lot of irons in the fire at the moment. Protest photos, and the ethics thereof; a whole essay on why software sucks sometimes; a stack of photos from mid-march on. These were on the third of march, election day. I voted for Warren, for the record.
So, while all those things are still getting sorted and falling into place, I figured I should just push out a blog post. Some photos, a little update. Things are moving, here. Knee is mostly better, ankles have good and bad days. They still haven’t arrested the cops that killed Breonna Taylor, but we’re still in the streets (It took prosecutors a year to file charges against Oscar Grant’s killer, for reference). But/and: Just heard SF public schools is following Oakland’s lead and ending their relationship with SFPD. It’s not all bad news. We can do better, be better, and we will.
So what am I doing? While I was having trouble getting around, I was mostly trying to spread good information (protest tactics, anti-racism resources) mostly via twitter, and also donating money to a lot of stuff that came over the transom. I didn’t tweet too much about that, seemed too much like bragging to my midwestern upbringing. I’ve been taking comfort in little bits of poetry that come back to me, bits of Ulysses and Lays of Ancient Rome (“How can man die better than facing fearful odds…”) and others too. Roethke and Baldwin, too.
Now that I am getting around a little better, I went to a protest last Friday at the port, and it was amazing. I’ll probably write more about it when I actually post the photos. Don’t know when that’ll be.
Posted on 2020-06-24T07:50:16Z GMT
I don’t know if it’s obvious from my posts here in the past, so I’m gonna say it here anyway: Black Lives Matter. Abolish the Police, tear down all the prisons, pay reparations to the descendants of slaves that built this country. And open the borders. And make all the billionaires give back what they stole. Maybe then we can stop protesting.
God I need to get out and shoot. The things! They continue to happen!
What else? I came across this old post where I said “A state of profound weirdness has become the new normal.” It really is an almost perfect blog post, but I really underestimated how weird things would get.
I’m almost out of pictures in the pre-covid period, maybe one or two more posts. Gonna have to get shooting for real, before I catch up to the present.
The best time to start is now.
Posted on 2020-06-09T06:14:42Z GMT
These were just like, a random Friday (except the last one, which I shot from the car earlier that week). We just decided to gather at a local bar, grabbed our going-out stuff, and went. I think we even rode bikes to the first bar? Ah, the memories.
I joke, but only a little. I did get to leave the house this weekend; after complaining about it friday, I switched from the ankle boot to a brace which lets me have a normal gait, but is less protective, and that’s made a huge difference in my mobility. I can actually just walk around the house a bit, unload the dishwasher, etc. We went to a little parklet in a friend’s neighborhood, saturday, so at this rate those photos will be out in about… two months. We all sat over 6 feet apart, but it was nice to sit in the sun with some friends, at least for a little bit.
Today was a banner day: I got to look at a potential space to rent for light industrial work, so I can move the welder and metalwork out of my current space, and maybe even the sewing table? Or maybe the electronics. It’s somewhat out of my hands, but it would be really nice, if it works out.
Also today: we went for a drive, over the Richmond Bridge, to the Marin Headlands, which were closed to vehicles, and then to almost the top of Twin Peaks, where there was also a road closure and a bunch of people trying to park and walk. We paused at intervals and took pictures from the car. It wasn’t going on a nature hike or anything, but it was pretty nice after being inside the house for two weeks.
Posted on 2020-05-18T08:36:50Z GMT
So, sometime in february, we visited the animal sanctuary WildCare, in San Rafael, which is Marin County, for those that don’t live in the Bay Area. They take in animals of all stripes, many found injured and in need of veterinary care, and rehabilitate the ones they can, and the ones that can’t be released, they keep at their facility. They serve as ambassadors for what the sanctuary does. I think I’ve talked about them before, but I really can’t remember.
While we were there, we got to see the Peregrine they have. I was trying to take a picture, and through the viewfinder, I couldn’t see the fence really. So when the bird decided to go from one perch to another by flying right at me, I jumped right back. Raptors are terrifying when they’re zooming through the air at you. That’s the original meaning of the ‘terrible lizard’, the dinosaur: scary, as in it’ll claw your eyes out.
Not Vlad though. Vlad is the vulture in the first and last pictures. Calm, regal, really a nice bird. Eats carrion, mostly, found as a little chick and someone hand-fed him until they couldn’t handle him, and then turned him over to WildCare (if I’m remembering the story correctly, which I may not be). So, he doesn’t have any of the fear of people, or other learned behaviors that would allow him to survive in the wild. Protip: if you see a baby bird on the ground, don’t touch it. Its parents will often come and get it. If you’re concerned for it, it looks injured, look up your local wildlife rescue, give them a call. They’ll know what to do.
Posted on 2020-05-17T08:42:04Z GMT
