I saw the strangest things...

I've had a stressful week, so what better way to relax than by going out to take photos most of the morning. Sometimes, it gets a little weird. That kid in the middle is my son, Jordan, and those people around him are...well...typical suburbanites. Yeah, that's it, typical. I have no idea why they were doing this and they remained mute. It's just another of life's mysteries.

And I didn't take the picture. Mary took it with Jordan's cellular phone. I did, however, drive around looking for them so I could try to get an interview. No luck.


Who needs Photoshop, Pixia, or Gimp? I did this in plain old MS Paint. If I ever learn how to use those other programs, I'll probably get in trouble.



Here's the bicycle advocacy portion for today. This pothole was forming prior to our two snow storms, but since then it's become deeper and wider. For anyone on two wheels, crossing these railroad tracks is going to be problematic. Sure, wider tires on motorcycles and scooters don't slip sideways as easily as narrow bicycle tires, but the pothole may cause those heavier vehicles to have problems here too.

The railroad crossing is on a slightly built up right of way. This means that as you approach, you cannot really see the roadway between the rails. This slight hump is apparent in the next two photos.

That's a Minolta Autometer IIIF and it's about 6 inches long, nearly as long as the pothole is deep.

Here's a view to the south showing the oblique angle of this crossing. Several cyclists fall here each summer. I've nearly fallen when the rails were wet. The safe way to cross, of course, is at a 90 degree angle, and that's possible provided there isn't much traffic. Motorists don't know or simply don't care that it's illegal to pass within 50 feet of a railroad crossing.

Here's the view looking north.

I'll write something about this for the Examiner, and include a link to the Flickr versions of these photos. They include GPS information.