Home Alone, Be Careful

Been down for awhile after hurting myself. Will I ever learn? This isn’t the first time.

Frequently when I’m doing something dangerous around the house, like cutting down trees, I’ve made sure that a family member has been watching over me. Just in case. I’ve been violating that rule lately and it has cost me.

The Roof

Up on the roof taking care of some maintenance items. I big gust of wind came along and blew my tools off the roof. The wind then blew my ladder off the roof, leaving me stranded. Living out in the bush has it’s advantages but neighborly helpers is not one of them. One of my neighbors was within yelling distance, but he was operating a bulldozer and making enough noise to render him deaf. I waited patiently up on that freezing roof hoping that he would stop the motor hear my yelling and come and put the ladder back in place. Bulldozer guy finally finished his work but instead of stopping the motor he just drove off into the bush. Now my choice was freeze on that roof until night fall when someone would come home, or jump.

House Stuff

It didn’t take long until the jump alternative started looking very attractive. I figured I was going to get hurt, the question was how bad. I figured on jumping from the roof to the banister of the balcony and then to the balcony floor, I just had to make sure I didn’t over shoot the banister and end up nose diving into the ground. I got my but sitting on the edge of the roof with feet dangling off maybe 3 feet from the banister. It looked doable, only problem was my left thumb got caught in the eaves trough. I went down but my thumb did not. The rest of the operation is now just a big blur drowned out by the pain coming from my thumb. I figured I had torn it clean off, but upon looking it was still there and I was sitting on the balcony floor. Time for a trip to the hospital.

House Stuff

The rest of the day was spent in the hospital getting an xray and what not. Finally home by night fall with a brand new fiberglass cast (First one in my life). Now I can’t do much. Can’t even operate a camera properly with one hand…. Time to check out some old photos.

House Stuff

I’ve been wanting to explore some mundane things in my life. We’ll see how it works out, could be pretty boring.

Google to Archive Life Magazine Photos Online

Google has started rolling out it’s newly created archive of Life Magazine photos. Most photographers would probably consider this as big news.

I sure appreciate Google’s efforts to digitize the world.

I wonder how much this is costing them?

Maybe we should all make a contribution.

Click image to go to the Google archive.

George Custer

Earth

Migrant mother Florence Thompson by Dorothea Lange

Road Carnage

Beemer Alley claims another victim, this time human.

As I approached the crash scene in my car a cop down the road started waving at me. I figured he wanted me to stop, so I did, a good fifty yards short of the cop car with flashing lights. He came running over to give me shit for not stopping earlier. “When you see a cop waving, you stop” he said with angry voice topped by a Scottish accent. I figured this wasn’t the time to argue and kept my mouth shut. He proceeded to tell me that this was “A crime scene” and that I was to reverse backward on the pavement without touching the gravel sides.

I could see Don the deer hunter standing beside the cop car and waved. He came strolling over as the cop was giving me the ear full. He walked beside my car as I reversed down the road and filled me in on the gory details. I had my camera in the car with me but figured this was not the time for photos. Just listening to Don’s story kind of made me sick.

Beemer Alley a couple days later in snow

When I returned home I couldn’t help but think about the causes and consequences of the single car crash (Notice I didn’t say accident). It is possible that there was an animal involved but no evidence was found.

1) The main road one kilometer away is partially closed for construction and some traffic reroutes down Beemer Alley. These drivers are probably not as familiar with the twisty nature of our street.
2) The number of crashes on Beemer Alley to me means, that there is a disconnect between driving skill, car capabilities and Beemer Alley demands.
3) It seems to me that our society has too much tolerance for automobile crashes.

I constantly am reminded of the number of car crash fatalities in the USA per year (about 35,000) compared with the total number of USA deaths during the 18 year Vietnam war (about 58,000)

The Vietnam war caused a big stink in the USA but traffic fatalities seem to be perfectly acceptable.

VietNam Veterans' Memorial Wall Page

Interestingly enough most westerners don’t seem too concerned by the number of Vietnamese that died during the war.

The Sorrow of War.