Monochrome Monday ~ Deep Thoughts On Frogs And Building A Train On A Monday In Late February ~ Original Photography and Semi-Short Discussion ~

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A Tree, A Pond, A Hill, and A Train. I Wonder What The Frogs Are Thinking?

Down By The Froggy Pond

Stare into the photo, breathe deep, take a moment to relax, and ponder the grand universe as it unfolds before us. Then head closer toward the water, to see if you can find one of the many pond or tree frogs, peeping away at the edge. Good luck, these frogs are wily. And you better hope the railroad people in the background don't start building a train, as you go about your hopeful, amphibial search.

Ever heard a train being put together? It is an amazing combination of annoyingly loud, frog interrupting noise, with a rather fascinating sound experience at the end of the process. This particular stretch of track goes for miles (imagine that...), and when they ram the cars together building the train, it makes quite a racket. A real jolt to jangle the nerves at the start. Then the rather cool sound-part happens. (Or not, depending on your sensibilities about these human-created things and the noise disturbance in a small, 'nature corner' of the city-scape').

Cool, In An Annoying Sort Of Way

The heavy, metallic kee-lonk of the huge couplers ramming together with incredibly strong, forced violence is amazing. That first sharp sound hits the loudest, usually scaring me out of my pants. Then, exactly the same sound heads down the train in boxcar lock-step. One after the other, the base of the couplers slam together, in succession, car after car after car.

On down the very long 'line' of the train the staccato travels, waning as it makes its way toward the horizon, away from your location. Finally running out of sound as abruptly as it started, at the 'caboose' end of things. This can go on for a mile or more into the distance. I'm sure Einstein wrote a formula to discuss this sort of chain-reaction sound thing, though I could not re-iterate it here if I had to.

I do know one day I would like to record this sound occurrence. Though these things seldom have the same effect in 'non-real-life'. I'm going out on a Science limb here, and say this is because in 'real life' we have two ears, separated by a big old round head in the center. And as this sort of train-sound-progression-thing happens, we turn our head to follow, as it moves away from us. No, it's just not going to be the same on a recording device. One thing I love about the realism of the sights and sounds of nature...even if it is all about a very loud, annoying train.

An Obstute* Observation About The Amphib's

Yes, this is all amazingly noisy and a bit obnoxious. Yet also interesting. I guess I'm somewhat fascinated with trains. Have been ever since I was a kid. I also love sneaking up on frogs in a pond. Also since I was a small person. A true dichotomy between the naturalness of nature and the industrial-based, human condition within which we live. What does all this mean?

I have no idea.

But I DO know the frogs don't seem to like any of this. They tend to go silent at the long, loud sound. Must be very puzzling, down in frog-ville. I wonder what in the world they think all this huge, progression of noise IS? One can only imagine.

Something more to ponder. But maybe tomorrow, on a Tuesday in late February, down by the froggy pond.

~ Finto ~

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Thanks for stopping in and viewing the B&W tree/hill/pond/train and other things involved here. If you have any thoughts about wintertime trees, ponds, train building and possible frog thoughts on the matter, or anything else this post reminds you of, please feel free to comment away in the spaces below. I'd love to hear from you.

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_{*Obstute: Obtusely Astute}

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_{Posted: 02/26/2018 @ 16:08}

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Excerpts From Late-Night Conversations With A Mechanical Cat

Fact Number 40