Category: Fourre-tout

My favorite drink is and has always been water. It is the most refreshing and life-sustaining drink on the planet. Champagne is OK, but without water there can be no life, and unfortunately, it is getting scarce… everywhere. Very soon, this humble drink is going to be more valuable than gold, and humans will fight for it.

“We never know the worth of water till the well is dry.” – Thomas Fuller

Undoubtedly due to climate change, we have had torrential rains, hail the size of golf balls, and at the same time, acute drought all around the world. Ironically, while some people are drowning in water, others are dying of thirst.

Precocious Greta Thunberg rightly said, “no more blah, blah, blah”, the time to make changes is NOW, not 10 years from now. She is absolutely right. As far as I know, relatively little has been done to manage water anywhere and a lot of it gets wasted. It is time to mobilize and treat water like it is out to be treated, with care and reverence.

Never mind Mars or the Moon, what is happening on Earth today is more pressing than colonizing these far away planets. The problem is here, on earth, not millions of miles away. Electric cars are fine, but what is going to fuel our bodies while we are cruising on highways?

Water management ought to be everybody’s primary concern. You don’t wait until the well runs dry to do something about it. Preparing for drought is very similar to preparing for war. It is not when the enemy crosses your borders that you mobilize your troops. You anticipate the threat and prepare for it, years before it happens.

Desalination plants, despite their imperfections, are part of the solution, but we still have very few of them. In California, with nearly 39.2 million residents across a total area of approximately 163,696 square miles, we have only 12 of them. it is not enough.

By comparison, tiny Israel with only 8,630 square miles and a population of 9 million people, runs 5 mega-desalination plants. Two additional plants are now in varying stages of construction.

The biggest is not always the swiftest, nor is the battle always to the strong… Remember this old saying : « On a souvent besoin d’un plus petit que soi… » (We often need someone smaller than ourselves.)

 California, America wake up… forget your idiotic, sterile quarrels, and if need be, take a trip to Israel. It might be worth it.

 “No water, no life. No blue, no green.” – Sylvia Earl

 It is that simple.

Alain

“UBIQUITY, the gift or power of being in all places at one time”

 Today, due to various rules and regulations, common mortals now struggle to journey from place to place. But a few very special people have the unique gift of ubiquity, the quality which allows them to be in various locations at the exact same time.

Very few individuals possess this unusual attribute, and I feel very fortunate to know one of them. Only superheroes (easily recognizable by their gaudy uniforms) are usually capable of such feats, but this person looks and acts like any normal human being. No helmet, shield, or hammer… and still, she has frequently been seen at different places at the same.

According to reliable witnesses, this individual was spotted in San Francisco, Mexico, Afghanistan (albeit wearing a burqa) the South of France, and Tahiti at the same time. And I have no reason to doubt the veracity of these dependable bystanders. I even came across a picture of this person standing next to reliable Christine Cragg, somewhere in the South of France, while playing pétanque in Sonoma. Isn’t this enough to prove my case?

What gives these people this unique ability? Is it the food, the drinks, various medicinal herbs, meditation, asceticism, abstinence, or a combination of all of those? It is probably the latter because it is difficult for any human being to be so self-controlled.

Like most people, “I generally avoid temptation unless I can’t resist it.”  Mae West

And resisting is very difficult, for, the flesh (and the mind) is weak.

But Ann (meaning favor, grace, or beautiful), Anushka (in Russia), or Hanna (in Ireland) seems to be capable of easily resisting or adopting any of those disciplines. This is probably what gives her the ubiquity aptitude.

Unidentified Flying Objects have been seen in various places at the same time, but few humans (except for Ann) are capable of such feats. Don’t trust her amenable stance; under her subdued attitude lurks a mysterious character seemingly capable of being in Beijing, Sao Paulo, and Paris at the same time.

Next time you see her, don’t mention my name, but if you are curious, ask her if she was in Ukraine or San Rafael recently. She will probably deny this, but who would you rather believe? A straight arrow like me, or somebody who magically materializes and dematerializes instantly?

Ann lassie, I love ya.

Alain

Yes, I know… I am fully aware that I am late publishing this report, but like a giant python, I had to digest (and process) over 500 images that I caught last Sunday. This labored digestion required a lot of time and effort and I hope that you will forgive me for being tardy.

But good things come to those who wait…

 Last Sunday, 16 women and 25 men came to Marin to compete against each other and to show who were the top dogs (or the top bitches, if you will excuse this pun). A lot of egos were on the line in this tournament and everybody fought hard.

The weather, with sunshine to spare, was good. But the sun, filtering through leafy trees can be photographers’ enemy; it camouflages the faces and clothing of all the players and makes it very difficult to photograph anything correctly.

You might notice that the pictures taken in the morning are not as good as those taken in the afternoon when the sun had shifted. I tried to photograph as many players as possible, but I preferred to shoot in areas devoid of pesky shade patches.

Since I am (not yet) ubiquitous, I could only cover a few bouts, and I ultimately concentrated on the women’s and men’s finals.

In the women’s finals, Holly Sammons and Carmen Ellis faced each other; both very good players, but with different styles. Holly is a super pointer who can position any boule very close to the cochonnet. Carmen, on the other hand (who is also basically a pointer), had no choice but shoot, and she missed quite a few shots. Altogether, it was a very good game that Holly finally won by a score of 13/12.

The men’s finals pitched Tom Lee against Peter Mathis. It promised to be a hard-fought game but to everybody’s surprise, Tom Lee defeated Peter by an astonishing score of 13/2. Peter was off his game, or maybe tired, and missed crucial shots. We all have one of these days… Tom Lee who played an excellent game deserved to win. No matter what, I think that Peter is a great player with great form (one of the best) and I like to photograph him.

It was good to see everybody, especially those living far away from our field. By the way, you are never too old to learn anything. Last Sunday, thanks to AnhHuy Phan from San Jose, I learned something that could improve the quality of my pictures. She works for SanDisk, the memory cards manufacturer, and besides being a charming individual, she gave me some very good tips that I will follow. Thank you.

But enough chit-chat…

Women’s Concours
1^st place: Holly Sammons                $130.00 + medal
2^nd place: Carmen Ellis                     $87.00 + medal
3^rd place: MaryAnne Curley             $65.00 + medal
4^th place:  Ann Krilanovich             $22.00

Women’s Consolante
1^st place: Ashlee Dencklau                $65.00
2^nd place: Sandra Shirkey                  $44.00
3^rd place: Tamara Efron                     $22.00
Colette VD Meulen

Men’s Concours
1^st place:        Tom Lee                        $217.00 + medal
2^nd place:       Peter Mathis               $145.00 + medal
3^rd place:       Chan Xiong                  $109.00 + medal
4^th place:       Paul Moua                    $73.00

Men’s Consolante
1^st place:        Tinh Dinh                      $84.00
2^nd place:      Andrew Loi                    $56.00
3^rd place:       B. Passemar                   $35.00

Alain

Plenty of pictures under “My Photos“. Watch on “full screen” for better results. Avoid watching on smartphones.