Stories, etc.

Down by the Berkeley Marina at Cesar Chavez Park there are always people flying kites. Here are two that seemed to be traveling through a wind moving with great determination. 

This is the back of a 18-wheeler as seen from me, the driver, between Orono, ME and Bangor, ME along the beautiful stretch of interstate 95. I used a Nikon Cool-Pix. Didn't lay a finger on photoshop.

Short Fiction: I came across an elderly man at the local sandwich store. He had swollen ankles and thin gray hair. His skin was white like paper, with the occasional splotch on his face. I made eye contact with him and smiled somewhat kindly, motioning for him to come sit at my table. He didn’t smile but nodded and came over. I asked him if he lived around here, and he said he lived off of MacArthur Boulevard, near the cross section of High Street. I knew this area well. I took casual carpool every day at that corner, and had been to a dinner recently at a house just down the street. Anyways, I asked the elderly man what his name was. He said “Harold” and I introduced myself. He asked me what I did, and I told him I worked as a carpenter at a lumberyard in the hills. He could tell I hated it. I explained to him it wasn't working with metal that bothered me, but the boss and how he treated his workers. Regardless, Harold listened. He told me he enjoyed taking photographs and had t...

Point Reyes, California One autumnal, late October weekend of this very year, I went to Point Reyes, California. One of the objectives was to reach within the depths of my energy reserves and execute a painting or two.  In the northern bits of Marin County I ventured, 'to the lighthouse', and was met with fog galore. The last sunny spot before I reached the vicinity of Point Reyes was a town called Inverness. It consisted of a few cafes and restaurants, and an accommodating grocery/general store. All the residents and people I interacted with were kindly. One particular cafe I went to was called Blackbird . The gentleman who ran the cash register and kitchen crafted a BLT that comes within inches of being the best BLT I ever consumed. You can see the fog encroaching its way over a hill.  The road that I took to get there was highway one, visibly apparent on this map. A shape of land that appears so cut and dry, though when I journeyed onto the road, it was anythin...

BODIE, CALIFORNIA- Gold-Mining Ghost Town.          "This is Bodie, or rather the remains of Bodie. Only about five percent of the buildings it contained during its 1880s heydey still remain. Today, it stands just as time, fire and the elements have left it - a genuine California gold mining ghost town. Designated a state historic park in 1962, it is now maintained in a state of "arrested decay." "Bodie was named after Waterman S. Body (also known as William S. Body), who discovered gold here in 1859. The change in spelling of the town's name has often been attributed to an illiterate sign painter, but it was a deliberate change by the citizenry to ensure proper pronunciation. "The town of Bodie rose to prominence with the decline of mining along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. Prospectors crossing the eastern slopes in 1859 to "see the elephant"-- that is, to search for gold- made a rich discovery at Virginia City. Th...

Having grown up in the greater Bangor, Maine area and choosing to go to college near my parent's house, I felt the need to get out and explore another part of the world in my junior year of advanced education; therefore, when I was 21, I traveled to northern England to study abroad in the Newcastle-upon-Tyne / Sunderland area of Durham county. It's supposedly the area from which George Washington's relatives emigrated.  I do not know why I chose that area in particular, something about being in northern England sounded unknown to me. I wanted to know more about the world, and I had enjoyed England when I visited the country and our relatives there with my parents four years prior. This is a photo I took near a lighthouse on the shores of the North Sea. It is really close to the border of Sunderland (to the south) and Newcastle (to the north). Sunderland is on the east coast of Britain, and is awakened by cold gusts that blow in from Scandinavia via this body of water...

In late January 2011, eastern Maine is cold and dry. The new buildings abound, but this one stuck out the most to me. Chris, my brother took this photo. At first glance, I thought it was a rehabilitation center. He later informed me that it was, in fact, Supercuts.