Always Breaking – Page 4 – Mostly photos, but some other random stuff

Saying Goodbye to My Little Mule

This past weekend I said goodbye to my 1982 Toyota pickup. It’s just a beat up old truck, but I owned it for 13 years, significantly longer than any other vehicle. It was a good truck that served me well for many years.

In September when the registration was due, I took it to get the bi-annual smog certification. I had my doubts about whether or not it would pass because two years before it had barely passed. Sure enough, it failed. I applied for repair assistance and was granted up to $500 for emission related repairs from the California Bureau of Automotive Repair (BAR). I took it to a shop, which said it needed a lot more than $500 dollars and a lot of non-emissions related repairs. Essentially, the cost of repairs was a lot more than the truck was worth.

The BAR has a program that pays people to junk old cars that can’t pass smog. Because of pollution, the state is trying to get old cars off the road. The program encourages people to get polluting vehicles off the road by giving them more money than the car is worth (at least in my case). I rarely drove the truck and I had felt guilty about driving after it barely passed the smog test two years ago. It was a work truck that cost me more in insurance, smog, and registration in a year than the truck was worth and since the state was willing to give me money to junk it, I applied for the retirement program in November. Last Friday I drove it to the junk yard and they gave me my “vehicle retirement” check right there on the spot. It was a nice chunk of money for such an old vehicle, especially sense I don’t have to insure it anymore.

The markings on the truck are required by BAR. Junk yards are prohibited from selling the truck or any parts, so they mark all the body panels, and even the rear view mirrors. There wasn’t much usable on my truck. The passenger side of the cab had been partially caved in by a tree branch about 5 years ago. Some home body shop repair with a sledge hammer got the door open after that incident, but it still had to be slammed shut. The left front fender was a brown because I had to replace it after a small fender-bender. Every body panel had a dent of some kind. The truck is probably a smashed lump of plastic and metal by now.

I’ll miss my old truck, it was good to have around, but I also know it’s better that older cars be taken off the road.

Boulevard Cinemas

In 2001 the only movie theater in Petaluma closed its doors largely because the company that owned it had recently opened a huge 16 screen theater 11 miles away in Rohnert Park. That left residents two options – drive to the new Rohnert Park theater or drive to Novato (both are about the same distance). Imagine, a town of 55,000+ with no movie theater. Bear in mind that scenes from many movies have been shot in Petaluma, most notably American Graffiti. Residents were not happy, especially those with teens.

Seven young teenage girls decided to do something. To make a long story short, in 2005 they got our town a new theater. (You can read about opening night and the history at SF Gate.) Our town owes a huge debt of gratitude to NoÃ«lle Bisson, Elizabeth Comstock, Ditmer, Liza Hall, Sarah Marcia, Taylor Norman and Madison Webb.

It’s not just that we again have a place to watch movies locally, it’s what the theater has added to the community, especially downtown. The old theater was at the North end of town in a commercial/business area. You had to drive to get there. The new theater anchored a huge redevelopment effort on edge of the historic downtown shopping district.
Boulevard Cinemas and the accompanying Theatre Square retail/office/urban housing center are only a couple of blocks from the true heart of downtown where local shops and restaurants dominate the retail landscape. Also, the entire downtown area is within easy walking distance for many residents.

Many feared the new development would bring more chain stores and ruin the small town feel, but so far the theater and accompanying retail stores have been a huge boon for our town. The new theater, restaurants, and shops have added greatly to what was already a wonderful downtown.

In the past couple of years the movie theater has sparked a revival of night life in downtown Petaluma. On Friday nights teens and tweens swarm to the theater in droves. When new releases come out, long lines are not uncommon. Because the new theater is downtown, it’s easy to go out to dinner and movie because you can walk from one of the many local restaurants to the theater. Every month I go with a group friends to have a beer then see a movie. We would not have done that without a downtown theater.

The theater is thriving, and that is driving people to downtown pretty much every night of the week. Every time I go to the movies or walk around the theater district, I see friends. It’s become a great place to hang out and relax, and enjoy the community.

This shot was taken as part of the 2008 Photo Challenge at www.photochallenge.org.

2008 Challenge

Well 2008 is upon us, and with it a new year of photos. Trevor Carpenter, who has posted a series of Photo Challenges, put together Photochallenge.org to organize a year long Community Challenge. Last year I tried the photo-a-day thing with somewhat mixed results. I ended up doing 1-2 per week, and completely missed the month of December.

This year I’ve decided to take Trevor up on his challenge, although I’m getting slightly late start. The idea is pretty simple: take one good picture a week of your community. I think I can do that, aside from missing Week 1. I have legitimate excuses, but they don’t matter much now. You can follow everyone who is participating in the challenge on both Flickr and Zooomr. I’m posting to both sites, but hosting the blog shots on Zooomr. It’s pretty amazing to see photos from all over, especially through the eyes (and lenses) of individuals, not through the media.

About this shot, I set out at lunch today to take a picture and as I was driving I thought, duh, why not start with the most obvious thing you can. So here’s the first shot in my year long effort to document my community.

In my community this structure dominates the view near downtown. I don’t know the history or building, but it’s pretty old. Last year there was a fire in one of the grain elevators that burned for over a week, stinking up the town with acrid yellow smoke. Everyone was grateful when the fire department finally put it out, although there was quite a price tag attached to their efforts. Not sure who paid that bill.

It is an impressive and imposing building that adds to the character of the town, and the economy. Petaluma still has a thriving dairy industry and I think is, at heart, a farming town. This building provides a visual reminder of the history of this town. Oddly enough, a new apartment complex sits just to the left of the building. Another reminder that the town is growing. Petaluma is definitely a place where the new and the old mix, generally to the benefit of the community.

Everything Returns to the Sea

Most people in Northern California wouldn’t consider early November to be prime beach weather, but today absolutely was. It was about 80 degrees (F) at the beach. It doesn’t even get that warm in the Summer. This week is definitely what they call “unseasonably warm”. We had a great day at the beach. There was no fog and a gentle off-shore breeze. We’ve gone to the beach many times in the fog or with blasting on-shore wind cutting through to your skin. Today could not have been better. Simply a perfect day.

The weather brought out a lot of people, including a lot of surfers. There were more surfers out today than I have ever seen at Dillon Beach before. The waves weren’t that big, but they seemed to be having fun.

We brought our six month old puppy Molly and let her run around. think the ratio of people to dogs was abouth 3:1. There were a lot of dogs. Molly had a blast. She was a little afraid of the water and wouldn’t run in like most other dogs. The kids, however, had no problem getting in. The water was cold, but the weather was so nice it made bearable. It was still too cold to really swim in, but the kids got plenty wet. And sandy. Very sandy.

All in all, probably the most relaxing and enjoyable day we’ve had in a while. I wish we could do it again tomorrow.

Ride All Year

What a busy week it’s been. I haven’t had much time for photos or blogging. I did grab this shot on Halloween before the trick-or-treat madness started. I don’t bike much these days, but really want to get started again. I seem to always hurt myself when I try to exercise, but hopefully I can get back into it soon.

I’ve also posted couple of more shots on Zooomr:

Buckeyes – Fall Series

Taken at Helen Putnam Regional Park

I took my daughter out for a break from the rest of the family to take some pictures. It had been a hard day and she likes taking pictures, so I made her come with me. It was great just be outside, looking around for whatever caught our eye. I looked for Fall themed shots to add to the series and saw these trees. The sky was a deep blue and made a nice background for the tree branches with no leaves. Buckeye trees are the first to change colors and loose their leaves, at least in this area.

Today my trial of Lightroom expired, so I’m back to using Digital Photo Professional. It’s a fine program, just not as elegant as Lightroom and nowhere near as flexible. But, as Shelton Muller always says
on the Shutters Inc podcast, “get it right in camera”, so that’s what I try to do. The processing on this shot was minimal, so I did get it right when I shot it.

~~This photo is hosted on Zooomr with a geotag.~~ (changed to Flickr)

Shot Details

Zooomr doesn’t read the EXIF data from Digital Photo Professional, so here’s the shot info:
Shooting Date/Time:10/28/2007 12:29:55
Shutter Speed: 1/250Sec.
Aperture Value: F5.6
Metering Modes: Evaluative metering
Exposure Compensation: 0
ISO Speed: 200
Lens: EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6
Focal Length: 18.0 mm

Edited 2/9/2015 to change photo to Flickr since Zooomr doesn’t exist.

Morning Light

Fence with steam rising – Fall Series

I actually took this the morning we headed out for Yosemite, but it got lost in all pictures of Half Dome and El Capitan. I was putting the bike rack on the car and saw the steam rising from the fence, filtering the the sunlight. I ran inside and grabbed by camera to take some pictures. It was actually a really wet morning. There had been a heavy dew that night, so everything was really wet, and cold. The sun had only been up a little while, but was warming the fence. The steam didn’t last long and it was really cool to watch. I just wanted to capture that moment. One of those things that make you stop and savor the moment.

Enjoy.

Big Leaf Maple

We just don’t colors like this where I live, so to me the color of this leaf is impressive. Our maple trees turn sort of yellow-brown, then the leaves fall off. At higher elevations, like Yosemite where this was taken, it gets much colder much faster so the colors get more vibrant. I can’t image what the Fall colors must look like in New England.

When it’s 82 degrees F, it’s hard to imagine it’s really Fall.

Big Leaf Maple – Fall Series

Taken in Yosemite National Park

Hanging On

Well, Fall may have come but it seems Summer is trying to hang on a little longer. Today was beautiful – clear, sunny and warm. It could not have been a more perfect day in mid October. With the recent rains grasses have started growing, so in addition to the changing color we have new growth. That refreshing after a long, dry summer. The leaves on the trees are still turning and dropping, but this week will be warm so I expect Fall will drag out a little longer. We have yet to get our first frost, but the nights are getting downright cold.

This is one of two ash trees in my backyard. They both have a range of color from green to red, but are mostly red. In a couple of weeks the leaves will probably be gone, especially if we get a frost.

Until, I’m going to enjoy the warm weather. This shot is part of the Fall Series.