Pocatello sits in a gash that runs west/east through the eastern part of the southern part of the state of Idaho. Technically a gap, in places around the city of Pocatello the landscape looks like it was hacked out, made into something it wasn’t meant to be. Sourtheast Idaho is not hospitable looking; mostly treeless mountains ring the city of Pocatello in one way or another. The high mountain desert is formidable, stern looking when seen from the lower elevation of Pocatello’s downtown. The scrubby juniper and sage and rabbit brush don’t beckon “welcome”. But the people do.
1999: We’re in the state car driving back from Idaho Falls’ outreach campus to the main campus of Idaho State University. Of the four of us in the car, only two of us know that the driver is in the middle of a nervous breakdown. Terry knows, I know; I’m the driver. The two others, visiting assistant professors we carpool with twice a week, probably just think I’m weird.
There’s a place on I-15 where you crest a hill and see the Portneuf Gap just as you’re coming into Pocatello. And it is there where Terry leans over and whispers “beautiful, isn’t it?” Comic relief at a time when I was afraid to take the responsibility of driving anyone anywhere. When I was coming undone.
Happy Anniversary
My Loves
Vincent Murphy
Central New York
Rocks!
Spring
Come On!
Awwwwww
I miss my Missy
Better Days
they'll come again
Alicia Vida Billman
is 29 today
This says it all!
Friday noon, you're coming home with me Vinny.
Vincent Murphy?
What!?
Tuesday nights
are gonna change in May
Mr. Murphy
waiting for his haircut
When I get bored
I take pictures of myself in bathrooms
Graphic Boulevard
blown transformers and a tree
Cars in Bergenfield
didn't do well
House on Queen St
with a for sale sign in front of it
Bergenfield
Storm 2010
Vincent Murphy
and his look alike Bob Murphy
Off my back porch
Don't worry I didn't take this pic while falling
Down Kellogg Street
Up Kellogg Street
My house, our cars
Winter 2010
Summer!
I want summer back!
Finally got around to reading your blog... or at least skimming it to catch up. I think I miss about 6 months of it, and am now completely caught up... I think. So now for a place that I have lived. It's hard to pick one place since the places I have stayed the longest are my favorite places to be, so I guess that the small town of West Winfield, NY will be my first choice.
ReplyDeleteWest Winfield is a smaller than small town nestled in between some of the many hills of the Mohawk Valley in Central (Not Upstate) NY. You can smell manure on a hot summer day from one of many of the local farms surrounding the town, thankfully the wind blows quickly through the hills making the stench pass fairly quickly, or I just got used to it. The best part of the town is the layout, from my parents house to mine I only have to walk in a full circle through town to stop at all major businesses. They are all on one of the two main roads ( as is my house) and I only have to take a small side street that attaches to both main roads to get to my mothers. A walk around the entire town takes roughly an hour, and that is if you take a side trip through both of our two "parks" one is really not a park, it was a cleaned up Tannery site where they threw in some wildflowers. The other is as minimally a park as they come. One of my favorite things about this town is that although it is 20 minutes from civilization (and non-civilization) it is a close knit community of people who all know each other. You don't have to go far to hear the latest gossip, and there is always a kind neighbor to help you when you need it. We have our share of nasty people as well, but thankfully most of them are finding small town life not to their liking and moving out, taking their bad attitudes with them.
Nothing big, just my small town, but regardless I have always liked it, which is probably why I made it my home twice.