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I actually had to lay down on the train tracks when I took this shot. Thank God no train was coming.
This is the same spot where I tool the previous train track photo, only in this one, I'm facing the opposite direction.
Actually, the plant was tagged with the name, Lover's Lily and just like love it needs constant attention. It was a present on Valentine's Day and I just looked at it and many of the blooms have fallen off. I will nurse it back to health.
- Actually, we didn't get a white Christmas this year so let's just take out the snowman decor to counteract the lack of snow.
Actually, I also picked enough long beans later in the day to have for supper. We ate most of this for lunch or dinner as it's called here in AR. We had kale, zucchini sauted with garlic and a stir fry of green beans, onion, okra, broccoli and banana peppers.
Day 74/100 #100daysofJeanea #The100DayProject
Actually shedding of the skin is a normal process and allows reptiles to grow. Unlike snakes, lizards shed their skin in pieces.
Photos from the Sabino Canyon nature walk, April 9 2014. Finally, it wasn't blowing on Wednesday.
With the warmer temperatures the nature hikes are following the Esperero-Rattkesnake Trail loop in search of eastern collared lizards. We didn't have any luck this trip but as usual found lots of interest.
www.sabinonaturalists.org/walkshikesdemos/
Raw file processed with Olympus Viewer 3.
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Actually just preening feathers. Florida Keys Wild Bird Center
Taken 2/2/16, uploaded 2/7/16, 2016 02 02 a PS TI tree TzCl Dfn FKWBC birds sunrise wow-4284-Edit-Edit-Edit-Edit-Edit-Edit_edited-2.psd
Actually, this is a shot of one of the cars from the Connecticut Valley line which belongs to the Connecticut Railroad Company.
Located in Essex, CT, the company owns numerous 19th century and early 20th century trains. The trains aren't fully restored, but just enough to provide a nice old-fashioned bumpy and breezy open-window ride on 12 miles of track.
Actually, this scene would have been better if I could have found a place to park. It is amazing how fast the sun rises!
Morning Sunrise Road DT - Feb 2014-7163
Actually, it was a mucky lens. Cheaper than lots of commercially available treatments though 😁.
Relaxing on a bank holiday weekend before the new band get together and have some fun.
Actually, there were two earlier ones but they burst open (before they were ripe) when we had a big rain. Once the flesh is exposed it's a matter of only hours before bugs find them ... => end of tomato :(
Actually a train stopped/parked East of downtown Dekalb waiting for a green signal. Photographing a moving train this close, from this location would be extremely dangerous. The crossing gates for the sidewalk crossing I was standing on would have long before tripped on if this freight were moving, and at 50mph it would be mere seconds before he was on top of the crossing.
This is actually a rose classified as red called Dublin, although it really looks deep, hot pink. They must've been smokin' somethin' that day! I cannot take credit for growing this prize winning beauty, I did however photograph it! Sorry for the watermark, but another one of my pieces on here - my blood red fantasy rose somehow managed to find its way into google search & has thousands of hits, collecting more daily, so I must protect my work. If you need to use this for any reason, please do not take it without my permission, and if you desire prints minus the watermark, please contact me, thank you! View On Black
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This photo is easily on of the most-viewed of my photo collection. I used to be able to see where the links were coming from, but I can't anymore and I'm dying of curiosity to know where these links are from.
If you have a sec, leave a comment or pop me a message to let me know how you arrived at this photo. Thanks! :)
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Experiencing these stations was what most made me realise that there might actually be something to this BRT-thing after all:
And another flickr user's photo (awesome capture): www.flickr.com/photos/doctorlo/2275173783/
Here are links to some short videos showing how the stations work:
Go to 0:52 on this one (actually a different system, but identical station style)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hncSYjBQBIM&feature=related
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA4IR7PvO6I
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjP_GTnjEKI
The stations really frame the experience and provide numerous other services that improve the speed, capacity and comfort of the system as well as show a significant commitment/permanence by the local government/transit agency - like tracks they are not apt to be moved anytime soon.
The transmilenio is a BRT (for bus rapid transit).. like a cross between a metro and the express B-Line buses of Vancouver. Another way to put it (for those who don't know Vancouver) would be like a surface metro - enclosed stations and all- that uses articulated buses instead of trains, and isolated lanes instead of track. Like skytrain, the station platform sits in between each direction of line.. but for TransMilenio, lanes. In this case, forming the long part of the "T" where the top is a crosswalk - right in the centre of the road (not on some distant, time-consuming pull-out)
The stations are well ... they feel like the Expo line skytrain, but on the ground. There is ramp (wheelchair friendly) to go up to the bus-level platform, and one passes through automated fare collection (smart card). You can see a bit here: farm1.static.flickr.com/19/107068591_e6b678aa23_o.jpg Once inside, the entire station is all fare-paid zone, and buses on different routes each have a platform segment. This means that once one gets in the system (like a metro) you could actually ride all day. Each platform/bay has 3 wide sets of sliding glass doors that automatically open as the bus slides into position.
The 3 sets of wide glass doors of the station whisk open in unision with their bus counterparts (also wide) and riders step in and out (like skytrain, subway, or metro). There are no line ups. - People/wheelchairs/strollers simply step/roll in.. not up.. Wheelchairs and strollers are restricted to the front set of doors, everyone else uses the other two sets. . People transferring to another route just walk to the other bay/platform and get on that bus when it arrives without needing to pay again or queue for one door.
This system is far more cost-effective system than subsurface rail (most ROWs were expropriated from existing car lanes - transit priority over car), and there are no dangerous rails on the surface (and no fences like the around skytrain).
Also unlike something like the Silverline in Boston (which has a painfully slow transition to underground, and runs in mixed traffic, and generally oscillates between bus and wannabe metro), TransMilenio is completely consistent and uniform in what it has across the network.
The buses have their own median lanes, usually 2 in *each* direction. See how it looks here?: www.flickr.com/photos/99887786@N00/2468594299/ I would guess about 65% of the network is like this, and the remaining stations have passing lanes. This was a politically gutsy move to make, as the lanes the buses use were expropriated from car traffic. It basically creates additional congestion for cars, while allowing the cleaner more space-efficient public transit to go much much faster. A clear priority for public transit over car use. It is a carrot & stick. carrot to use transit becuase it is faster, stick against driving because it gets slower. In addition this is a major cost-saving measure, becuase existing roadways are used and no new ones are constructed (unlike other BRTs elswhere)
It also made construction of the busways incredible simple and fast. Nearly 100 kms of dedicated lines were in place within a matter of a few years.
My favourite resource for Bus Rapid Transit systems is the ITDPs BRT Planning Guide - in particular The Annex Section has system comparisons across BRT Systems all over the world. It is clear here how feature-rich TransMilenio is compared to lacklustre cousins elsewhere. itdp.pmhclients.com/index.php/microsite/brt_planning_guid...
Another good one: The US Transportation Research Board has a paper discussing applicability of the Transmilenio in the US - an identified challenge is that there could be little public support since most people would initially associate it with "the bus" rather than it's own mode.
TransMilenio has immense capacity - moving more people than many heavy-rail subway systems - at peak hours the busiest single line moves 45,000 people per direction. In some ways the system is victim of it's own success - some residents have nicknamed it TransMi-lleno (full), for being famously full.
Please see the next photo - there is more info there about TransMilenio.
Another informative video is this one of the Rea Vaya - a South African BRT system heavily modelled after TransMilenio. The station interior pan starts at 3:37
www.youtube.com/watch?v=85xXs7JTt5k and www.reavaya.org.za/
And last an electric trolleybus BRT in Venezuela: www.insideyorks.co.uk/tbus/xmd1.jpg
Electric trolley-bus BRT in Venezuela: www.flickr.com/photos/venex/sets/72157600189865830/
Actually this one's full name was The 1959 Superior-Cadillac Crown Royale Three-Way Landaulet Funeral Car. Whew! The premium Crown Royale models were new for '59. End-loading funeral car or combination funeral car/ambulance versions were available.
This picture actually only shows three reasons why the world sucks, but it's an interesting combination. You have the US Postal Service on one side fighting against an Amazon store on the other, with only an advertisement for the Plague standing between them. There are so many threads I could pull from this right now, I don't know where to start. That's the problem with modern America. There are too many reasons why everything sucks, and it's hard to fit it all into a focused essay.
1. I'll start with the reason I took the picture. Back when I moved to Chicago, those two big windows with the doorway in between looked into an actual, honest-to-Daley brick-and-mortar bookstore. It was a Books-A-Million chain store, but still ... it was an actual store. That sold books. I got a job and worked there for a while. But the bookstore went out of business something like five years ago, and it was replaced by one of those Amazon outlet stores, and I find the on-the-nose cultural and economic irony of that almost overwhelming.
2. That Covid-19 sign. As I write this, various news channels are exploding with breaking news of a series of interviews old-school news guy Bob Woodward taped with Trump in February and March. Woodward is a good journalist, so he recorded the interview, and Lordy, there are tapes! So now you can hear Trump admit to deliberately hiding significant details and playing down the Plague so as not to start a panic -- imagine the guy who built his entire political career on scaring the bejeezus out of everyone trying to avoid panic -- thereby setting us on the do-nothing path toward 200,000 dead. So now we're going to have to hear from a bunch of Trump bootlickers about how that's not really what happened and how you've never been able to trust that Bob Woodward guy and how the tapes were doctored and even if Trump did hide information, it was for our own good and 200,000 people dying is actually a good thing, so let's go play some B1G 10 football, damn it!
Also, the ad on the sign shows Trump's bootlicker surgeon general trying to get people who survived the Plague to donate Plasma for the latest Trump Miracle Cure, even though there's really not documented evidence that injecting people with used plasma helps all that much. But that's a can of worms in the middle of a bunch of other worm cans.
3. There's that Post Office truck, which just reminds me how Trump and his bootlickers have decided they can't win the upcoming election, so they're coming up with a million-point-five ways to cheat. One of these involves stopping the mail balloting so many Americans are planning to use to vote safely in the middle of the Trump Virus by purposely wrecking the U.S. Postal Service, a government institution that predates the actual government and is written into the U.S. Constitution. And this just reminds me that while I think at this point Trump's chances of winning a free and fair election are very small, there is a huge chance this will not be a free and fair election, and that we're sliding fast into an authoritarian dictatorship.
But I had a nice walk through downtown.
Actually this photo is simply a shot in a series of test images to play with the DoF of my new lens. The "victim" was my fountain pen which has been lying around on the table.
Actually I estimate there is 90 something 1965 Mustangs. This is the Ford planet in Dearborn, Pick your color and body style. It must be early as I do not see any 2+2's.
The shadow is actually of our jeep, taken at some obscene early hour in the morning. Four of us hired it for a 4 day trip across the most inhospitable terrain. Whilst camping for the night, these Desert Fox's, utterly not shy, would just come up sniffing for food.
They are not tame, as they rarely see humans for any length of time. But just seem to have no fear and keen to sniff food out. We actually lost our packed food during the night. Very cunning.
But great close-ups possible.
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Heavily inspired by Fredoichi
Yes, the purples don't actually match. I could have made them equal in Photoshop, but I felt that would be cheating, I guess.
Actually Teddy enjoys his life very much, though he looks a bit bored here! My favorite part of this photo is the reflection of his nose on the floor.
Happy Furry Friday!
This is actually my husband's Haruhi figure. ^_^ He bought it at A-kon. I was surprised b/c I thought I was the only Haruhi nut, but he liked the anime more than I thought. And he really liked this figure. There's a Mikuru and Yuki coming out, too, and he hopes to get the whole set. I would have photographed her sooner, but I had to wait until he ok'd it. He's gotten to where he wants first dibs on photographing his toys. But sometimes he takes too long so I have to pester him to just lemme at it! XD
Anyhoo, she's a really cool figure. The robo suit is awesome.
Actually found something worth while at the thrift store. I need to fix her hair..wash it etc and she's missing a hand o.o which I have no idea how yo fix. or if I even should and just rebody her. but then I have to find a replacement body.
Actually, I was doing a little bit of DIY at my sister-in-law's ~ putting ip curtain rails and hanging curtains, great fun!!
Flickr Lounge - Weekly Theme (Week 44) ~ Tools of The Trade ....
Thanks to everyone who views this photo, adds a note, leaves a comment and of course BIG thanks to anyone who chooses to favourite my photo .... Thanks to you all.
Actually not an accurate picture because her frisbee fell to the bottom of the box.
Out of box pics tonight or tomorrow
actually, the Tropical Dome at the Milwaukee Botanical Conservancy. Rather warm, though--just ask Linda
Actually I should be injecting the chilli oil into an egg rather than an orange..... but the pic would not be as interesting.
Our chickens have turned cannibal and are eating some of their eggs before we have a chance to collect them. Once they have picked up this habit, it is hard to break. We are occasionally injecting chilli oil into an egg & leaving it for them to eat to make eating eggs an unpleasant experience for them. Hasn't worked yet sadly.
FGR - Orange
Back in 1978 or so...
Lost No Longer
There's a little lake in Whistler whose name clearly demonstrates the changes in the valley in the last couple of decades, in fact the name has actually become something of an oxymoron. Anyone who has been up there on a warm summers' day knows that Lost Lake is anything but.
On a sunny Saturday in July the manicured lawn above the beach is cluttered with bar-b-q's, towels, picnic baskets, ghetto blasters, and all the other things people seem to find it necessary to take to the beach. Kids of all ages paddle in the water. The rafts are often so crowded their decks are awash. It often resembles, in smaller scale, Kits or (on a particularly busy day) English Bay beach in Vancouver. Lost Lake can be accessed by road or by wide gravel paths, paths that not so long ago almost got paved until local opposition halted that misguided effort.
Consider this description of Lost Lake taken from the guide book Exploring Garibaldi Park by Dan Bowers.
"This easy stroll leads through fragrant pine woods to a small beaver lake with excellent trout fishing. The trail starts from the road end." At the south end of Fitzsimmons Dr. the turn off was right beside Nancy Greene's old house.
"At the first fork, take the left trail. From here the track soon leads into a sunny forest of young white pines, fragrant with resin." The author gets diverted here by the white pines and notes that 12,000 wooden matches are struck every second in America and that those matches require the cutting of almost three quarters of a million mature pines. Then he gets back on track.
"The trail is short. Soon, around a bend, a bit of a downhill stretch leads to a clearing by the lake. A grove of big old trees here makes a good place for a picnic. Even if you are no fisherman you should take a fishing rod on this trip. The trout here weigh up to four pounds." He lists the best spots and likely baits.
"But there is more to Lost Lake than fish. This small pond attracts wild creatures of many kinds. Occasional ospreys come to fish the lake. There is always a flutter of smaller birds. Kingfishers are common. The woods are filled with the rustle of unseen creatures. By the picnic place there is a beaver lodge right at the shore. A thin trail leads to a large beaver dam by the lake outlet. The beavers have become cautious, though, and usually only appear at dusk." He goes on to talk about the vegetation and ends with a warning.
"Because the water tastes of 'beaver' it is best to bring your own drinkinables. The lake water is as warm as restaurant soup by midsummer. Local people often swim here." Whether he's warning people about the beavers or the locals is unclear.
That last sentence is the only thing that remains true about Lost Lake today.
Of course the evolution (devolution?) of the lake was inevitable. It is a warm lake. Who would ever want to swim in Green Lake? Nita and Alpha sometimes warm up, but it takes a hot summer. Alta Lake warms up but it never gets as warm as Lost Lake does. Of course people would trek to Lost Lake to swim, and trek they did, in ever increasing numbers over the years.
The docks on the east side of the lake used to be the best place to swim from because what is now the beach used to be a tangled mass of undergrowth and the bottom of the lake was soft and squishy. Swimming from the docks allowed people to avoid touching the bottom altogether.
Swimtrunks were optional and many eschewed them. Thousands and thousands of people have pointed their naked buttocks at the sun on those docks over the years.
The first freestyle water ramp in Canada was built above the docks. Construction started in the summer of 1977. Local freedoggers of the day including Dave Lalik (who bucked the trend and actually moved to Australia from Whistler years ago to fill the void migration in the other direction was creating), Dave and Daveanna, and others (who still live in the valley and are trying to forget their freestyle past so they will remain nameless), worked for a whole summer building a ramp they could practice their double backs, mobius flips, and lay fulls on. The ramp was covered with green meanies that were taken from the old Olive chair downloading ramp that used to come right into the courtyard by L'Apres. That ramp is another freestyle story that might be told another time.
Doggers did not want to fall on the ramp because the green meanies would literally eat them. Skis didn't slide very well on the meanies and many lubricants were investigated to improve glide. A Sunlight soap solution didn't work all that well, Paming the bottom of skis helped a bit, but ultimately DL handcleaner was found to produce the best speed so tubs of the gooey stuff could be found at the top of the ramp.
The ramp wasn't just used by skiers. As time went by and as mountain bikes became popular young whippers from the summer ski camps on Whistler discovered that riding mountain bikes off the ramp could result in some big air. After a few bikes were lost (the lake is quite deep under the ramps) they started tying ropes to them. Occasionally the belayer would run out of rope before the rider ran out of up which sometimes resulted in aerial moves even the doggers envied.
In this increasingly litigious age the ramp couldn't last and it didn't. It fell into disuse and was eventually torn down in the early 1990's. A few of the main support posts are all that is left of it.
Today there is an incredible water ramp facility on Blackcomb but somehow it's just not the same. Naked, slightly stoned people are rarely seen watching freestylers fly through the air anymore...
By the way, the book Exploring Garibaldi Park was published in 1977.