Dummies in and on machines - the problems they cause (and why I continue to ignore the Palin controversies - and Kohring, too - in my Wasilla blog)

Why the hell do I bother? Damned if I know. Bother to keep a blog, I mean. It takes time that I do not have. Even so, I think I will continue to keep it. Maybe if I keep it long enough, some rich person or philanthropic organization will come to me and say, "Quit wasting your time doing other stuff! Here is $64 million dollars and 39 cents, tax free. Go and blog."

In the meantime, you will recall that yesterday I had rounded up a tiny handful of my pre-blog photos and I posted a few here. The above, taken in October of '05, is also from that group, and although I do not really want to think about the marsh being frozen right now, it leads directly to the new images that follow, so here it is.

I was glad that day when I walked into the marsh and saw that this truck had got stuck. Glad, because it never should have been there. My friend, the property owner, had his signs posted. He did not want machines tearing up the marsh, which he describes as a meadow.

"Walkers always welcome," his sign said - but it forbade the trespass of all machines.

The driver of this vehicle saw the signs but drove on in, smashing and crushing all before him as he charged forward. He (possibly a she, I suppose) was a DIM - "Dummy In Machine." We have many of them around here, and DOMs too - "Dummies On Machines." DAMs also - "Dummies Abandoning Machines." They do this kind of thing all the time and they will even drive right through your yard, if it suits them.

So I was glad this one got stuck. He would be stuck for awhile.

And this is what he and his dummy peers have wrought. That fence now extends far out into the marsh and this is a very recent development. This was the first time I saw it that way. And do you see the clause that says, "walkers always welcome?" No. It is gone. It would seem that my neighbor is just getting exasperated and so is building barriers that he hopes will keep everybody out. Thanks to the DIMs and such.

I believe that I am still welcome, because the owner and I have known each other almost since the day he moved in with his wife and dogs and we get along well and sometimes we talk about earthquakes. That's what he does. He assesses property for its proximity to fault lines and its potential to wreak havoc upon structures by earthquake. I take some comfort that he is my neighbor.

So we talk about earthquakes. And late last summer, we wound up at the same bar to watch Obama make his acceptance speech and it was so good, we wondered what McCain was thinking - how could he possibly answer such a speech?

And of course, his answer to the articulate and well thought-out words of Obama came right from our own little town and Wasilla and the United States of America have never been the same since.

Now, especially after a week such as this, some may come to my blog and wonder why I ignore all the nonsense that is being wrought out there as a result.

I could probably triple or quadruple or even quintuple my blog readership if I jumped on the blog band-wagon - and it is a mighty big bandwagon - and started ranting about all this. 

But there are enough bloggers doing that. I don't need to. The instant I start, I will polarize this blog and that will be that. 

Except for the part where I photograph things as I drive, walk, and bike about Wasilla and in this way create a somewhat impressionistic image of this little town, I have yet to find the resource and time to meet my larger goal and dig into the soul of this place.

Even though I lean left, I have always been able to get along with people of different viewpoints. When I am able to make this blog what I want it to be, I will need to communicate with the left and right, the middle and the fringe. If I can't, they will not communicate with me - except maybe with one finger.

So I cannot polarize this blog - not too much, anyway.

Plus, on these matters, I have nothing of substance to add.

If I could sit down with our governor, her supporters, her enemies, talk to and listen to them and then find a way to thrash it all out in words and photos, that would be one thing. But that day has yet to come and right now the only thing that I could accomplish would be to blow off steam. That would accomplish nothing.

Plenty of bloggers are doing that already. And each morning, those who go to bed loving Sarah Palin get up loving Sarah Palin and those who fall asleep despising her wake up feeling just the same.

And this goes for Vic Kohring as well. I did get into a big argument with him once, but I was not blogging then. It had to do with Alaska Native hunting and fishing rights. On this, we disagree sharply - as do the governor and I. 

Well, I ramble, to no good end. Maybe I've polarized myself a bit here. Like say, with those DIMs, DOMs and DAMs, Oh, well. I am quite tired. I should not be writing at all. I will stop now.