Okay, it's mid December now. Time for a fresh post. I tried to upload a little video, but could not get it to work for me. (I'm still working on that.) Anyway, winter will be here in less then 48 hours. But you could have fooled me and every one else in the Klamath Basin. Winters been here for a couple of weeks now. YUCK! Why can't the snow stay up on the mountain tops? Oh yea! I live pretty close to those mountain tops. The worst part about the snow, is driving in it. "HEY! SLOW DOWN," you find yourself yelling in your car at some other driver in their car. Knowing full well, that your windows are up, and so are the windows of the car that your yelling at. So, who's going to hear you ranking? Or, here's another one that drives me nuts. Too slow, or people who come to a dead stop on an icy hill, sometimes for no logical reason, and your right behind them. How many times have you been stopped on an icy hill and had to back down to get a run at it to get to the top. Heck, the hill sometimes doesn't even have to be all that big. Next, are the folks in their four wheel drive vehicles. I like four wheel drive in the snow. But some of these people drive like their on race track, in the snow. What frys me here is the guy who claims, because he has four wheel drive, he can stop, in the snow and ice, faster and better. NO WAY. All cars, if they are working right, have four brakes that stop ALL four wheels, just like a so called four wheel vehicle. Yea, you can get going faster, with better traction in a four wheeler, but it's all the same in a four wheel or two wheel drive car when it comes to stopping. RESPECT THE ICE DUDES!

Hey! I guess I'm venting here. But I have reason. Any hoot. I think I've said my say, . . . . . for now. But, "I'll be back." Meanwhile, check out the photos below. Nothing big time scenic stuff. Just a couple of grab shoots from today. It was WAY to cold to go out and do any real photography.

Hey Look! It's snowing, (again) in Klamath Falls. This is coming into the north end of downtown.

What? Is it snowing in Egypt?


Naw! That's not Egypt. That's the famed Balsanger building in downtown Klamath Falls. It has a really color Egyptian look. You should see the inside.


So, there's snow everywhere, so what gives here? Why is the road so . . . . . clear?

Simple, in Klamath Falls we have geothermal hot springs all over the place. We heat homes, offices, buildings and even sidewalks and some roads. You NEVER have to plow them or get out the snow shovel. Cool, huh. I wish we had more roads like this.

Any way, Ta-ta for now. (You've been warned.)

Now, lets see, where to pick things up at. My last post was at the top of November. Nearly a full month has gone by. There MUST be something to write about! But, for most parts, it's been very quiet for me. (Thank goodness, I guess.) Well, quiet until the last four days.

Thanksgiving! More food at my Nephew and his wife's house then I care to remember. Oh, I think I over did it. Then a a funeral for the Father of a dear long time friend on Friday, plus MORE food at the church after the funeral service. Then the interment, followed by still MORE food. It was nice seeing a lot of folks from WAY back that I don't get to see much of anymore. I only wise it had been for a happier reason then a funeral. But we all talked, had some good laughs and a few tears. I kind of held up in my house all day Saturday, not wanting to eat to much. Really, that's how I felt.

On Sunday morning, (today) I got the photo bug real bad and went out and shot pictures all day, and into the evening. Early morning light at Wocus Bay on Upper Klamath Lake. Highway 140 runs right along the side of the lake with out any guard rails. In the summer, when the lake is full, the water comes nearly to the road. It can get a little scarry. One wrong turn of the wheel and, "Ker-Plunk," right in the lake.

20 Minutes latter, up in the Cascade Mountains near Lake of the Woods, the world closed in with a deep fog rolling through the forest. It became very moody.

On the bridge, crossing over the Klamath River at Keno, Oregon. It's always so peaceful here.

On old highway 62 now, West of Keno. Looking down on some of the rapids in the Klamath River. Nearby are small groves of coast redwood trees. The fartest in from the coast that anyone knows about. (The coast is about 150 miles due West, as the Crow flies.) But you need to know where to look for the groves.

That is the grain silo at Worden, Oregon, with Mt. Shasta behind it. At 14,167 feet, it's one of the tallest mountains in the lower 48 states. From where this photo was taken, I was still about 50 miles away from it.

Okay, I passed this sign and HAD to come back and look at it again. I've seen lots of, "Deer," "Elk," "Moose," etc., crossing signs in my day. But I've never seen a "Farmer" crossing sign before. I just thought it was funny.

Here's proof that Klamath is getting ready for Christmas and the hoildays. This is Main St., Klamath Falls, U.S.A. It's not normally this quiet. It is a Sunday night.

Klamath Falls at night. The picture is a little fuzzy becasue I had to hand hold it and the tempature was just about at the freezing mark. Burrrrrrr, cold! Next time, I'll take my tripod with me. Theres a lot more of town to the left and right of the photo.

It was a day well worth going out and taking phtographs. The above are but a small sample of what I shot for the day. Over all, I'd say the weekend was basicly a good one. Even with a funeral mixed into and all.

Another week gone by.

Well, it's been a normal week for me here. Theater, Ballet, the wonders of nature and some interesting meetings on Air Quality and Noise. Yea, that's a NORMAL week. I never said it was "Ho-Hum". I still have a Civil War meeting and a symphony to go to before the week ends. Life is good! (I guess.) Just because I don't live in some big-old-city, doesn't mean life has to be boring. Go out and look at the moon tonight. Wonderful. Rich, full, and just the right amount of clouds in the sky to give it that autumn feeling with a bit of a cold snap to the air. Fantastic. A man in a motorized wheel chair came zipping down the street this evening as I was looking at that wonder in the sky. I pointed it out to him and we stopped and shared a quiet moment. There was a colorful "ice-ring" circling the moon. It made you stop and think about slowing down a little and taking the time to see the world around you.
















Crater Lake National Park. A short and scenic drive from home. We had a little snow up there this week. It's hard to describe the blue of the lake. It changes all the time, but is always breathtaking.




I get to do a lot of photography at the local theater productions. The above photo is form a production of "Carmina Burana" that was preformed here last week. What powerful music and dance.

Yep, life is good. Well, life is what YOU put into it and get out of it. I try and look for the postive.

There are two worlds: the world that we can measure with line and rule, and the world that we feel with our hearts and imagination

--- Leigh Hunt

Take care, talk with you later.

Home Sweet Home

Ah, Yes. The games afoot!

All right, now to get down to it. My daughter set up this blog page for me and even made the first entree on my behalf, to get me started. Now, from here on it's all up to me, and the world! To tell the truth, I have little, if no idea, what I'm doing here. I've heard of blogs for the last number of years, but never gotten into them. I've never felt the need. BUT! On seeing my daughter's blog and what she has posted, I guess I can get into them. Well, I'll try at the lest.

First off, I'm a poor speller. Spell checkers on computers hate me. But I do try to get it right. So forgive my blogs messed up spelling from time to time. Thank you very much.

I live in one of the places of the world that has been blessed by nature. The Cascade Mountains of Southern Oregon. There are miles and miles of forests all around me. Dotted with patches of high desert. Oh, and I must state, lots of volcanoes all around. Thou, thank goodness, none are active. I hope it stays that way. But I do benefit from those same volcanoes. The heat from them, heats my home in the winter. I have a geothermal well, that pumps up hot water from deep underground, and that water heats my home and four others near by. Then we pump the water back into the ground to keep the system charged. So, I guess you can say, I have a kind-a "green" house. Green as in carbon footprint green. My house was built LONG before thinking and being green was a trend. The house was built back in the late 1920's. It's been green since then. Oh, I guess you could say, that the better part of Main St. and buildings all around the area are green. We heated shops, stores and homes all over. Why, even or side walks down town are heated and they never build up snow or ice. That's cool. Schools, Museums, Government buildings and more are heated that way. (Gee, I'm starting to sound like a commercial for geo heating.) Down on the south side of town, there are huge green houses that grow pine saplings by the millions, in perfect conditions because of the geo heating systems. Those saplings are used to replace the trees that logging takes up in the mountains. I think the basic rule is that for every tree they cut down, they plant four or five new ones. The system works. There are plans for a geo-powered, electric plant here as well. Totally green!!!

I could go on, but this is my first blog and I don't want to bore you. I'll post a few photos and stuff, as soon as I start figuring out how this blog site works. So, I'll leave you with something to think about:

People are judged not on the basis of what they have done, but on the basis of what they are perceived to have done.

Think about it.

I'm ready to go!

Hi! I'm Tom's blog and I'm now ready to publish all of the many adventures of Tom on the world wide web! I'm just sitting here waiting for Tom to finish up with his busy election week and have time to share his deepest thoughts on why ladybugs have spots and why zebras have stripes... or maybe he could come up with something even more entertaining than that... but it sure will be tough to top those two topics!