High Strung

How does the saying go? "The best laid plans go to hell in a hand basket," or something like that. You think you know how things are going to go. They don't. C'est la vie, dammit.

A good way of looking at surprise chaos would be to greet it as though it were welcome serendipity. "Why hello, pain in the butt, you're as welcome as a million dollars!" I'm constantly working on my brain in that way, trying to twist the negative into a positive, trying to have a "good attitude." This is probably why I need a massage. I mean always, even right after I've had one.

Taking things in stride is easier some days than others. I don't know why this is, do you? There are times when a medical emergency wouldn't phase me. Sure. I'll just bring reading material. Then there are times when I can't even imagine seeing a good movie if the opportunity arises. I've got my mind set on my best laid plans. No matter if that hand basket is on its way to something heavenly, I can't twist my attitude that far to the plus side.

Different Route

You might happen to turn your car up Sierra Bonita Avenue looking for a cut-off from Washington Blvd. You might want a different way, a new route. As you're driving along this residential street you might happen to glance to the side and see a front yard--well, a garden--well, a folly, you might call it--a jumble of things growing and things man-made, all twisted together and making a weird sort of sense. You might stop the car and get out to gawk at the tiles made of broken dishes, the bits of hardware embedded in the sidewalk, the wind chime bones hanging from the branches.

This route is definitely different, you think.

You might take a picture, though you might not know what to focus on or where to crop the picture once you see it on your computer screen. You might like the photo anyway, for that very reason.

Parker-Mayberry Bridge

The Parker-Mayberry Bridge is a small, graceful bridge under the colossal, graceful and more famous Colorado Street Bridge. The Parker-Mayberry doesn't have a Wikipedia page, nor do many links point in its direction. Scroll down to the second photo in this post by Pasadena Public Information Officer Ann Erdman to see how the two bridges compare in size.

The Parker-Mayberry Bridge was built in 1916, three years after the Colorado Street Bridge. I had thought it was the older of the two, but no. The earlier structures on this spot in the Arroyo Seco were the Scoville Dam and Bridge. "Remnants of the early construction can still be found there," according to the Arroyo Seco Foundation.

The Parker-Mayberry is closed to automobile traffic, but you can approach it on foot. While walking in the Lower Arroyo Park, continue north on the west side of the the wash past the footbridge and cross under the Parker-Mayberry and Colorado Street Bridges. Soon you'll be above the water where I took this picture early in my blogging career. From here you can walk onto the Parker-Mayberry Bridge. Behind you there's stonework; likely the remnants the Arroyo Seco Foundation refers to.

Dogs on leash. Look out for poison oak. Let me know what you find.

Title

It happens from time to time that I bring a blank brain with me to the blank screen.

As I write, it's the night before today. I've spent what little mental capital I had, sitting in front of a computer all day typing numbers. I don't have anything left with which to write intelligently, about this photo or about anything.

Poo. It's not Zen Monday. I can't expect you to write it for me. What's a daily blogger to do?

It would be appropriate to post no photo at all. Then you could see what I'm really thinking.

Coffee Break

John and I cleaned out the garage last week. Yesterday we delivered two carloads of semi-useful stuff to the Salvation Army. I considered offering it to you all, but recoiled when I recalled certain Craig's list experiences when too many people showed up, or no one showed up, and before we'd made a new plan the garage had filled up again.

Our garage is now pristine. I can open the drawers of my potting bench without having to move aside a chaise lounge. I'm able to approach the washing machine without bumping into a box of hardware-bits-we-might-use-someday. I can see out the windows.

Drunk on open-space bliss, I started on my office after lunch. I began to purge, beginning at the top of the bookshelves. Why am I hanging on to Paris guidebooks from 2006? Why do we have a Chinese Checkers set? Why do I keep a magazine from 2005? I had a reason to save it then, but is the reason still valid now?

I got a little less than a third of the way down the shelves before my body shouted out for a break. Once I sat down with my afternoon coffee, I didn't get up again. I'd better finish the job this week, or those shelves will fill up again.

Zen Monday: #144

Does it seem like Zen Monday comes around faster and faster lately?

Zen Monday is the day you experience the photo and tell us what you've learned. If you've been lurking, I hope today's the day you'll jump in.

Is this your first Zen Monday? Just say what the picture makes you think of or how it makes you feel. It might be helpful to click on the photo to enlarge it.

There's no right or wrong, no secret, no prize. Just have fun.

Theme Day: Mailbox

Today's City Daily Photo theme is "Mailbox," which can be interpreted in more imaginative ways than I came up with. That's okay, the homeowners here did the interpreting for me. I love their slightly twisted, "approved by the postmaster general" U.S. mailbox.

I wonder what they're commenting on, exactly. Not that I want to know. Right about now, this could mean anything.

There are now 1381 City Daily Photo blogs, the newest being Positano, Italy. Check out how other City Daily Photo bloggers interpreted today's theme.