How many times have you been out somewhere and had reason to exclaim, “Oh NO! If only I had the camera along!”? The best way to avoid that frustrating situation is always to have some kind of camera with you, because you never know. Here are some reasons why, just from the last few days:

One of the main roads into the village where I live is crossed by railroad tracks a couple of miles outside the village. I’m not talking passenger trains, I’m talking freight trains. Long ones. Sometimes verrrry long ones. When you’re approaching this crossing and the lights flash and the gates go down, you know you’re going to be stuck.

On the afternoon of New Year’s Eve I was returning from shooting my favorite ruin on the Mountaintop when the lights flashed and the gates descended just before I got to the crossing. Nothing to do but to wait. Well, this turned out to be an exceptionally slow and long train. Fortunately for me, (1) my little backup camera, the Canon G9X, was sitting beside me in the passenger seat; (2) I was only the second car in the queue, thus no obstructions. Below you see a couple of the better samples of how I whiled away the time (and retained my sanity).

This morning after hearing the weather forecast I decided to go out for a walk before the dreaded wintry mix arrived.  As it was chiefly for the exercise it was meant to be a walk at a good pace and not my photographic moseying pace, but I slung the G9X around my neck like a piece of jewelry anyway. Here is what I saw in an antiques shop window a few blocks up Main Street:

I then turned the corner into the village’s chief shopping and restaurant thoroughfare. A few doors down is a thrift shop run by a Christian religious organization. They always have nice window displays and one of the windows often has handwritten posters with religious texts. It happens that I have a historical interest in evangelical poetry. Here is what I found in the thrift shop window today; I couldn’t wait to send the photo to someone with whom I’ve sung this hymn many times:

So, you never know. And P.S.: I’m still waiting for the dreaded wintry mix.