Dirt

Encountered on my walks around here. Captured with the camera on my cellphone.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

When I went out this morning, at 10am, the sky was clear and it was 60 degrees, blue, and bright. After a few hours, clouds had moved in and made everything a still gray. Then the rain began, running off the packs of leftover snow - and just a bit ago, snow began to fall in mix with the rain. Soon the twig snaps of falling rain will stop as it gives way to nothing but the silent snow, spreading over the ground.

You can really see the change in seasons here. It's not an ambiguous slide from below freezing nights until, in august, you realize there are lines of heat seeping out of the asphalt, and you're drinking two gallons of water a day and yet your pee is still the color of autumn leaves (hopefully not the red ones). Spring as pushing against winter here and it's a change you can see and feel and watch as it plays out in front of you.

I see now why the ancient Greeks had stories like Persephone and her pomegranate. Even in a world now that we can understand through science, we see ourselves - our own stories and emotions - mirrored in the world in which we humans are wrapped. And so it's no wonder we see characters all around us, and can feel happy when the sun comes out from behind a cloud, or feel tranquil at the image of a snowy night in the woods.

Whose woods these are I think I know,
His house is in the village though.
He will not see me stopping here,
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer,
To stop without a farmhouse near,
Between the woods and frozen lake,
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake,
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep,
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Also

This was at Offutt earlier this week. Security everywhere.

The First...

<-- I've seen in years went ambling down the path to my apartment. I think that's the right verb for them...amble.

Burr

I have to be somewhere at 7:30 am. It's 0 degrees as I'm leaving. With wind chill it feels like -22, says the news. That's pretty freakin cold.

The Quest

Pictures of my quest to CA.


The setting sun in western NE. There are like 2 phases where I remembered to take pictures: western NE and Utah, with a couple exceptions.

More western NE.Hay bales in western NE. I must say I don't think these pictures are half bad for being taken from the cockpit of a moving truck as it sped down the freeway.And western NE is apparently where they're dumping all the nuclear waste. This was the back of 1 of 2 trucks, both with this stuff. The driver had 3 1/3 eyes.


This is the interlude, a rare look at the reflection of my dashboard while in the Colorado Rockies. You can see the tail lights of another car on the in the middle leftish. For those who haven't heard, it wasn't as snowy as windy. And the wind would blow the snow onto the road and reduce your vision to like 10 feet all of the sudden, then be gone in 5 seconds. So I was going down a hill, going probably half the speed limit, and I could see the cars in front of me putting on the brakes, so I slowed down a little bit. I don't remember if it was while slowing down or when starting to go again, that the back part of the truck started going swinging forward and right, while the front started to swing left. I said "Oh expletive," and turned the wheel right while slamming on the brakes. The truck caught and swung right, too far, I spun the wheel back. It swung, swung back, and I think on the 3rd time going left it finally slowed down and caught again. I was panting, probably sweating, "Oh my god, oh expletive." The whole way through the mountains you'd see the snow plows in the dark and snow with their flashing lights, usually pulled up next to someone who had gone off onto a ditch in the side of the road. I thought I was going into the side for sure. I don't remember if there was a drop off or what next to me. I was going quite a bit slower for the remainder of the trip. There was one point where, through my dirty headlights and the whipping snow I saw the speed limit sign: 50. And I looked down at my spedometer: 25. And I still felt like I was being pretty dangerous. I didn't speed up again till there were leaves on the trees.

This is when I got into utah the next morning, after sleeping with the car on on some random onramp. No carbon monoxide detector. I already got yelled at, but I just felt so at ease when I passed that "Now entering Utah" sign. This was god's land.
At a turnoff viewing area in Utah. If I wasn't in a rush I would have loved to stop at more of these. Like Vasquez Rocks but more vast. If you don't know what vasquez rocks is, check out Little Miss Sunshine, the background when the grandpa is saying, "I'm telling you, expletive a lot of women, I got no reason to lie to you," is vasquez rocks, just outside santa clarita.


This is on the 15 I think. It hooks into northern arizona for just a bit before going into nevada. I think the river there is called Virgin river. This picture doesn't capture it, but you're in a canyon with huge rock walls, I don't know how to estimate, but it was 1000+ feet up above the road, just ginormous.
Finally, my digital zoom of Las Vegas. I was trying to capture the pollution, it was a haze sitting on the city that was really obvious after coming through the mountains. And that's it. The remaining 5 or 6 hours was mostly desert, and stuff I've driven before, so it didn't seem that remarkable to me. I hope you enjoyed The Quest.