Filed under: Politics
Uninteresting day outside today. Splotchy skies, not much sun if any. No rain, no snow, just blah. Some days are like that. The only thing of interest outside is that the camellia bushes on the steps up to the upper walk to the mailbox are full of pink blooms. Not exactly seasonal color, but nice anyway. I had forgotten that the camellias bloomed so much this time of year. Pale pink blossoms are not seasonally appropriate, but nice anyway. You take what seasonal offerings Mother Nature has available. I have a lot of cedar trees to supply seasonal greens, and a Christmas tree ready to go up so it’s just the execution awaiting.
I do miss Christmas in Idaho. We would have about 4 feet of snow on the level this time of year, plowed driveway and parking lot, and probably a good bit of the highway plowed (by us) as well, since we were on a side road with only five or six residences awaiting the plow — which usually turned out to be us. Splendid sledding hill, steep enough for speed while still under control, banks constructed to male the run longer, and not so long that hauling the sled back up was a pain.
Well, we all grow up, and sometimes lose the childhood amenities. The train, which ran from a town down on the Oregon border up to a town on the upper reaches of the Snake River, has long since been discontinued and the tracks turned into the inevitable “trail”. Officialdom in the West, likes to turn discontinued railroad into “trails” because the idea of “trails” is popular. However the idea of “trails” is far more popular than the idea of actually walking a trail. Keep that in mind as your local government pushes for turning something (whether highway, railroad, or street) into a “Trail.” You may really miss the highway that they don’t want to care for anymore, and have no interest in walking a “trail.”
Here in a Seattle suburb, the train which ran from the city at the southern end of Lake Washington up to the town at the northern end of the Lake has been discontinued as the goods were being moved more cheaply and efficiently by truck. So the unused tracks are being turned into a trail. Wonderful idea, everybody loves trails, except when they might actually have to use them by hiking an extended stretch. We humans are a fairly lazy bunch, and actually hiking the trail….
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American Elephants 