In the continuing saga of the aftermath of the flamenco fire, the restoration to clean up the smoke damage on our office is finally underway.
Category: Abstract
Dog Day
I went out to photograph an old wood mill in the north valley, and as I got to the top of a rail spur there was a dog gnawing on an old carcass. He was so involved at first that he didn’t notice me. After a few shots, he heard the shutter in my camera and looked up. He was standing his ground and then started coming sideways towards me half snarling and licking his chops. I didn’t push my luck by trying to cross the dog’s path to get down where I could get better shots of the buildings. I got a few shots of the mill from standing on the rail spur and then a shot toward the mountains as I walked back to the car. I presume the dog went back to gnawing the carcass.
Black Cats on Black
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern on the black cushions.
Oh! Christmas Tree?
People have been asking if I took photos of our Christmas Tree. First of all, Laurie and I have never had a traditional Christmas tree. The closest we ever got to a traditional tree was a tiny, live, pre-decorated tree we got from a fundraiser. Otherwise, we normally decorate a houseplant, indoor tree (ficus or norfolk pine) or more recently our large bonsai ficus. This year we got as far as lighting candles, although there is one gold ornament laying at the base of our gnarly, bonsai ficus from last year (last photo). Laurie did a lot of cooking, so the candles reflecting in the stockpots and mixing bowl made nice decorations.
Rail Yard Cats
Merry Christmas! You have probably heard of “junkyard dogs” — rail yards have cats. I stopped by the yard where the Santa Fe 292 locomotive is being restored, and there were lots of cats in the rail yard. Most of the cats hid when they saw me approaching the fence — one cross-eyed kitty was curious, two sat at opposite ends of an old loading dock, while two others watched me from the safety of a stack of railroad ties.
Dinner with Santa
If you are wondering where Santa was on the day before this Christmas eve, he was having dinner with Laurie, me and a group of friends and making kids worried as to why he was at El Patron’s eating with the likes of us instead of preparing gifts and tending to his reindeer and sleigh.
Purple Haze
As darkness fell, firefighters continued battling the stubborn blaze. The flashing lights highlighted a purple haze in the smoke that consumed the area.
Fire Watchers
When I saw the people standing in the openings in the parking structure watching the building burn, the image reminded me of a scene from a Fellini film. Then there’s the three arson investigators that are reminiscent of Van der Weyden’s “Decent from the Cross.” The last two photos are time lapses of sorts. The penultimate photo is the tile mosaic façade of the burned out building at 12:08 PM and the last photo is what’s left of the tile mosaic façade of the burned out building at 5:13 PM.
Burning Down The Block
I am posting my blog very late today, because I got home late from the fire. The flamenco studio on the end of our block caught on fire yesterday afternoon and it turned into a major fire that threatened the rest of the block. Patrician Design was the most immediately threatened business, and fortunately the firewall between PD and the flamenco studio held. Our offices above Gold Street Cafe got a lot of smoke, but late, after they had the fire out and the power was restored, I opened up the office for some firemen and women who brought a big fan in and blew out as much of the smoke as the could from those offices. While they were blowing smoke out of the offices upstairs, I went downstairs and got all the servers fired back up. After that, the fire marshal gave me permission to secure the office, set the alarms and go home. The photos show the progression of the fire and the last photos are of Patti of Patrician Design celebrating that her boutique didn’t burn down. The fire caused a lot of excitement and anxiety for what started out to be a rather lazy afternoon.
Cats & Concert Sunday
The cats were in winter mode most of the day. Even though it was sunny and a blistering 40º F (4.4º C) outside in the afternoon, Guildenstern, Rosencrantz and Diné chose to lay around on our bed most of the day. We went to the West Side Chior’s Christmas concert Saturday night, and Jerri had me help record the concert. I didn’t think of it, but I could have taken equipment and shot a video of the concert Saturday night. Well, they had another concert on Sunday, so I shot a video of it with my Canon 5D and a stereo mic. The video and sound are great, but it’s going to be a lot of work putting the hour long concert altogether into one video.
Off Center & Not Even 