thwarted, or maybe not

I have had a headache all day, which I lay at the feet of the changing weather. It's been raining off and on all day long, but it's allegedly supposed to be in the 70's tomorrow. The barometer squeezes my head once more! I had a lot of energy and a long list this morning but the energy was diverted headacheward fairly early and the list isn't any shorter. Well, it's a little shorter but it wasn't very fun.

Which brings me to my thwartings. I was all prepped to get my Rant On about how everything I've attempted lately has been a failure, but I realized that simply isn't true. What is true is that I have had to wait longer, or things don't happen in the order I think they should happen, or, and this one can be difficult (but rewarding) for me, sometimes things come completely out of the blue! I'm becoming aware that my timelines are often completely artificial and born of impatience rather than any real sense of rightness. My instincts are usually sound, but my timing is usually off. It's getting better, though. I know it sounds cheesy, but I think watching the seasons change in the park has been a big help. The phrase "in the fullness of time" is resonating more and more. (Not that this keeps me from having flat-out freakouts on a regular basis!) ANYWAY. Most recent example would be yesterday when I went downtown to run what was supposed to be a ridiculously simple errand. Of course that didn't work out, and when I got back to my car... TICKET. My expired tags scofflaw bluff had been called by the meter-maid man! The "failure to display current registration" will cost you. (and I deserve to pay! You scoff the law, you takes yer chances.)

I went home (after two more unsuccessful stops), then decided to go to DEQ and finally get the stupid tags. I expected to wait in a hideous line, so I brought reading material. I expected that they would close before I actually got to the testing bay because it was after 4 when I left home. Well, guess what? not only did I drive almost directly into the testing bay (I barely had time to fill out the paperwork), the test took less than 5 minutes, I didn't have to get out of my car -- and since there was no one else in line (and I was EXPIRED) the test guy told me I could put my tags on right there. Of course I ended up ripping one of the tags in half trying to get it out of the baggie and I can't say I'm too fond of squatting in front of OR behind a car that is running, but I left the DEQ a law abiding citizen once more.

Anyway. The photo of the ticket is one taken with the photo booth program on my computer. Another instance of getting ahead of myself -- I decided to start a self portrait project in feb. which I gave up due to boredom, but now, a couple of months later, the photo booth makes it easy and fun. Hooray!

Here are some spring pictures. Everything is changing so fast!

Allergy season is upon us, but how fun are these tassels? (answer: so mega-fun!)


I love how velvety the petals look. This shrub (I can't remember the name) is a hit with the birds.

oooh, this reminds me: flickr now will allow pro members to upload video. I'm of two minds on this. On the one hand -- isn't this why youtube exists? why do they have to go messing with a good thing? on the other hand -- one of the justifications they used was that they saw the video as an opportunity for "long pictures," which I think is pretty cool. I like the notion of a long picture. There is a 90 second cap on length, and I have to say the whole idea has me thinking about the video setting on my little camera, which I never have before. It's like capturing a moment instead of an instant. Or something. The limitations (90 seconds, my camera's extremely limited video ability) remind me of how much fun I had taking landscape pictures on the polaroid (R.I.P.) iZone camera. So, we'll see. Today I took a tiny video (like, 7 seconds!) of some crows flying. I expect there will be a lot of pretentious amateur "beautiful garbage" ala American Beauty videos on flickr in addition to the cats falling off things and babies eating lemons found on youtube, but so what? There will be some really wonderful things, too.

the medicinal bark of winter trees

My head still hurts! I am squinting my eyes (it hurts too much to glare) at the barometric pressure and cursing its sadistic delight in squeezing my sinuses. What did I ever do to you, barometer?

But on to the photos! As I've said before, I love the way that bare trees look against the sky. There are so many shades of grey in the world and we get to see a lot of them in a typical portland winter. Anyway, here are a few pictures that I took wednesday and today.



These first three are from wednesday morning at the park -- I decided I would try to take them from a different angle since I've taken pictures of many of these trees before. Usually I stand away from the tree and shoot up through the branches. Yesterday I decided to stand with my back right up against the trunk of the tree and to aim straight up. I got a little dizzy, but it makes a totally different picture than the other way.



friendly tentacled monster??? I love how these almost look black and white, but not quite. (it really is grey out!)



Legs? kinda? I always think of the greek myths when I see something like this. Oh, Zeus and Hera with your hardcore yet whimsical punishments.



This was taken today near the library where I worked. I was also there yesterday and witnessed one of the most beautiful things I've seen in the new year. The wind was gently blowing, the rain was very soft, the sky was more grey than the blue-grey of today, and this tree was FULL OF BIRDS who were all chattering and singing and not sounding very winter-like at all. There were wind-chimes going from the next block over, but they were the good kind and not the kind that makes me want to swing at them with a canoe paddle -- it was one of the loveliest little moments I've experienced in a while.



Blue bark on a blue tree.

The new flickr uploader is really nice, by the way.