past full moons are any indication, he will have all the bats, in his mind's belfry, dancing the Time Warp for most of Halloween. 

 

Happy Halloween! 

 

Carly

Stockton, California

October 31st 2020

 

 

Welcome To Autumn 2020 And The Leaf Of The Day

"But when fall comes, kicking summer out on it's treacherous ass as it always does one day sometime after the midpoint of September, it stays awhile like an old friend that you have missed. 

It settles in the way an old friend will settle into your favorite chair and take out his pipe and light it and then fill the afternoon with stories of places he has been and the things he has done since last he saw you."

~Stephen King

Salem's Lot

Finally... we cross over. It's autumn. I feel safer, and yet I have never been more frightened. Worldly events make it seem and feel like if I go to sleep, I won't wake up. Killed at the hands of a madman. I kinda like a world with autumns. Where I can have my cats, my familiars, my photography and home. My love. My morning sun. This is the autumn I need to heal me. But maybe it's too much pressure to put on this one season. Still, if all goes well, I will get a six month nap, and I never sleep better, than I do in autumn, so there's that. But hey, we are here now, so I am going to enjoy the autumn light for as long as fate allows it.

~Carly
September 22nd 2020
Stockton, California

Collecting Leaves

"Halloween creatures both friendly and

 gruesome peered out of the rustling leaves."

~Kevin Purdy

Alan and I ordered a ton of movies for this vacation, because we will be spending more time at home than on previous holidays. At least for the first half of the four weeks we have together. So, in addition to our old favorites like, St Elmo's Fire, The Legend of Boggy Creek, and The Changeling, we will have these great films, plus a few you don't see here. I also ordered, The World According to Garp, and Creepshow! I have been adding to my Robin Williams collection a few times a year. I miss him very much, so I am looking forward to just kicking back and enjoying Garp. And I will always need a Stephen King film in the month of October. It wouldn't be autumn without watching great films like, The Stand, The Shining or IT. IT was recently remade, which is okay, but the 1990 television adaptation will always be near and dear to my heart. I am beginning to think of our once a year, Movie-A-Palooza as collecting beautiful autumn leaves. I'm a little weird about autumn I think.

#12 Leaf Of The Day

October 4th, 2019 

Stockton, California

Nikon 

~Mood: Happy

~Me   :)