Big And Small

The Little Things




This is a portion of an image of the North American galaxy. To actually see the shape that caused astronomers to name it after the continent on which I live, one would have to go HERE , on the NASA website, where there is a big picture and explanation.

Today, I am particularly aware of how ‘little things’ are only small in perspective. The little dots of white and blue in the picture above, are huge stars separated from each other by light-years of space and time.



Casey is driving the Buick over to Mike Cary’s tire and auto repair shop after giving me a ride home. Casey works at Cary’s Tires. Mike’s shop is located right near the base of that antenna tower, less than a mile away, and yet it may as well be in another galaxy if I had to walk to and from there.



Gazing at the empty parking space, (reflected in my sunglasses), I am reminded of how fortunate I am to have the means to circumvent my physical limitations when it comes to travel great distances, (less than a mile), at will.  It’s that matter of perspective thing, again. I can however, (while I wait for a pulley to be replaced), get around the grounds of the Treehouse Senior Apartments to enjoy and photograph the views, near or far.

All photographs are taken with my Panasonic Lumix TZ1, unless otherwise noted.



The magnolias are filled with color and character that makes me smile while waiting for Mike to replace a pulley, change the serpentine belt, and put a new battery in the Buick.



A daffodil blooms among the independent plants sprouting through the gravel on the side of ‘A’ building.



The tip of Mt. Shasta can be seen in the morning light. I got up early today to take the car in to be attended to. One of my muddled, morning, memories was of the old service stations, and the work area with the pinup girl calendar and dozens of fan belts, squished into color printed cardboard sleeves hanging all over the walls. Different belts would operate the various accessories like the generator, A/C, power steering, etc.

In recently manufactured automobiles, one serpentine belt spins all the smog pumps and various devices that are under the hood. It winds through a collection of pulleys and is kept taut by an idler pulley attached to a belt tensioner device that maintains the optimum tightness so that all the gizmos that are being spun by the serpentine belt are operating efficiently. In the Buick, the belt tensioner is not moving with the ease it did when it was newer, (I can relate), but with some cleaning and lubricating it should regain it’s range of motion. The free wheeling pulley may have had a shortened lifespan because of the stiff tension adjuster, or one of it’s bearings might have been weaker than the rest, or the races weren’t perfectly machined, or any one, or more, of hundreds of little things could have caused the pulley to fail. Which rhymes with ‘for want of a nail’. Which why sometimes, Little Things Mean A Lot.




Today’s Relatively Appropriate Song;




Life Is Good