Heading south
I am in Mojave. I am in a Motel 6 listening to trains go by. Today has been very windy in Mojave. It was rainy and foggy when I came up through the Tehachapi mountains. I couldn't see the trains, but I could hear them.
As most of my friends know, I am a train buff. I have tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of train photos. My dad was a locomotive engineer for the old Southern Pacific Railroad and I started to photograph trains when I used to go to work with him and ride the trains. The hobby of photographing trains is called railfanning. I discovered photography through railfanning. This is the first time I have railfanned with a serious digital camera.
It is amazing to me to be able to look at my train photos on my laptop before I even get home. I also brought a film camera. I am down to my last three rolls of Kodachrome. I have used Kodachrome since the days of Kodachrome II in the 1960's. Now when I think of Kodachrome, and the subject of film, I think of how the railroads must have pictured steam engines after the diesels came along. I remember reading about a time when a steam engine derailed. Rather than rerail the steam locomotive and put it back into service the railroad just scrapped it on the spot. Diesels had made steam engines so valueless the steam engine was not even worth putting back on the track. The same seems to be happening with film cameras. Great cameras have gotten so cheap. When they break they are not worth fixing. I doubt I will ever buy another roll of Kodachrome. I wonder how long it will be before we will not be able to buy film?
Family mattersI have had a lot of time today to think about my sister and my family. There is nothing more valuable, more important than family. You never know when the last moment you have with family members and friends will be. Speaking of friends, I got an E-mail from my friend Russ. Russ has lost three brothers, two to cancer and one to a car accident; all at young ages. Plus, he has a sister currently battling cancer and fighting for her life. Russ said: My brothers taught me how not to die. To live well we must tread that fine line between assuming you have lots of time and none. You could go today, next week, next month, next year, or 50 years. I'm just trying to leave the place better than when I came. What more can we do? Russ is a pretty inspirational guy. Besides working full time, he donates a lot of time and energy to a cause he strongly believes in. Yet he is a family man and involves his family in his activism. Russ also sings and plays the guitar. He sings about and dreams about his brothers and the lives lost and the lives that might have been. Russ said: They visit in my dreams regularly. I have more songs about them
inside, not ready to come out. Maybe I'll be granted the time to get to it,
with luck.
11:51:12 AM 
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