The New Normal

After nearly a year, the 17th Street dock is open again.  It was basically torn down to the bottom and reassembled in place.  The footprint isn’t changed much, but the feel definitely is. 

The previous iteration was decked with weathered timbers.  I never had any doubt about their soundness, but there was always a bit of an “at sea” feel when walking out there. 

That’s most assuredly not the case now.  The deck is solid, unyielding concrete.  Nothing moves.

The lightship Columbia is back in place, though her original replacement, a light buoy, is not yet, hence the uncluttered shot!

The cutter Alert, the lightship Columbia and the Queen of the West were all cooperative subjects.

Maybe one day the shrouds draped over the sections of the Astoria-Megler Bridge will help identify the time span that they were taken in, but for me, they’re just an eyesore.

My luck was holding.  The bulker Global Saikai was on her way toward the bar as I was checking out the new dock.  The Connor Foss was already alongside before I could get the long zoom out.

This isn’t it, but I’m still trying for the perfect pilot transfer shot or sequence.  Clicking on the image will allow you to see more detail, but it still looks like “just” climbing down a ladder.  I’m fairly certain that that’s not what it feels like!

Not Dead Yet!

Life takes lots of turns.  Sometimes they’re good, sometimes they’re not. 

Mine has had a lot of good turns of late, but they’ve kept me from keeping up on blogs.

Even this shot is way out of date, but it does represent more of what I’m likely to shoot from here on out. 

I just completed a move.  Well, I’m now in just one residence… actually completing a move is complicated and very time consuming.

At any rate, I no longer have a stellar view from the porch. 

But I do have a nice walk downtown to see the ships that I watch creep under the bridge from either the living room or bedroom windows! 

This was shot a couple of weeks before the actual move, from a spot almost due north from where I’m currently seated. 

More than forty five years ago, when I was knee high to a grasshopper, this little patch of water marked the only way north to Washington from Astoria, and I remember it. 

We slid past these pilings after idling aboard the ferry on the way to my grandparents’ place in South Bend, WA.

Now,it’s very quiet at the ferry slip unless the wind is up.  Certainly there’s no line of cars backed far up 14th Street.  I do remember sitting there for portions of hours on end (life transpires at different rates, depending of the decade that you’re experiencing…I remember days, but minutes are a lot more likely)

I would never have imagined in that long-ago time that one day in the distant future that I would be living just a couple of blocks from where the brakes has been set.

And yet, here I am!  Easily within reasonable distance of several generations of ferry passengers awaiting their ride  north.