Astoria Photografpix

Another reason I was into non-blogging mode for many months was the sudden and inexplicable demise of my beloved wolf-dog, Leo, at the end of March. The photo above was taken in early January, when we went on a long walk on the beach to go see the Iredale Shipwreck once I heard the bones of it were sticking out of the sand again. The photo below was taken a few days before he died, when there...

Ah well, I've been a very bad blogger. I have no excuse except that the approach of the Sunday Market season, then the actual arrival of same, has kept me from pounding the keyboard blog-wise. Been slaving making new images for months, but not doing much else computer-wise except those damn online jigsaw puzzles, which are rapidly becoming some sort of weird addiction. Sunday Market has been a...

A new pal of mine, Angel, is an incredibly talented illustrator who lives in Spain. He was asking about houses in Astoria, and was interested in all the bright colors, thinking he might like to draw one. Which made me think, yet again, about how wonderful and quirky the houses here are. They're fascinating to look at just whizzing by when driving around. But from a walking point of view, they're...

"One, two, three, look at Mr. Lee Three, four, five, look at him jive" The Bobettes sang that many years ago, but it keeps bouncing through my head lately. In today's mail was the postcard pictured above. The No. 1 box gives you three choices: I would support the recall of Richard Lee; I would oppose the recall of Richard Lee; and I am undecided at this time. The No. 2 box asks the yes or no...

I happened to notice a ferry for sale on ebay. The sale ends today, actually - M.V. Chinook Ferry on Ebay (large file). Only $4.5 million. Geez, spare change. Anyway, it made me think of how things must have been before the bridge connected Astoria to Washington, and about the ferry that ran from Astoria across the river. I've never been on that particular ferry, more's the pity. But I'm a big...

Saturday my partner in crime and I decided to do a reconnaissance mission up to Aberdeen, Washington, to check out were the Grays Harbor Street Market will be held. The town ain't pretty, and reminded me of how Naugatuck, Connecticut, used to look in the 1960s, i.e. pretty run down. Fortunately, pretty ain't what matters in a street market. We skedaddled out of there pretty fast, and went...

I can already hear screams of horror ... I am about to hold forth on a very unpopular topic around here - WalMart. Since we're encouraging the big box business over in Warrenton, I'd like to see a WalMart go in. Not even a Super WalMart, just a plain old WalMart. Okay, you can start screaming now. Oh, I know all the arguments, one being that they pay their employees poorly. Well, nobody tied 'em...