Santa visits the streets of McCleary courtesy of the McCleary Fire Department.
Wednesday, December 19, 2018
Merry Christmas McCleary!
Santa visits the streets of McCleary courtesy of the McCleary Fire Department.
Saturday, December 8, 2018
The Crow's Pantry
The McCleary Community Pantry was a noble experiment that lasted for a year or two, but it has been gone for some time now. In the meantime, it looks like someone is attempting an open-air pantry near the same location. When I spotted it a very satisfied crow was helping itself to a box of pasta it had poked into.
Talking turkey from Subway
These hammy food puns from Subway really cut the mustard. Not trying to butter them up, but as much as I love puns I am not sure I could ketchup to this signmaker.
Perfect headgear for smoking cigars out in the rain
The winter sun catches one of my hats hanging on the wall. This conical straw hat was brought to me many years ago by a friend after she visited relatives in Vietnam. I have found that in the warmer months this is the perfect headgear for smoking cigars out in the rain.
Saturday, December 1, 2018
Albert Camus, eat your heart out!
Un cône de signalisation est assis sur une chaise sous la pluie à Rainbow Park. Vive l'indifférence bienveillante de l'univers!
Monday, November 19, 2018
First peek at the peak
For the first time in the 61-year history of the old Timbear Cafe building, it will no longer have a flat roof.
It never fails to mystify me why anyone would ever have a flat roof in this part of the world in the first place.
Personally I will miss seeing all those plastic tarps flying around in the wind atop the derelict structure, it had a certain kind of beauty. But I suppose this sort of retrofitting is good for the town so I won't complain.
Friday, November 16, 2018
Creature comforts
A carpet of fallen black walnuts in McCleary equal free eats for a wide variety of wild critters in the cold months ahead.
Friday, November 9, 2018
Flour Power!
The bagels and muffins at Gordon's were calling the other bread products to move their buns and join their bid for Peace! Bread! Freedom!
But no matter how you slice it, the bread section just wanted to loaf around. One of the loaves made a rye comment about how escape went against their grain, and why give up being the toast of the town?
Thursday, October 25, 2018
The Great Garbage Container Caper pt. 2
The mysterious removal of the garbage container rotting fence during the weekend when the staff was away and the shifting of the bin to another location brought this response from Rainbow Park:
"Distruction of this area was not permitted by management or it's employees! Distruction of Rainbow Park property is considered unlawful and will result in criminal charges. Posted 10/23/18"
The Great Garbage Container Caper pt. 1
Over the weekend, when the staff was away, someone mysteriously tore down the rotting fence surrounding the trash bin at the Rainbow Park and moved the container across the roadway.
Daily World
It was only a couple decades ago the front yards across town had either the orange Daily World box or the white Olympian box-- except for Wally Moody's yard. He was the only guy in town to subscribe (by mail) to The Wall Street Journal.
These newspaper delivery boxes are going the way of the phone booth.
Tuesday, October 23, 2018
Timbear interior these days
The interior of the former Timbear restaurant. After years of being derelict, the roof has been removed and the building will be reborn into another use.
Saturday, October 20, 2018
Goodbye to one of the Sentinels of the Park
I don't know the details, but I suspect this was one of the trees around town that never really fully recovered from the clobbering it got from the 1996 Ice Storm.
How foggy was it?
It was so foggy that Simpson's smokestack is barely visible at 10:33 AM as seen from the front of the clinic!
Sunday, October 14, 2018
Sunday morning on First Street part 3
Note the realtor sign, so enjoy the trees while they last.
Friday, October 12, 2018
Gutted and retrofitted
The old Mark E. Reed Memorial Hospital is being gutted and retrofitted to be some kind of short-term mental health holding facility.
Sunday, September 30, 2018
Is this you or yours?
An unusual document found on the Post Office bulletin board:
"Is this you or yours?
Take me home.
I was found in a frame in a
garage sale."
This almost sounds like the lyrics to a country-western song.
Unexpected traffic signal light
There is no automatic traffic signal light as of yet in downtown McCleary, but just across the freeway there sits a very long light at a construction site on the Mox Chehalis Road, in the area of Sine.
Thursday, September 20, 2018
If it happens in the woods, it can happen in McCleary city limits
A forensic look at this brings me to the conclusion that a large bird of prey probably took off with one the squirrels in my yard, or possibly one of the wild rabbits. I've seen owls, eagles, hawks, and falcons fly through here over the years.
There have been coyote and cougar sightings reported from residential neighborhoods in the last few months. A few years ago I saw a huge porcupine sauntering down a city street.
One animal I used to see a lot around here but not much anymore-- the possum.
Let's not get started on raccoons.
Sunday, September 9, 2018
Steampunk Sax
Jay Larson occasionally can be seen playing his saxophone at the NW corner of the VFW Hall usually to an audience numbering zero. He's at it just for fun, no hat on the sidewalk waiting for the coin of the realm.
And, he's really good.
His saxophone was rescued from a junkyard in Wyoming and has obviously been brought back to life with loving care, giving it a really wonderful steampunk appearance.
Thursday, August 23, 2018
The Really Big One
A poster for an event seen at the bulletin board at Gordon's. Local real estate people and the Chamber of Commerce will not like this blogpost.
This poster advertises a talk by Charles Wallace, aka Chuck Wallace, Deputy Director of Grays Harbor Emergency Management. It is sort of unsettling the event is set for the date of Sept. 11th.
Anyway, Mr. Wallace has been working hard around the county in presentations attempting to inform people about our inevitable disaster when, not if, when the Cascadia Subduction Fault decides to unzip.
The last time this baby became undone was in Jan. 1700. The next cyclical geological shift in these plates could happen at any time-- five minutes, five hours, five days, five decades. We don't know. When it does happen it will be the worst natural disaster in U.S. history.
Imagine a 9 point or so quake where the epicenter moves offshore from Cape Mendocino up to Vancouver Island, lasting about five or more minutes. The coast will drop around six feet, followed by a giant tsunami where the effect will reach clear to Montesano.
Goodbye Ocean Shores, Westport, Long Beach, Seaview, Tokeland, Oysterville, Moclips. Adios to downtown Aberdeen, Hoquiam, Cosmopolis.
McCleary will only drop about a foot, meaning most of the century old plus dwellings in town will collapse, like mine. But our town will probably serve as a refugee station, with air supplies landing at Sanderson Field in Shelton.
Our current federal government's response to the Puerto Rico disaster after Hurricane Maria does not exactly inspire confidence in depending on outside help after the Cascadia unzipping takes place. I think Mr. Wallace is trying to let us know we need to be responsible for ourselves and prepare for the worst.
Check out Kathryn Schulz "The Really Big One" (2015) in the New Yorker
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one
Wednesday, August 22, 2018
Hay! Look!
Rolling up hay like this is illegal in some areas because their agricultural authorities say livestock should get a square meal.
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
West McCleary exit still closed
State Route 8 remains bottlenecked for a few miles at McCleary. This has been a very long construction project.
Mason County has vanished
Looking north down 5th Street from Oak. The forest fire smoke is so bad that the hills of Mason County are no longer visible on the horizon. When sunlight does filter through it has a red tint solar eclipse sort of light.
Wednesday, August 8, 2018
Vote Here
Voting by mail has killed off the voting booth and the social ritual of filling out your ballot on the spot.
I poked my head in the door of the VFW Hall on Primary Day 2018 only to see a vast empty room save for two dour senior citizens sitting at a forlorn table with a big box on the surface in which voters could place their ballots. I felt like I had disturbed their nap and they were rather cross about it.
Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Skidmarks at Anarchy Intersection
Skidmarks at a pedestrian cross walk on the Anarchy Intersection where Summit, Simpson, Main, and Third come together. I believe this is under the jurisdiction of WSDOT who likely won't place a much needed traffic light here until someone is killed or seriously injured.
Munching on apples in the shadow of Simpson
A young deer enjoys a breakfast of apples under a lone tree next to the VFW Hall right across the street from the Simpson complex.
Path through the Pines
This path on the SW corner of Maple and Main goes through the Pines. But where are trees, you might ask.
The Pines was a name applied by Cal Clark in the 1950s to the final incarnation of one of the old-time two-story false buildings in downtown McCleary until it was closed by the IRS who padlocked the doors and then later burned (allegedly by kids playing with matches) after being abandoned for a few years in the 1980s.
On this lot at different times in history was a gathering spot for the local Greeks, it was also a house of prostitution upstairs, a topless bar in the 1960s, a family restaurant, a meeting spot for labor agitators in the 1920s-1930s, and a card room where Cecil "Primo" Boling was the dealer with his giant hands.
I recall watching the high flames shoot up from the roof which pretty much gutted the place. The burned out derelict remained standing for far too long as a wrecked reminder of McCleary's colorful past.
The former Timbear Cafe stands across Maple St.
Monday, August 6, 2018
Where the sidewalk unbends
This sidewalk is only a couple years old at best, but the elements are already catching up to it fast. On 4th near Simpson.
Moron!
Political comment found on the Post Office bulletin board. In the same handwriting the bottom of the article (snipped from the Olympian) is inscribed "traitor."
I'm shocked, shocked, I tell you, to see that someone out there ... is still reading a newspaper in hardcopy form.
Friday, August 3, 2018
And you think moss on your roof is a problem? Check this out.
For a company that has a long history in cutting down forests, it is somewhat amusing to see several young broadleaf trees apparently thriving on the roof of the Simpson lumber dry kilns.
The Three Bears
Bear icons in front of the Bear's Den.
Maybe they could somehow include a Goldilocks figure with a word balloon saying, "The food in this restaurant is just riiiight."
Squaxin Island Tribe bus
The Squaxin Island Tribe bus, which includes McCleary as a stop, has my vote for the most amazing and truly Northwest transportation logo in these parts. If you look closely you can pick out the seven animals representing the seven clans of the Tribe, all united into the form of a fish. There is a lot of history behind that graphic.
Sunday, July 29, 2018
8 Aberdeen
I have lost track how long this detour thing has been going on. Long enough for me to get used to seeing these orange signs be part of the normal landscape.
The detour has resulted in more people from out of town using the eccentric intersection of Simpson/Summit/Third/Main streets, which has now become a case study in anarchy.
The black "up" arrow next to a white silhouette of our first president which has a big "8" numeral in it on an orange background is something Marcel Duchamp would have loved.
The ol' McCleary vegetable tradition
McCleary has a second Food Bank other than the official one which operates out of the kitchen in Beerbower Park. This supplemental Food Bank is evident starting around this time of year when local gardeners who were ambitious in their plantings realize they produced more vegetables than they could use. So what to do with them? Leave them in the Post Office of course! A central place in town.
I don't if this would be allowed in Century 21, but back in the 1960s my brother and I would sell vegetables we raised to Ardy Lencioni and would resell them in his produce section. This was right after he sold the old Quality Market (located where Sam's Food Mart gas station is now) and revamped the grocery store that is now Gordon's.
Thursday, July 26, 2018
Entrancing Entrance
The new sign inviting customers to Rain Country is terrific! It has a funky Old West welcome feeling to it that seems to reflect the positives of McCleary. Well done (which how I like my burgers).
Some locals prefer using the side door as a form of feeling part of an inside secret.
This is the first time I have noticed the restaurant no longer has outdoor tables in the front.
Pink tape
Pink tape on the as yet to be inaugurated new mailboxes at Rainbow Park. I guess pink tape is better than cutting through a lot of red tape.
Wednesday, July 25, 2018
Buffoon & his money laundering partner
I always enjoy perusing the Post Office bulletin board. Occasionally a citizen will make their views on politics known before it is swiftly removed either by Post Office personnel or someone who disagrees.
Generally these political expressions are aimed at local governance. Milton Poulos has been gone for awhile now, but he was usually good for posting items regarding national issues as seen through a socialist lens. McCleary folks from all parts of the political spectrum have made their opinions known in this fashion over the years.
Here are the results of the Nov. 2016 presidential election in McCleary precinct 501 not counting write-ins:
663 votes
Trump, Republican: 344 - 51.88%
Clinton, Democrat: 252 - 38%
Johnson, Libertarian: 45 - 6.78%
Stein, Green: 14 - 2.11%
Castle, Constitution: 5 - 0.75%
Kennedy, Socialist Workers: 2 - 0.30%
La Riva, Party for Socialism and Liberation: 1 - 0.15%
What I found fascinating about McCleary and the 2016 election was the fact that as I walked around town I never saw one single yard sign for Trump, although I did spot a couple bumper stickers. There was only one yard sign I saw for Clinton. Jill Stein (Green) and Gary Johnson (Libertarian), on the other hand, had plenty of signs up in public intersections.
When it comes to third parties, I regard anything 5% or over as impressive, so the Libertarians did pretty well in McCleary.
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
Tuesday, July 17, 2018
Friday, July 13, 2018
Elvis on the Hood
I've been waiting to catch the owner of this Ford pickup so I could ask permission to photograph the most awesome vehicle art in McCleary, and today was that lucky day. The owner of this truck created the image himself. I am impressed.
We had a nice talk about The King. I was able to share some of my stories from a recent visit to Graceland.
Anyway, I salute the owner of this pickup for being original and expressive. Way to go!
Thursday, July 12, 2018
McCleary archaeology
The City crew today unearthed two railroad spikes while repairing the portion of Oak St. where the Henry McCleary Timber Company's railroad once crossed.
Wednesday, July 11, 2018
McCleary's microclimates
For a city this small McCleary appears to have definite climate zones. This becomes especially apparent with weather involving fog, ice, snow, and even rain. There are times when one stands on the crest of the hills on 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and Main streets and can see the visual border between the zones.
The parking strip that gathers no moss
Found alongside the long vacant tavern. I'm sure this is a metaphor for something but I need more coffee this morning before I can invent one.
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