Bricks

Extraordinary chicken 1

No Idling!

Here's another "picture taken while out" that I thought I might be able to get some comic mileage out of. (Taken while I prepared to gather Grace from the elementary school after-school drama club practice.)

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At face value, there isn't anything wrong with the sentiment behind this image. We DO want our children safe from the noxious fumes of idling cars that callously burn fossil fuels and generate toxins in the air.

ESPECIALLY if said noxious air looks suspiciously like a certain mysterious Smoke Monster from LOST. I don't want my precious girls menaced by a smoky cloud of security nanites or consciousness given form or mystical spirit of an Egyptian past or guardian of time or whatever this week's theory on Smokey happens to be.

And why, do you ask, am I sure that this sign is a surreptitious reference to LOST? Well, all of us that have stuck with the show up to and through season 5 know that Time Travel is what's up. And don't those generic kid forms look a bit too old to be representing elementary school kids? Surely they've been thrown forward in time by Smokey McMysterious there and aren't adequately prepared to live in this technological world without enough proper elementary education!!

Birthday photos

Scenes in a Grocery Store

You might think this is an innocent hair brush purchased for my kids. But you would be foolish to make such a snap judgement about this item. Take a careful look at the label here. 

Do you see it?

This brush is ION infused! Ions!

When I was a kids, ions were used to power the interstellar engines of Darth Vader's spaceship. Now we have harnessed the power of the ion to fight the tangles in staticky hair!

On a different website, I would simply say "New Releases FAIL" and move on. But, while I admit that is what I thought, I wonder if there is some missing meaning behind this collection. I don't think any of these books are new, so in that sense they are not New Releases. But, if you think from the perspective of young readers, these are new to them and reading can release them from the ignorance of their youth.

Yeah, I'm babbling.
If you were properly concerned with the Ion brush that I started this post off with, then you should truly be concerned at the profusion of brushes here. It's like a Republic shipyard of Star Destroyer death here!

But seriously . . . WHY in the holy name of capitalism do we need this many hair brush choices? Are there REALLY that many different types of hair?
Finally, the image that started it all off. You've got to hand it to whomever tagged this bag of diapers with the cool shades. It caught my eye and got me looking around for more.

Spring picture

@ the Dairy Queen

I am the King!

PANTS!!!

Town Terrace in Tifton, Georgia

I took these first three pictures on our most recent 2008 Christmas trip to my hometown of Tifton, Georgia.

Here is the sign out in front of the complex on 12th Avenue. This is NOT the original sign apparently, as the Tifton Gazette article that I linked to in the original post seems to indicate. I don't know when the original sign was replaced with this one, but this is the only sign that I remember throughout my lifetime. And yes, most of the bulbs do work at night. (Sorry, I should have thought to get a nighttime shot.)

Here is a view of the complex itself. The distinctive angled roof awnings are original, I believe. If I did more research, I think I'd find that this triangular design was typical of when this motor court was originally constructed. I personally love the spherical lights surrounding the pool. (More on the pool below.)

Here is another view of the sign, giving you it's full shape and design. The small houses in the background are also part of the complex and were, I think, intended for more long-term residential rentals. To the right of the picture, you could get to the Office area where Mrs. Van Gundy lived and rented out the rooms.

Yeah, that's right. I lived here for a summer.

When Lynda and I were first married, it was  the summer of 1995. I was one year removed from graduating from college at Georgia Southern and one year into my Masters degree. We needed a place to live and the Town Terrace was the right size for us. Plus it was affordable. We stayed there for half of July (once the honeymoon in Charleston was over) and most of August, before I had to return to Statesboro to begin year two of my graduate school work and Lynda started her first math teaching job in Burke County.

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These pictures are from when Lynda and I lived there as newlyweds, in July and August of 1995. As you can see, not much has changed.

This was the view of our front door--the one on the right, I think. You walked in the front door and saw the "living area" directly in front of you--which consisted of a couch that pulled out like a futon to become the bed. Right beside the door, to the immediate left was the bathroom.

When you walked to the couch/bed, you turned left at the dinette table to see the hidden kitchenette. I'll show that in a different picture.

Standing in the doorway, looking back towards the pool. As you can see, nothing has changed between 1995 and 2008. Such is the charm of the place. The blue car is the Chrysler Lebaron that we inherited from Lynda's dad and we drove it until the paint started peeling. (It was a common problem with Chrysler's of that era. There was something wrong when they developed that batch of paint.)

After working for my dad in the corn fields all day in the hot Georgia sun, I would drive home to our newlywed pad, take a quick shower to clean off the sweat and dirt, and then relax at poolside while the sun went down. (Lynda never let me wear my shoes inside the door and probably would have made me strip naked at the door to avoid tracking in all the dust I collected on me all day.) The best thing about doing this was that Bing Crosby (no lie!) would be playing over the speakers mounted into the lights that illuminated the pool. The Van Gundy's did their best to maintain a Fifties illusion to this place. I suppose I should have unwound poolside with a stiff drink to stay in character. But I was younger then . . .

Here is my lovely bride at work in the kitchenette area. I am standing at the couch/bed and the room doorway is to the camera's left. The kitchenette is hidden behind the louvered doors and consists of a very small stove/oven and a sink with maybe two feet of counter space. In the mornings before I went off to work, Lynda and I ate cereal and drank coffee at the table while the sun came up. We were so proud of our new china (still using it), our new coffee maker, and our tiny little summer home.

Bowling kitsche

CSI cover

Signs seen walking

H to the Bee

desk set

A very Harry mailing treat!

Halloween 1992

At least I think it was Halloween 1992. Maybe it was 1991.

Playing death was my college roommate "G." 

I'm the beatnik.

My future wife was the lovely sorceress/whatever. (Honestly, I didn't care what she was supposed to be dressed as.)

Embarrassments all around!

Ever since my tore the yard up this summer to deconstruct the deck and replace with a patio, the grass on the side of the house and in the backyard has suffered. I finally got grass seed down and have been watering it like a fiend. 

On one side of the patio, thriving patch #1:

on another side of the patio, thriving patch #2:

There was a third patch that showed the newest growth along the side of the house where the truck drove through to dump the concrete. But . . . well, you get the picture. It's grass growing.

Bill and Opus 1984

My affinity for tee shirts goes back many years. This combined with my love of Bloom County during Ronald Reagan's re-election campaign to demand that I purchase this iconic pop culture shirt.

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