I’ve enjoyed doing the WordPress Photo Challenges over the years, but this week, with no explanation, they have decided to stop. The last photo challenge is to post your all time favorite photo.
Well that’s not going to happen. Even if I found the time to sort through thousands of images I’m fairly certain I don’t have an all time favorite.
Broken heart and tears.
So I’ll post an image I took yesterday. It represents my broken heart and feeling of loss.
It’s a very busy place, Washington DC.
Since them members of my family have been traveling to Washington DC regularly to tell our story and lobby for safety on our nation’s roads. This past week my husband and I were there again, talking to the staff of House Representatives and Senators, as well as people at the DOT, about the bigger, heavier, longer trucks that are once again being proposed by some in the trucking industry.
Riding the metro to the Hill on a beautiful day.
Back in 2015 double 33 foot trailers were proposed by the trucking industry, they say because of a driver shortage. What they didn’t say is that adding 5 feet on each of two trailers, hauled in tandem, made the entire truck 83 feet, 8 inches long. That’s similar to an 8 story building. Try passing that on a busy freeway.
We worked long hours and got back to the hotel after dark most nights.
They also don’t tell you that it will take longer to stop, that the back trailer doesn’t track correctly going around corners and that they’re harder to drive, requiring a special endorsement on a driver’s commercial license.
In one of the lady’s rooms, mid century modern makeup chairs.
There’s already a shortage of drivers, finding experienced drivers to haul double 33 foot trailers isn’t going to be easy.
Mountain sculpture in the Hart Senate Building lobby.
Aside from the safety issues, many companies ship their goods ‘intermodal’ meaning they move over land on rails as well as highways, and across the ocean on ships. The 33 foot trailers won’t fit on rail cars as they are configured now, and container ships may have to change the way the trailers are stacked as well. Some people fear that smaller transport companies will be forced out of business as shippers and brokers move to the more competitive larger trailers to ship their goods, regardless of the level of safety attributed to these trailers.
Waiting for a shuttle I thought the metro lines above were interesting.
There’s an appropriations bill in the House of Representatives right now. It’s the kind of bill that ‘must pass’ because it funds most of the Federally mandated programs across the country. Some members of Congress have added amendments to the bill that we consider anti truck safety. Allowing for a study of the double 33 foot trailers is one of these amendments.
It wasn’t all work. We ate dinner down on the wharf near an old torpedo factory that has been turned into an artist loft.
You might think that we shouldn’t be afraid of studying something, and normally I’d agree. But there isn’t much data out there on double 33s, they are running on some roads of certain states, but not many. We’re concerned that the trucking industry will fund studies of their own, and of course those will be favorable.
Right now the amendment is still in the appropriations bill. An amendment offered by another Representative to strip it from the bill failed by a few votes. So we have work to do.
We walked up and down a lot of stairs.
And this is just one issue. There are so many more that I want to tell you about. We worked all week on the Hill, talking about speed limiters, hours of service, underride crashes and the bill sitting in Congress right now, Stop Underride, that needs to move out of committee.
One afternoon we even got to take some time off and visit the national zoo!
We walked between appointments, from the House side to the Senate side of the Hill and back again, in the hot, humid air of summer in DC. It was hard. But getting the call about Dad was harder and I reminded myself how important this all is.
And yes we got lucky and saw the famous pandas.
I know truck safety is not everyone’s thing. And I know some of you will have differing opinions on how to solve the problem of truck crashes on our highways. I have so much more to tell you, and to show you, about our trip to DC last week. But this is already too long, too boring, and just a little stressful.
We had one peaceful evening on the Mall.
So I put a few photos in for relief — just in case you’d rather just look at cool stuff. I’m OK with that too.
Studying before an appointment.
I’ll tell you more about our work in another post. Stay tuned.
The flight home was thankfully incident free.
It looks like yellow waves mama!
But sometimes a princess has to speak up and I think it’s about time that I point out the lack of adventure around here. Totally unacceptable.
You’ve got a treat over there…right?
Mama did take me over to my park a couple of times this spring. She likes to do a photo shoot of me in the pretty yellow flowers. She says most people don’t like these flowers but she thinks I look beautiful sitting in the middle of a huge field of yellow.
Well of course I do mama. I look beautiful no matter where I’m sitting, and I thought all my loyal fans would like to see some of the photos featuring me instead of some anonymous birds.
The crab apples are almost ready to bloom too!
I know mama likes to take pictures of birds, but truly, don’t you think she should stick with me?
Anyway, we had fun over in the field filled with yellow flowers, and mama has promised me an adventure real soon. In fact she says I’m going on my adventure this afternoon.
It’s such a pretty day, let’s stay here for awhile!
Wait a minute.
I’m going on my adventure? Why isn’t she going on my adventure? I’m not sure I like the sounds of this at all. If you get a phone call from a payphone it’s probably me. I’m counting on you to come save me!
You’ll come save me….I’m just sure of it!
After all, a Princess knows she can depend on her loyal subjects. Right!!??
I’m counting on you!
An evening walk.
I don’t think it’s a formal challenge, not something a whole lot of people are doing. It certainly hasn’t gone viral. But it intrigued me, and I figured it would get me out the door.
Plus you know me. I like to find things, big and small, to share with you when I go for walks.
I know you’re not all friends with me on Facebook – some of you probably aren’t on Facebook at all. So maybe you haven’t seen the images I’ve posted there. I guess I could put together a slide show of the first 24 days or so….
A patch of trillium hidden back in the woods.
…but this post was meant to talk about the photos that didn’t make the cut. After the first day I decided to limit myself to posting on Facebook only one photo per day for the challenge. I’m posting my favorite one out of the inevitable batch I’ll have taken on each walk.
Crab apple blooms bright in the evening light.
It turns out, not surprisingly, that I can’t take just one photo on a walk. Even when all I have with me is my phone.
Early spring oak leaves show subtle color.
And now I wonder what I should do with the extra photos. Are they destined for obscurity, never to be seen by anyone but me?
Hungry horse down the road.
All the photos on this post were leftovers, extra images, not used, but not unloved.
What do you think I should do?
Evening light shines through new maple leaves.
The photo challenge this week is all about place – where do we go when we need comfort or to feel creatively challenged?
Many of you can probably guess where my place is, whenever I can get there I love to be on the shores of my Lake Michigan.
But sometimes it’s not possible to travel the four hours to get to my lake. Lucky for me I have a park not so far away that provides similar inspiration and comfort. You’ve seen me visit Kensington Metro Park frequently too.
Isn’t it amazing that a person can feel a special connection to more than one place in the world? I feel very lucky.
What’s your special place? Where do you feel most at home? Is it a nature filled place or a city close to family or somewhere in between? I look forward to seeing your place!
I’m not a mother, unless you count Katie-girl and she doesn’t recognize holidays. My own mother has been gone almost fourteen years, and though I miss her every day, this year I just didn’t have a traditional Mother’s Day post in me.
So I went out to my favorite park to spend some time among the birds that she loved. I feel like I got to spend some time with her while I wandered the woods and wetlands.
It’s a green spring here in Michigan.
There were lots of people, large groups, families, mostly noisy people there on this nice Sunday after days of rain. I wasn’t expecting to see much in the way of wildlife. But I was wrong.
I saw so much I don’t think I can share it all with you in one blog. So maybe I’ll just share with you a few (define few) of my favorites and not try to take you along on the whole walk.
While I was taking pictures of shaggy hickory bark I heard wings fluttering near my head. It was this little guy being quite persistent about wanting a treat.
Hey lady!
I held out my hand and he hopped right down. He was thoroughly disgusted that I didn’t have anything for him.
Seriously? Is this some kind of joke?
He flew off and sat on a branch talking to me. OK, OK I said, reaching into my pocket for a bit of seed.
Thanks lady!
You win.
But the highlight of this walk were the pileated woodpeckers. I saw one as soon as I turned off the main path. I heard him first and I stopped to look.
Looking for lunch.
I got to show the family walking behind me this amazing bird. He didn’t seem skittish and I watched him for a long time before moving on.
The family, now ahead of me, was excited to see a herd of deer not too far off the path. I didn’t expect to see anything when I got further up the path, but there they were.
All these people are interrupting my lunch!
I was looking for trillium, a flower that blooms in the woods here in Michigan. Around the next corner I saw a few, smaller this year than usual, but still pretty. I crawled down a steep creek bank to get an image…
Small white blossoms shine among last years leaves on the forest floor.
…then climbed back up the bank to sit on a bench and enjoy the scenery. As I flipped through the photos I’d taken so far I heard a pounding. What was that? I looked around and found a pair of pileated woodpeckers flitting around down along the creek. I crept up closer and watched.
There must have been good stuff in that stump.
They didn’t stay anywhere for long, and I have a lot of really bad images of blurry bird parts. But finally one of them stopped long enough for an unobstructed view.
A good spot to rest for a moment.
I sat there a long time, watching them and smiling. Eventually I realized a little friend had ventured up on the stump next to me. Begging for a bit of a treat.
Looks like he’s had plenty of treats already today.
Of course I tossed him a seed or two. Or three.
Just being in the woods was fun, even when there weren’t any birds to entertain me. The spring is so green, and everywhere I looked there was something interesting.
Tree art.
Time was passing and I felt like I needed to head back to the car. I was as far away as you could be and still be on the nature trails. I picked up my pace, intent on getting home to make dinner. Once again I heard fluttering near my head. This time it was a nuthatch wanting my attention. They’re usually a bit shy, though I’ve had them eat out of my hand before.
Got any more lady?
I held out a few seeds and the nuthatch flew in and grabbed one and then quickly flew off to some fallen trees. He did this a couple times, returning to my hand so quick that I didn’t think he was eating the seed. And then I saw him doing this.
No one will find it under here!
He was hiding the seed for future meals! I think anyway, maybe he was just doing aerobics. Each time he took a seed he flew to a different spot, depositing the seed and then rushing back for more. Such a little clown.
And while he was doing that, as I was standing there in the woods, interrupted on my rush home, I saw out of the corner of my eye this couple:
I’m just guarding my woman.
They were just across the creek. She was busy eating and he was busy showing off. There were several turkeys over there, but he was the only one obviously in a relationship.
I turned and headed back toward the parking lot. On the way I ran into another cute little woodpecker. He didn’t really want his picture taken so he moved around behind the old cattail reed he was working on.
You can’t see me. Right?
But I’m patient and eventually he worked his way around the stalk, intent on getting to something.
I’m not going to look at you lady!
I was almost back to the boardwalk and I figured I’d check out the heron rookery. Turns out it was really quiet, but there was plenty of other things to look at there, including some beautiful lily pads…
Colors everywhere, even in the water.
…and this guy.
Just doesn’t seem like a comfortable way to nap.
Most of the birds I saw during the day were making noise. That’s how they got my attention, whether they wanted it or not.
Singing her heart out.
But some were pretty camouflaged while looking for good stuff.
What’s that over there?
Until one of them looked up to see who was watching them.
You looking at us?
It was such a beautiful day, this Mother’s Day, I hope you got to see or do something fun, with family or on your own. I realize how lucky I am to have such a wonderful place to explore with my mom.
I know she loved it there as much as I did.
I’ll pose for you lady! I brought my own lunch!
Cee has a black and white photo challenge out right now – “Through a window.” I’ve already been doing that a lot, looking through a window, so I figured this would be an easy one.
This is MY jelly!
And just today at the oriole feeder outside my window I captured a prolonged fight among hungry birds. You might even say they were angry birds.
Really? What gives you the right to yell at ME?
But in the end, though I deliberately left part of the window frame in the shot just to use one of them in the black and white challenge…
I’m telling you, all I said was that it was MY jelly!
…I couldn’t bring myself to take the color out.
Guess I’m going to have to find another window.
Angry birds are lonely birds.
Change Is Hard 