Today, instead of doing anything constructive I decided to go out and take pictures. I had planned on it last week, but my schedule was thoroughly screwed up. So today I hit as many things as I could.
I looked for the Tuolumne Cemetery that is supposedly behind the hospital on Washington street, no such thing. The road ends, no access road nothing. I give up on that one.
I went to the Jewish Pioneer Cemetery behind the courthouse. It was locked up, but I got a pretty good look at it. it's smaller than I thought. I think I'd like to see it earlier in the spring, it wasn't as green as I remember seeing it a couple months back. It's pretty simple actually but the cypresses are fantastic and the fact that it's walled I'd like to see it from the inside out to the street. I got some good shots (I think) with the telephoto but you can't see the far corners from the gate. Still I got some shots.

Then I decided to look for the Springfield Cemetery, That was a ride, I think I went past it 3 times before I pulled over, absorbed the map and figured out where it was supposed to be exactly. Half of the streets hadn't been made when to map was made, and the map wasn't that old. Then I saw it: 3 headstones a few footstones and just rock markers in a field with a gate. Not much to look at but I went out and hiked around in the grass anyway.

Then I went to Columbia, which I always forget is sectioned into 4 or 5 different ones, oddfellows, masonic, catholic etc. It's huge and winding and hard to keep track of where you've been. But it's so nice. The last time I went was the first time I had been there and I was with Jim and we were trying not to lose track of each other while we roamed around. This time I got to go through and systematically, take my time and focus on some of the things that had turned out well last time. It was perfect, the sun kept peeking out of the clouds helping with the lighting. There were wildflowers everywhere, I even chased a buckeye butterfly around for a while, (there are always dozens of them there in Columbia, I think every season but winter. Dragonflys too. A Good time.

Finally I was starving, but I decided to hit Mountainview on the way home. I walked through Mountain Shadow pretty quick, but I've been there so often, didn't see much. Stopped by my grandparents grave though. I always do that if I go in the gate.
At Mountainview I met 2 little old ladies who were caretakers. We talked for a while and they were telling me stories, telling me the names of the statues Rachael and Cecelia being the main 2. They remembered my grandparents which is always nice. Told me about the caretakers cat, which I had actually just met across the street, and how he feeds her and she walks across the street with him every day when he locks and unlocks the gates to the 2 cemeteries. He feeds her but she won't go home with him. He tried taking her home one day, he lives about a mile up the road but she ran back to the cemetery. So she just stays there and waits for him every day around 8 and around 5.

SO that's how I spent most of my day, not too bad. I've got 2 1/2 rolls of film to develop. and about 230 pictures on the digital camera. The only problem is I'm probably going to have to delete some in the second folder, I should have split it, i-photo won't read it because 155 is too many, darn it, I've had this problem before. I don't know what the magic number is, but I'll figure it out, There's some cool shots in there, I think luck was with me today, picture wise.