Can I buy just one?

The theme for Photo Friday this week was old. I dug out the old stamp collection started by my eldest brother back in the 50's. Here we have a stamp that costs 1.5 cents. I guess purchasing just one was not an option.

No Man's Land

Old truck revisited.

Here is the old truck with a richer hue to it. It may be a bit too much gold.

I got lost today. In the southeastern corner of Tuscarawas county there are no main roads and no schools. I do not travel there very often. I left a school late this afternoon after I had completed a job and thought to myself "Where does this road go?" Naturally I do this when I have very little gas, have not taken a lunch and needed to go to the bathroom. I drove and drove on roads that were given the names with the likes of "Blizzard Ridge", "Hawk Hollow", "Gravel Lick", and "Toad Hollow".

Why do I do this? It seemed like a good idea at the time. Mostly, I want to escape the wiring closet full of blinking lights and wires and electronic humming. The farthest away that I can get is to drive down a gravel road with nothing on either side of me but trees, trees and more trees. Sigh.

I made my way back with my gas light glowing now and then to inform me that I had better find some petrol. I took care of all said necessities and am ready to tackle the construction zone again tomorrow. Fighting with the telephone company. They tell me it is my equipment. I check my equipment. I move interface cards from one place to another in an attempt to jar something into working. Nothing. No CD light. (Carrier Detect, it's like a dial tone on your telephone). My equipment, my ass! Oh, sorry. That was supposed to be kept to myself. I call my manager back. He calls the telephone company back.

More of same tomorrow. I'll let you know where the fault lies. If it is mine, I'll fess up to it.

The other day while working in one of the school buildings under construction, I was making my way down a long dark hallway. During construction, most of the lighting is not wired and there are ghostly dim bulbs hanging every 50 feet or so casting an ugly glow over the cinder blocks, dust and scaffolding littering the hallway. As I walked along the hall, I heard footsteps behind me. They weren't human footsteps. It was the sound of metal on cement. A sort of metal spring noise, scraping on cement. Dare I look back? They were footsteps alright. I could hear them, clank, clank, clank. I quickly turned my head. There was a guy walking on 2 foot tall metal stilts he used for drywall construction. They were strapped to his legs. I felt like I was in some bad science fiction horror movie.

It wasn't anything sinister. I turned the hallway and there was the rest of the construction crew all busy doing their thing. I ducked into the new closet and closed the door behind me shutting out most of the noise and a lot of the dust.

Here is my contribution to Photo Friday Challenge: "Oddity".

Pat Benatar and band

Football Hall of Fame - Rib Burn off

Sorry, this was the best I got. I was too far away and the sound system had a structure over them (sans tarp) that blocked most of our view. But we certainly could hear Pat and the band. There she did not disappoint. Her voice was as vibrant as ever.

Now, as for her outfit. I can tell you for a fact it was 93 degrees Fahrenheit when we walked into the Stark County fair grounds. I can also tell you there was not much of a breeze. What I cannot tell you is why Pat dressed head to toe in solid black. She had a long-sleeve tunic on over top of black bell bottoms. I thought for sure she would change her clothes into something a bit more suitable for the heat. Not a chance. Her hair was tidy and smooth. She looked like a bank teller. Oh, well. I guess she used to BE a bank teller, eh?

At this site, you can search "Pat Benatar" and her May 2007 photos that come up are pretty much what she looked like tonight. She sang her heart out and the crowd roared. And I realized that darn it - I really like(d) a lot of her songs!

I was also able to post The Photo Friday Challenge for Loud before the deadline.

Golden Elvis

That's a real guy in there

Yep. He was real. He was handing out gold bead necklaces at $2 a pop. What a racket. I didn't want a gold beaded necklace nor did I want to go anywhere near this metallic monstrosity. My zoom let me see all I wanted of him.

The next day at the casino my sister said there was a head-to-toe gold guy wearing a toga. I wonder if it was the same one. Probably.

Photo Friday Challenge this week is vacation. Gee, I don't think I have a problem finding a photo to choose from there!

It's Independence Day

The eagle photo is mine (taken at the Cleveland Zoo yesterday) and the flag background can be found here. The title of my post today is the same as a song penned by Gretchen Peters and performed so soulfully by Martina McBride. To grow up in a family with alcoholism we find ourselves escaping. Whether it is outside of the house, in a book, or eventually into alcohol ourselves one day. The song is a favorite of one of my sister's.

How I wish that I had not posted the Photo Friday theme before yesterday. The elephant area was the first we went to at the zoo. I was not tired of taking pictures since I was just beginning so I got plenty of shots of "gray" elephants. Ah, well. Here is what I posted.

We had a great day at the zoo. Wonderful weather. The traffic was a bit hectic and I lost my way while driving to the Interstate leaving the zoo, but I soon righted myself. I told my daughter, forget the map, I will follow my nose. I turned right one time and there in front of us was the exit to the very by-pass we were looking for. I've driven to Cleveland many times to the zoo, museum, theatre - so I just followed my gut feelings.

This is a day for cleaning and getting ready for the party, so I must get to work.

Active

This be one active network.

Photo Friday Challenge: Active.

I'm melting!

This picture reminds me of the witch in the Wizard of Oz melting. Photo Friday's Challenge was "How I see myself" and I posted the photo that the above picture was made from on their site. I am number 103 or something like that under "Peruby" of course.

My Mom's birthday is today. She would be 87 years old. She was born in 1920 in a log cabin. She had a lonely life as an only child raised by her grandparents. This could be the reason she had eight kids.

My kitchen smells like peonies. It is wonderful. My daughter said they smell like beer. Huh?

LARGE

Click the photo

This is my entry for Photo Friday's weekly challenge: Large. No matter which way you look at it, this is one large horse.

The blues

The Friday challenge for last week (the 13th) was "The Blues." I posted the large view from my deja-view web site. I kind of go back and forth. That site does not get many visitors, it was created for family. Fortunately, I have some extended family members in Washington state and New York state who stumbled across this site and in turn I directed them to that web page because it is meant more for the family. I have some old family album photos there and I really need to scan more photos so they can see them.

I have been told of a house not far from me who has set up a huge, life-sized fake buffalo in their yard. It is on a main street and everyone is talking about it. I will have to take a drive over to see it and get a photo. If I get a decent one, I will post it here. It would be perfect if Photo Friday were to title this week's challenge as "buffalo" but I doubt that will happen. They don't get that specific.

This has been a long week and I am really looking forward to Friday.

Wait for the Blessing

We went to church on Sundays, but my family was not big into religion. My Mom tried church and was dismayed by the gossiping that went on there. Ta, ta! Look at her! I quit going around 12 or 13 years old. Perhaps 15 when I started working every week-end.

We were not ones to say the blessing, but I needed something for Photo Friday's challenge of Blessing. To me the first thing that pops into my head when I hear that word is a family or someone saying the blessing before they eat. I didn't see many photos of that.

Addiction

My addiction

The challenge for Photo Friday this week is "Addiction". This is what I have been eating since I pulled a muscle in my neck Thursday morning. I went to the doctor this morning and my beloved teal translucent pills have been replaced with a muscle relaxer and an NSAID. I don't care for NSAID's. I'll probably stop taking them and return to the ibuprofen above. When you click on the photo to enlarge it, the gel capsules look like cucumbers.

At first when I cropped the photo, I though "Good, it doesn't display the brand name, even though to some the color is a dead giveaway." Then when I looked a bit closer to the one in the bottom of the frame, I see the name. Oops.

I recall the first time I tried ibuprofen. It was in the early 90's, I am thinking. It made me so sick. I had a migraine and the ibuprofen didn't sit well with me. Somewhere over the years it did begin working for normal tension headaches and I use it. I find that the liquid gels do work faster. Or I imagine that they do.

My doctor checked over my neck and shoulder and told me there was no permanent damage. I am to rest this week-end. A few hours after the first dose I was cleaning up out in the yard. It was such a beautiful and sunny day. I figured I needed my vitamin D. I caught myself. Stop what you are doing and go back inside. When I sat back down the burning had already started on my left shoulder. Stupid, stupid.

It is hard for me to sit still in one place for a long time. I found myself sinking down into my chair with a cat on my lap and one on the headrest by my head. I couldn't move. Not without great pain. That is the way it was trying to sleep last night, also. My neck hurts when I lay down and when I sit too long in one place.

Texture

Photo Friday's Challenge: Texture

Strange

Photo Friday's Challenge for this week is "Strange". So, I am not sure which is more strange, the fast food worker who poses for a complete stranger taking his picture, or the nut taking the picture. So says said nut.