River pics

Now that I've seen Brokeback Mountain, I'm really noticing the big, wide, western scenery I see every day. It's not that I took it for granted before this. I am struck by it's beauty almost every day - whether it be a new dusting of snow on the mountains, a sunset that runs through three or four colors before fading to gray, large thunderheads sailing like ancient galleons across the sky, or just a hawk sitting atop an old leaning fencepost or the sound and smell of the wind blowing through the sagebrush. It's simply that my appreciation is now heightened, inspired, by the beauty of the scenery in the film. So I thought I'd show you a couple of photos of our river. After all that build up, they aren't particularly amazing photos because my point in taking them was to show you a before and after shot of the same place. Or, in this case, an after and then a before.

In the end of December, when the Pacific west coast was hit with non-stop rain, our smallish, for a river, Susanville River threatened to flood. I went out in the rain and took photos, but didn't show them to anyone except family, since if you don't know what the river usually looks like, it would be hard to tell how high the waters went. But yesterday it dawned on me that I could take another picture of it at normal levels, at least, normal for winter. In the summer the river will be just ankle deep in this particular spot where I snapped the picture, which happens to be standing on the very edge of town at the end of the McDonald's parking lot.

So, here's what it looked like yesterday -




And here's what it looked like on December 31, 2005 -



That's about a 12-15 foot difference in height. Maybe even more, I'm not very good at estimating a sloping surface.

I figured these pics would be a good substitute for the before and after photos I had promised to show, which was of my desk. Unfortunately, that project is still "in process." But I will persevere. So, stay tuned.