Postcards from faraway places ...

[Ayinger]

I opted out from driving a plow for the company --- too afraid I'd fuckin' run into something or other. I'm on a 'walking crew' so I'm right out there on ground level fighting for each foot! I do kick on the local all-nite jazz show when I'm going from site to site....it's a nice feel to be out in an almost deserted world, driving through the slop and having that kind of soundscape going on.

[RocDoc]

You chop and bash at the shit for what seems to be forever but then you're left with some satisfaction at the end in conquering Mother Nature.

Then the cosmic joke is that after a couple of 40+ degree days, most of the stuff melts away ennyhow....like today, just a pile here, a pile there.

When I owned my house 'in the city', I disowned shovelling probably 75% of the time saying 'Fuck it, it's just gonna melt in a coupla days anyway!'.

Little old ladies would MAKE their dogs poop on my lawn.

~

The stuff melting along the highway is the worst, kicking salty water up on your car, fuckin' up your windshield and your vision.

[Mary]

Took a little road trip to the Mississippi Delta. Pretty amazing place - stately and melancholy at the same time. Unbelievable poverty and decay everywhere, but also elegant plantations, beautiful swamps, jaw-dropping sunsets, and of course the delta blues. Pictures:

Driving down Highway 61, you pass a million completely decayed barns, shacks, pieces of farm equipment, etc etc, like this:



First stop was Clarksdale, Mississippi:



Clarksdale is home of the mythical Crossroads, the intersection of Highways 49 and 61, where Robert Johnson allegedly sold his soul to the devil:



Little BBQ joint right at the Crossroads:



Clarksdale has seen better days:



The Ground Zero Blues Club, in Clarksdale, is owned by Morgan Freeman, who grew up in the Mississippi Delta. Although one could argue that it's a problematically upscale and inauthentic version of a juke joint, for white people who are too scared to go the real juke joints all over the Delta, you really can't question Freeman's commitment to the place or its culture. The club brings in local delta blues artists from all over the Delta, serves awesome southern food, and is well-attended by tourists and locals alike. We saw R.L. Burnside's backing band there:



The bathroom at Ground Zero:



Alligator, Mississippi - a tiny (total population = 220) town south of Clarksdale, known only for its name. Poor beyond words. 50% of the adults are unemployed, the average commute to work is an hour (to the casinos in Tunica, MS), 38% of the town has a family income of less than $10,000 per year. These figures are from the most recent census in 2000. I've never seen a place like this in my life. It's basically just one street, which goes from shockingly rundown houses to shockingly rundown shacks to shockingly rundown trailers. There's a dilapidated gift shop selling alligator-related souvenirs and a gas station when you drive into town, and nothing else. When we drove in, there was a group of about two dozen men parked in an empty field (all pick-up trucks) standing around drinking. This was a Saturday night, probably around 9 p.m. There was another group of about a dozen men drinking in the gas station parking lot. There were no other signs of life anywhere in the town:



Swampland:



Beautiful water lilies on the swamp:



The Delta in the rearview, heading back to Clarksdale for the show at Ground Zero:

[JesusLooksLikeMe]

Nice. I'm not sure it's shining like a national guitar though.

Clarksdale looks a bit run down and grim. Blimey. It's a toss up between that and Rochdale on a wet Tuesday.

[luke]

Yeah, Mississippi is a real shithole. I always get a few pictures of me standing by run-down old gas stations, barns, liquor stores, and similar premises for horror and/or porn when I drive through, though.

My favorite place is on one of the exits off of I-59, I think around Meridian. It's this big red barn that's a drive-thru liquor store. Only unlike most drive-thru liquor stores, where there's a window like a fast-food place, this barn you actually drive into, and they load your car up with booze. It's great.

[skvorisdeadsorta]

I love Mississippi.

[strat-0]

That's a great photo journal of your trip, Mary!

[strat-0]

I posted this yesterday on another thread and as of now it has been viewed about three times, and I think two of those were me. So I'm reposting it here. Some of you guys ought to check out the General Threads board from time to time! We don't have a "Post Pictures of Birds" thread here (unlike fish), but I guess this will do!

Here's what you need [for those skunks], Doc! (at least for the little ones)

We were sitting out on the deck this very evening when the barred owl you see here came through.

First it landed in a mulberry tree west of the house:



KayJay ran in to get the camera while I kept my eye on him/her. I got a few shots in, but the blue jays spotted him and started a ruckus, so he flew off to the front of the house and lit in a maple tree in my front yard. He wasn't much put off by me, but those shit-eatin' jays were giving him all kinds of hell, so he finally flew off, after a while. I wanted so much to get a shot of him on the wing! But I couldn't get it.









[Edit: As I was pasting this post here, we heard the jays making a fuss again and I'll be damned if he wasn't out there again this evening! Still couldn't get a good picture of him on the wing, but we did get to watch him preening himself for quite a while. I'm going to have to read up on how to get this camera to take pictures fast to get him flying.]

[Ayinger]

nice shots jeff! envious that you have such wildlife right on your doorstep

[strat-0]

Thanks, Don! With the creek and the woods we're used to seeing all manner of wildlife and a plethora of birds, but it's unusual to see an owl early enough to have enough light for a decent picture. And to see him two days in a row... I sure wish I could have got some of him in flight!

[KooL]

ayinger said:

nice shots jeff! envious that you have such wildlife right on your doorstep

I don't envy having owls in my backyard one bit. I think I've told the story once before here when as a kid I saw one in my back yard sitting on the clothes line. It was late at night, and I went outside to take a piss and it was there staring right back at me, just about 20ft away. I peed my pants a little that night...

[KooL]

Owls scare me more than spiders do. Same goes with those disgusting black crows. Damn you Hitchcock!

[strat-0]

A crow, I would have shot. But they're way too wary to come close around here. Yeah, owls have that creepiness about them - all the weird sounds they make, their nocturnal nature, their large heads with human-like eyes set in front (for stereoscopic vision), the way they can move their heads around so far, and their silent flight. But they are so beautiful and majestic. Plus, they kill millions of icky rodents and vermin. So, yes, I'm happy to see them. Great horned owls are said to range through here, but I haven't seen or heard any of them so far. They're the Big Daddy Owls on this continent. They have a high creepy-factor for sure, as do screech owls and barn owls. Owls are mostly feathers, though.

[Thorngrub]

Killer owl pics, strat. Esp that 2nd to last one [close-up]: That's a regal lookin' bird there !

[strat-0]

Thanks, Thorn! That was my favorite, too. Haven't seen him this week.