Windshield | Wenatchee, WA | December 2019
Several loyal followers of this photo blog have queried from afar about the lack of color in recent postings. “What gives? You shooting in black and white?” asked one. No, but I know it looks that way. These are the colors of autumn’s shift to winter in North Central Washington. Gray skies, filtered sun, fallen leaves, dormant grasses — they add up to a palette of muted browns that rivals (more…)
File Cabinet | Wenatchee, WA | December 2019
One heartfelt holiday resolution would be to adopt some old office furniture. But who really needs a creaky fax machine or tinny filing cabinet? They’ve become digital orphans, along with typewriters and bulky day planners, as a result of tech advances in the workplace. After moving last week to a new location, a downtown retailer toted to the parking lot an assortment of desks and cabinets, free for the taking. A day went by. Then snow fell. The best pieces eventually got (more…)
Power | Vantage, WA | November 2019
Wires, wires everywhere. I’m not complaining, just envious. Linemen who installed and now maintain high-tension cables for our region’s hydro, wind and solar projects experience the grandest views imaginable. The lines often stretch summit-to-summit across spectacular vistas. Of course, those power-line people risk butt and brain to (more…)
Spares | Twisp, WA | November 2019
Comfort comes in many forms. But life’s pressures ease when we’re prepared for the unexpected. A flashlight within easy reach. A spare tire fully inflated. An extra six-pack on game day. I like to draw a mental map (not paper) of household emergency items and their locations. The map also includes escape routes in case of fires, earthquakes, robbers, or infestations of (more…)
Wine | Quincy, WA | November 2019
Thirsty? An ocean of new wine ferments in giant stainless steel tanks glowing in a cluster south of Quincy. The facility, across the road from a wrecking yard and not far from a feedlot, indicates a shift in commerce along the Quincy-George Highway, long a district for intensive ag and related industries (tractor repairs, chemical sales). To the north, data centers sprout where (more…)
Drift Log | Lake Wenatchee, WA | November 2019
Every Thanksgiving memories wash up on my mental shore. Such as: Three deaf-mute brothers, guests at our family table, silently fighting over the last drumstick. A coma-like nap after five servings of oyster dressing at the Holiday Inn buffet. Raw turkeys, fleshy pink, lined in a snowbank during a 24-hour power outage. A roasted bird carved, slashed really, by a weight lifter tattooed with Polynesian death designs. These remembrances drift from (more…)
Optics | Wenatchee, WA | November 2019
“I think about all the people before eyeglasses were invented. It must have been weird because everyone was seeing in different ways according to how bad their eyes were. Now, eyeglasses standardize everyone’s vision to 20/20. That’s an example of (more…)
Fence | Cashmere, WA | November 2019
This new fence teases the eye with visual contrast. But it faces every fence’s fate — fail, fall, fix. “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,” wrote poet Robert Frost about the breakdown of a stone fence between him and a neighbor. I frequently witness that truth. Each spring, a rancher’s truck idles at the fence line while he and his son re-string wire and re-set posts. Our own rail fence, aged beyond usefulness, sheds random pieces that we gently put back into place. A homeless man in our grocery store’s parking lot holds (more…)
Fake Fir | East Wenatchee, WA | November 2019
Let’s imagine a telecommunications engineer making his pitch: “It’s a cell tower, sure, but who’s gonna know? This thing will fool tree experts. It’s where squirrels will hide their nuts.” Question is: Why even bother to camouflage a cell tower? They’ve become just another unnoticed element on our techno-landscape, like overhead wires and surveillance cameras. Plus, if we absolutely must disguise a tower, I prefer (more…)
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