A Wednesday wander: Past and present

I almost threw this away.

Have no fear of perfection — you’ll never reach it.

~ Salvador Dali

One of the basic rules of the universe is that nothing is perfect. Perfection simply doesn’t exist…..Without imperfection, neither you nor I would exist.

~ Stephen Hawking

I am glad that I paid so little attention to good advice; had I abided by it I might have been saved from some of my most valuable mistakes.

~ Edna St. Vincent Millay

The “better” version (reflecting what the colors were really like that evening).

I have been sorting through old photos again.  That means what it usually means.  My computer is full-up and I need to make some space if I want to upload any more images.  It’s an ongoing problem, this hoarding of photographs.  I don’t know what I save them for.  My guess is that nobody is going to sort through tens of thousands of images after I die.

The image I began with almost got deleted a few times.  It’s a mistake taken with my old Kodak.  First, the colors came out all wrong.  I can see from looking at the other photos of that particular sunset that the sky and clouds were orange and yellow and red, not pink and purple.  Second, the lens either had water spots on it or the camera was just doing something weird (since those spots don’t show up on the photos that reflect the correct colors).

Another mistake.

To be honest, these mistakes are one of the things I loved about my old Kodak.  The camera would glitch and I’d get surreal shots with odd colors, as if the camera wanted to make its own art.  I still have the Kodak, and I’ve been thinking about putting some batteries in and seeing what it can do.  I stopped using it because the glitches began to happen more often than not, and there was a major problem with everything being overexposed.  There is an option in the menu to reset it to the factory settings.  I wonder if that would solve the overexposure problem while still allowing some of the other glitches?  There’s only one way to find out.  I’ll still have to clear up some space on my computer, though, before I go around taking a bunch of new photographs.

One more mistake from that batch of photos.  It almost looks like it was taken on another planet.

The “mistakes” I’m showing you were taken at the Point in May of 2014.  It might be a while before I take any more sunset shots from there.  M and I drove out the Point to watch the sunset last night only to find the DNR (Department of Natural Resources) police there, chasing people away.  No access after 7 PM, we were told.  I’m not sure why they picked that particular time of day.  I speculated that it is to keep the hoards of sunset watchers away.  The problem with that speculation is that there are rarely more than two or three other people out there watching the sunset this time of year.  Maybe six or eight during the summer months.  On chilly evenings, as was the case yesterday, M and I are usually the only crazy people out there shivering and enjoying whatever sunset has to offer.

But there’s no arguing with the police, even the DNR police.  The man who shooed us away probably didn’t have anything to do with the decision, but he could have been a little kinder and less grumpy about it.

Yesterday.

Some storms blew through late yesterday.  Nothing major here other than a few rumbles of thunder, some rain, and a little bit of bluster from the wind.  The severe stuff stayed north of us.  It ended here with a beautiful set of rainbows.  I sat out on the front porch for a while watching the colors in the rainbows strengthen and fade, strengthen and fade, with the passing clouds and rain.  When the sun came out again and the clouds cleared, a few of our other residents came out.  A Great Blue Heron flew in to fish the pond, a couple of turkeys wandered around the front lawn with the rabbits, a male and female cardinal flitted about, and laughing gulls were making quite a racket in a farm field somewhere off in the distance.  I noticed, too, that the kingbirds have returned.

A kingbird perched on the fence.  Love of open spaces, defense of environment, tenacity, fearlessness, balanced vision, are some of the symbolic meanings of the kingbird.  He’s a good symbol to have around for Earth Day.

Today is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day.  Our little Keep American Beautiful affiliate had plans for today.  In fact, we had plans for several days this month, having decided that April would be our big roll-out month.  None of that has come to pass, however, due to current circumstances and stay-at-home orders.  M and I were talking this morning about the toilet paper shortage (don’t worry, there’s a connection).  I mentioned that I could order toilet paper through one of the businesses that provide it for other businesses and industry, but I need a tax ID number.  M said we have a tax ID number for the affiliate.  I thought that might be a misuse of our tax ID number, and M suggested that maybe we could order a bunch of the toilet paper set aside for business and industry, and have a give-away.  We could hand out a couple of rolls of TP to people willing to sign a pledge not to litter.  It’s not a bad idea, although we’d have to think through the logistics of it since gatherings are not allowed and we wouldn’t want everyone handling the same pen to sign the pledge.

Litter has been worse than usual since the lockdown.  We are finding more fast food and beer cans than ever before.  To add to the mess, people are just tossing their used gloves and masks wherever they happen to be.  That was glaringly obvious at the grocery store last week.  The parking lot and surrounding areas where littered with improperly discarded PPE.  I wish I understood why humans act like they do.  *sigh*  It would help if the grocery store and other businesses provided trash receptacles.  I might be expecting too much.  Our nearest grocery store, Food Lion, is just barely, if at all, following the guidelines for distancing and safety.  They have no senior hours set up (or at least that’s what I was told when I called and asked yesterday).  To expect them to provide enough trash cans is probably above and beyond.  It’s accurate to say that even before this, they did little to clean up their parking lot and the surrounding area which is almost always heavily littered.  *another sigh*  They are on our list of businesses to tend to (and find out who is responsible for cleaning up) when things open up again.

The dark and light sides of a rainbow.

It is day 32 of the 40-day self-care challenge.  How are you today?

It’s a bit of a rest day for me.  I didn’t sleep well last night.  I went for a morning walk around the property and spent a little time in meditation while I was out on the dock.  I have (online) yoga class tonight.  It’s possible, maybe even likely, we’ll do some kind of practice at the beginning or end of the class.

One more look at the rainbow.

I reckon that’s enough from me on what is usually a Wordless Wednesday.  I am full of words lately, waiting to spill out somewhere, even after scribbling away in my journal and writing up the Morning Pages.  Sunset is scheduled for 7:46 PM this evening.  We can watch from the dock, if you like.  Or up on the platform near the marsh.  It is chilly and blustery today so you’ll want to dress warmly.  I recommend a hat and gloves and a warm coat.  I think we’re falling into the 30’s again this evening.

Please be safe, be well, and be kind.  ♥♥♥

Turkey in the grass. There was a bunny hopping around there, too.

A few of the 10,000 reasons to be happy:  1,376)  Thunderstorms, rainbows, wild turkey, herons, rabbits, spring blossoms, blustery days, and all the other distractions from the news.  1,377)  M, always.  1,378)  Morning meetings in the woods.  I never know who is going to join me when I walk out there every day.  1,379)  Time to sit and watch the tide come in.  1,380)  Upside-down cakes.  M’s latest creation is a vanilla cake with a butterscotch “icing.”  I put “icing” in quotation marks because the icing shows up on the bottom of the cake.  You flip it over and voila!  It comes already frosted.  He’s been playing with these magical cakes for the past two weeks.  Fun and delicious.