Photography Now & Then #40
Today’s photo1: Gym was kind of empty this afternoon. February 9, 2018 (Apple iPhone 6s)
Karen and I had been going in to the gym together this week with her car in the shop for repairs.
In early January, she had been stopped at a red light, waiting for traffic from the left before making a right-turn-on-red. Just as the traffic had cleared, but before she started to go, she was hit from behind. The driver was a 25 year man. He didn’t even ask if Karen was okay and tried to keep from having to call the police, but Karen already her the phone out and was calling 911. After the police arrived, he tried to blame the accident on Karen, telling the officer that she was moving along fast enough. I guess he was told that, no, he was responsible the vehicles in front of him to keep from hitting them. The good news, though, Karen was told by the officer that, yes, he did have insurance.
It took over a week to get the police report. We had to get it from an online site where you pay a small fee to download. Then we had to contact the other driver’s insurance company followed by a wait for them to get back to us for instructions on getting our car fixed. That’s when we got the bad news.
He didn’t have insurance after all. He had dropped it last August.
So now we went down an old familiar path.2 An adjuster from our insurance came to our house, inspected the damage and submitted the claim. She told us that their company would try to “go after” the other driver, but that we were covered under our collision policy, as well as uninsured motorist provisions and that the most we were likely to have to pay was $500, but that we might not have to pay anything. We eventually got a check for the full amount of the claim and, after the body shop found some additional costs, have another, smaller check coming to cover that.
So, now the car is fixed and the body shop did a nice job of detailing our 2010 Honda – it almost looks as good as new.
Photo Favorite3: Snow Cone, a volcanic spatter cone, Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve, Idaho, July 24, 2010 (Pentax K10D)
Spatter Cones
These “miniature” volcanoes form during the final stages of a fissure type eruption. As gases escape and pressure is released, the lava becomes thick and pasty. When these sticky globs of lava plop to the surface, they pile up to form spatter cones. Most spatter cones are much smaller than cinder cones. They are rarely more than 50 feet high. The steep sides of a spatter cone protect the ice and snow inside from the hot summer sun. One spatter cone, Snow Cone, has been known to hold ice all summer.4
Like Yellowstone’s Old Faithful, the spatter cone chain at Craters of the Moon best symbolizes the essence of this special place. Created during a dwindling stage of an eruption, the spatter cones formed as hot lumps of lava were thrown a short distance into the air only to fall back to earth around a small central vent. As the still molten blobs landed on top of each other, they cooled and adhered to nearby pieces to form the walls of what could be considered a mini-volcano.5
- Today’s Photo is a photo that is almost always taken the day of the blog post. In some instances, posts may be backdated if internet access is not available on the day of the photo or other reasons prevent posting Photograph Now and Then.
- This was the third time one of our vehicles had been damaged by an uninsured motorist.
- Photo Favorite is a randomly selected older photograph from a batch of photos specifically “curated” for Photograph Now and Then.
- Site-Tour-2 – Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve – National Park Service
- Hiking Trails – National Park Service
Note: Reference links were accessed on the date the blog post was published, unless otherwise stated.
