Red, White, And Blue In America
What’s more American than a small town parade, a painted horse, a cowboy, and children waving the flag? Nothing, that’s what. Happy Fourth Of July!
Classy All The Way
On the Port-A-Potty Express. This picture has many things that I like and am trying to include as new features and categories. Stuff On Trucks. Check. Driving To Work. Check. Random Images. Check. And it’s mostly blue. The color. I like pictures that have a lot of blue in them. Hence all the sky and clouds. But you know, they can’t all be sky and clouds. Of course I took this picture while driving on the highway to work. There was another truck exactly like this one right behind it. Full of the same cargo. I sort of got both in one shot but it doesn’t pack the same punch, I felt, as this one did. So there you go. I have to go to work but I wanted something new up here to jazz it up for Wednesday. Remember WOW Wednesday? Say it with me…WOW!
Underwater. Finally.
Swimming and taking pictures. Under water! It works. LifeProof. Total Water Protection. Definitely worth the money. That’s from Kentucky too. Swimming in the pool. I will just put these other pictures up and then move on. Obviously, the next one below, was altered into black and white and collaged.
My daughter experiments with all the photo technology to see what she can create. All the pictures were, and are, taken with the IPhone. Makes me want to swim or go on vacation or something. As it is, I have to go to my job again, so I guess I’ll just pretend that I am showering in the tropics somewhere, getting ready to have a fruity drink on the beach, instead of driving to work. Later.
Guess What This Is
My usual boring stuff can wait for another day or so. Especially when my girl sends me much better things to share. I almost can’t believe this colorful guy was just walking around, in view, waiting for his moment of internet fame. He’s from Kentucky. Appears to be several years old. May be single. Hard to tell because he took all day to get across the road. The camera loves him. I don’t know. I’m just making all that up. Here’s his head shot:
He was sent to me without comment. Along with some underwater pictures that I will put up next. Then, back to my regularly scheduled programming. Unless…my son sends me something later too. You definitely want to keep checking back for all this mystery and excitement. Do we need the sexy side view? Chilling on the side of the road? Of course we do!
Searchin’ For You…In The Cold Kentucky Rain…
It’s not raining and it’s not cold in Kentucky today. But every time the kids show me a picture of their grandma’s dock and water, I think of that Elvis song. This is the first picture my son, read it again, my son, sent me from his new phone. He was the only one in our very crazy, extended, mixed-up marriage family, that did not have a smart phone. He is on his dad’s contract and had to wait for his upgrade, and it’s finally here. Good fortune too that he got it in Kentucky. Lots of good stuff to take pictures of. Like the above for instance. Sometimes you need a little boost from technology to enhance the natural talent. My kids definitely have something. Anyway, in case you were wondering he also has the Galaxy S4. He deserves to have something really great once in a while. Hopefully there will be more pics I can share. I saw my daughter posted some more underwater pictures. I am hoping to get those too and then I will get back to posting all the stuff I said I was going to post. The pics are all ready. I’ve been working on the ideas and set up for a week now, but I chose to be social and go out and hang with the BF this weekend. Now it’s Monday. And I have to work every day. But I seem to accomplish more in my tight schedule, so, expect greatness. No, wait. Let’s not over sell this. Expect…”good”ness. And some interesting visuals. Time is almost up. Thank you, my son, for the beautiful picture! Daughter, send me those swimming shots! Everyone else, have a fab day in the temperate weather. This holiday week is supposed to be nice. Get out in it, but be safe. Later.
This Happened Last Night
I don’t really follow hockey, but apparently LOTS of people where I was hanging out last night, do. This was driving around the neighborhood and the owner and GF were convinced somehow, to stop and let pictures be taken, and then even stayed for awhile and enjoyed the party. Of course I jumped on the bandwagon. This is the goalie for the Chicago Blackhawks, I am told. The name starts with a “C”. That’s as much research as I will be doing as I cannot remember the name and do not want to look for it. There were many photos taken. Alone. With the girls. With the boys. With the girls doing obscene things to this figure. With the boys doing obscene things to this figure…I think there were even animals involved. I don’t know. This truck parked in front of our friend’s house attracted a lot of attention. People were walking up from all over the place to ask about it, talk about it, take more pictures with it, etc. The one thing I can conclusively state is, that some of these male hockey fans are pretty darn good looking. I mean seriously. If I didn’t already have a BF, I’m telling you, I may, may have, been able to get lucky, wink wink. I’m just saying. Some legit hotties were rolling up and hanging out. Good for the old ego, and I stress the word “old”, especially after you’ve been feeling your mortality lately like I have. Also, I was told the girls that like the hockey are pretty attractive too. Must be something about all that testosterone, fighting, and no teeth. Real manly man stuff. Anyway, we stayed out until 1 am. That’s my latest night out in a long time. And I was…tipsy, let’s say. Good night. Good party. I feel fine today. It’s Sunday. It’s beautiful. I will try to post more. Later.
And Meanwhile, Driving Down To Kentucky…
This was about 2 pm, Saturday, driving down, what I assume to be, I57, near the town of Mattoon. The kids are on their way to grandma’s with their dad. No one confirmed location for me, but the fastest way south is 57 from here. My daughter took this picture while it was happening. It’s a really good picture. Especially from a moving vehicle. She said it was only a funnel cloud when they saw it and she got a picture of it going back up. But I like this one. Very impressive. Then it hailed and rained so hard they couldn’t see and then it cleared. She texted, word for word, “It’s done now. Clear as a bell perfect now!” She sent a picture of the blind windshield but it’s just a grey square that kind of looks like smeary, foggy rain. This is the next picture she sent:
The girl takes good pictures. I almost feel bad that while the kids are driving through weather and tornadoes, me and the BF are at the liquor store buying all kinds of alcohol for the BBQ we are going to later, and then something for the rest of the weekend. Without children. Eh. Life. I took equally stunning pictures of the new wines I just bought to try out, and then later, post and share my opinions with you, good people. Let me end this with the last two pictures she sent me, because they are also really good, and she knows that I LOVE pictures of the sky and clouds. And you probably, secretly, like them too or you wouldn’t have kept reading! It’s OK. I thank you! Thank you thank you every day! It’s a peculiar world, this blogging, internet place; big and diverse, the way I like most things, but still managing to feel close and intimate, like we are all sharing this life through our words and images, the way we are taught that we could, if we lived in an ideal world. Hmm. Not one drop to drink yet, I swear it. Anyway, the sky…I’ll take the pics (or my daughter will), and you can look and move on. No one ever has to know. But we’ll know. Here is the first, with her comment, also word for word, “Look at that fat ass cloud.”:
And the last, below, is just one of the sky. I assume it’s off to the side. It’s very pretty for some reason. Good color/contrast and lighting I think. If I don’t get back here tonight, be careful all. Weather or not, Saturday in the summer can be tricky. Stay safe. Later.
Quick Switch Mushroom Pic With Tree Trunk On The Side
I got down and dirty to get this pic for you. And now I have about 100 more all sprouting up in various parts of the grass. I guess it’s the new, fresh sod, baking under the extreme, sudden heat, showered by bursts of sporadic, torrential downpours and then steaming in the resulting, sweltering humidity, every few hours. The last few days have been severe weather alert central over here in the Midwest/Chicago area. In fact we have another one tonight. I actually have 4 weather advisories on my phone at this moment. More thunderstorms and flash flooding on the way with damaging winds and hail until 3 am now, according to the last alert that I just received twenty seconds ago. Free rain is good. More tree limbs down is bad. However, I was spared these last few times. Well, that’s not true. I did have another branch break off and fall into the yard about one minute after the storm showed up. No. That’s not exactly true either. What actually happened was, that we got the alert at 5:55 pm for 6 pm. At 6 pm the wind started blowing, fast and sudden just like the alert said. Gusts to 70mph is what the alert said. Damaging to trees and roofs. Find shelter in low lying buildings. Blah blah. The sky darkened. The trees swayed ominously. Another fierce wind, a loud crack, BOOM. We were standing in the backyard and watched the tree bend, heard the break, and observed a substantial limb slowly slip from the tree, cartwheel onto the neighbors power line, hang there for one, treacherous, breathless, millisecond, then topple over and onto the neighbors garage roof, where it slid very sloppily off the front, catching the gutter on the way down to the ground, where it landed on the neighbor’s driveway, intact and with a loud thud. The gutter was bent but not broken. As soon as the rain let up enough so that we could see to move, I sent my son out to hoist that limb into our yard and bend the gutter back up straight. And that’s how it ended up where it still currently sits. I am tired, tired, I say, of moving tree limbs all around our backyard. It can sit. This is the limb:
So naturally, I was complaining, and all geared up to bemoan fate and nature and all that, until I took a little drive out into the world to go get dinner. This is what happened to our neighbors down the street:
Need a better angle?
Yep. They win. I won’t complain any more about my backyard being the resting place for dying and destitute, wayward branches. At least I can pick them up. This was at 8pm. By 11pm, it was gone. All of it. Every stick, every branch, every limb. Right down to the base of the trunk. Gone. The earth was back in place and the ground was flat. No damage to the house either as far as I can tell. All hail the master of tree removal. I don’t know who did it for them but I am beyond impressed. Three hours, and you can’t even tell anything happened that night. And speaking of night, it’s getting late. Again. I need to end this. Despite the title, this was not quick. Or even a switch. Some bad weather, a picture of something that grows out of the ground, eh, whataya gonna do? One day something really post worthy is going to happen, and, I don’t know. I guess I’ll post it. Maybe I’ll write a story. Or a poem. I have them scattered around this site, ya know, very unorganized like. It’s a search thing. But until then, you get this. And this needs to find a way to end this. Like a band-aid. Quick and painless. Later.
The Tall Weed
6 feet tall. I shouldn’t have even let it get that tall, but they grow so fast. Like body hair. Yuck. Sorry to have to go there, but I like to “de-hair” on Thursday’s because it’s usually my day off and I have lots of time to tackle the overgrowth, if you know what I mean, and I always notice that it seems to grow so so fast. If the hair on my head grew as fast as the hair on my body, I’d have long, lustrous locks in about a month. So there’s your smooth transition to the point I want to make about my flower/weed situation. Yuck again. And I do apologize. I planted wildflowers in my front dirt strip a month ago and I am just now getting plants that don’t look like weeds. I even spotted some tiny yellow flowers. The bag said they will attract butterflies and hummingbirds. Well, they were half right so far, because there are actually those small, white, butterflies always hovering over the pre-flowers. Maybe the leaves put off some kind of smell or something. I don’t know. If I feel very flexible later I will try to take a picture of the yellow flowers. I will probably have to lay on the ground to photograph them so I’m just going to wait and see. Kids are almost ready to actually leave the house. In the meantime I will leave you with the green view of what I have right now in the front that passes for “flowers”. Later.
Tempus Fugit
Those benches are not going to take pictures of themselves. Time flies. It’s late. I better get on home. It’s late. I been gone too long. It’s late. I need to stop typing song lyrics and get the kids up. I am an hour behind in my “schedule”. Time to make the boy mad! There’s another bench below. Last year was “Music”. I think this years theme is “Fairytales” or “Fairytale Stories”. We did a preview/drive-by yesterday. It’s hot out there too already. And feels humid. I predict a lot of complaining in my near future. Oh FYI, I switched to Latin. It’s my favorite language. Valē! See you later!
just shy of pretty 