Where Are The Dogs?

I have passed this place a bazillion times and always thought it was called Seven Dogs
I have even mentioned to friends and neighbors how I wanted to check it out - let's go get a drink, watch a game, hang out
We would always end up somewhere else but no one ever questioned that there was indeed Seven Dogs

So when I finally stopped to take a shot of the sign I was flabbergasted to discover there are not Seven Dogs, there isn't even One Dog

Plus the place appears to have gone out of business

or gone to the Dogs

My mind is a terrible thing and it must be stopped in my lifetime**

Signs, Signs

** hats off to a comedian whose name I have forgotten

Homer?

I came home late one day to see this reflection in my carport.

My son is a big Homer Simpson fan and so I wondered ...

Homer?

WEEKEND REFLECTIONS

The Man In The Mirror

Before we both turned the corner and wound up at the light together this man on the motorcycle gave me a million dollar smile. In the car with my giant sunglasses on and in the right light and at the right angle and for a split second - I am hot!!

WEEKEND REFLECTIONS

Ruby Tuesday: My Unruly Passenger

I bought a balloon for my granddaughter Hope and all the way home it bobbed about and tried to escape.



I never should have let it call shotgun.

RUBY TUESDAY

Camera Critters: Free The Flamingos

I parked my car behind K-Mart and was making my way toward the front when I heard ...

"hey, you there"
"get us out of here"



I know they look like they're looking toward me but really. Can plastic flamingos talk?

When I looked a second time ...



The ringleader was looking away. Crafty critter.

I had to do something!



There's going to be a lot of flamingos on my lawn this year.

CAMERA CRITTERS

Ruby Tuesday: The Little Gremlin And His Big ...

... you can fill that part in.



RUBY TUESDAY will be celebrating it's First Anniversary on May 26. Take some time to check out all the great photography.

Window Views: Thou Shalt Not Covet The Cool Car

Think Green Thursday is on the other blog - just click the 'Fork Goddess' on the sidebar

I was waiting for Mia, the Katherine Hepburn of the cat world, to have her ultrasound and decided to go bird watch in the parking lot. So I'm sitting in my 1995 VW Jetta, resplendent in its scratches and dings and faded paint when I turn to my right and there it is ...

A cool car.



And just as I start to have a pity party, feeling as old and battered as my car, I see an overweight, middle-aged balding man walk over to the cool car. Beside him struts a poodle wearing pink bows and a diamond collar. As he lifts her to put her in the cool car he says - "Let Daddy wipe the mud Trixie, Mommy will kill him if you walk on the seats."

My life is good.

WINDOW VIEWS

Camera Critters: Isn't It Ironic

Apparently my life dance of 1 step forward, 2 steps back applies to my cats as well.

Siren has been with me since he was a few months old - 6 years now . When he came here he terrorized sweet old JR to the point that I had to keep them separated - if Siren was around JR wouldn't eat and would often vomit from sheer fear.

When JR passed I waited a bit to adopt another, looking for the best possible sibling for Siren.

Along came Mia. The shelter was so full that she was living in a barn and I was told she ruled the tomcats. They followed her and never messed with her.

And that is true ... Although Mia is half Siren's size and several years older she is the boss. All it takes is a look and a hiss and Siren takes off.

It's been over a year and Siren wants to be friends. Mia is not interested.



"I'm playing here Siren, come any closer and you'll be sorry"



"I just want to hang with you. Most of those toys are mine, you don't see me being nasty and selfish"

Until last week this has been as close as they get and they don't stay that way for more than a few moments. Siren makes a move, Mia hisses, Siren leaves.

But then, one magical morning last week, I came upon this ...



Now Mia is deaf and Siren is stealthy so I assumed he got up there while she slept and it would only be a matter of time before hissing would ensue and hair would fly.

I was wrong ...



"Hey! Mom-Person!! She's awake and looking at me and I'm still alive, how cool is this? She likes me, she really likes me."

And they stayed there together for hours ...



I would like to direct your attention to their blankie. It is from the Martha Stewart Nursery Collection, part of the nursery rhymes motif.

We may be savages but we know decor.

Where's the irony?

Well Mia got sick a few days later (I wrote about it on the other blog) and when she returned from the vet Siren couldn't bear her "vet smell" and immediately went back to skulking mode. Mia is so out of sorts that she hisses even when Siren is in another room.

Oh well ... tomorrow is another day.

Go to CAMERA CRITTERS to read about more critters, most of whom are not nearly as nuts as we are.

Nothing To See Here

I have missed my regular entries since the weekend - Mellow Yellow and Ruby Tuesday and I'm not sure I have anything Creative or Sepia

Hopefully I'll come up with a sky shot for tomorrow

I have been struggling with health issues ever since I tore tendons last September and this weekend while trying to compensate for the weak ankle I re-injured some muscles that had been torn years ago - the gift that keeps on giving I suppose.

I don't want to start whining. Well truthfully I do (hehehehehe) but I won't.

Daily activities are such a challenge that I just don't have the energy to post or visit much.

But as Arnold said - I'll Be Back

I Miss You All

Ruby Tuesday: If You Love Someone Set Them Free ... From Valentine's Day

I know it is the Ruby Tuesday before Valentine's Day but ya know - I'm just not a fan of Valentine's Day. I like spontaneous shows of affection and meaningful gifts given for no reason.

I just came from Mary's beautiful Valentine post and her blog is so wonderfully decorated and I do feel a bit like a Grinch - a miserable love-less Grinch (hehehehehe) but really I'm not.

I went to the huge Hallmark store near me yesterday. Good Lord! How much useless crap can they fit into a store full of men huffing and puffing and wondering if anything they buy will be romantic enough.

So I grabbed a couple of Hannah Montana recordable cards and got the hell out of there - I plan on putting very naughty messages on them - now that's LOVE

And then I went to the beach ...







All the Ruby Tuesday gang are hanging out HERE so drop by and tell them that you love them - just because.

Shadow Shots -and- Straight Out Of the Camera - On Sunday

I haven’t posted any photos all week! But I do have a ton of them floating around the hard drive.

I thought I’d do two photo projects this Sunday.

The first project is new to me – SOOC - Straight Out Of the Camera - hosted by Jan.

This is the very FIRST shot taken with my new camera. As you can see I watch nothing but the finest in high brow educational television programming.



For SHADOW SHOTS I have these photos I took Christmas Eve Eve as I sat in the tiny Post Office parking lot waiting for a place to put myself so that I could wait for a place to park.

Taking the camera with me is truly a stress buster. Instead of watching everyone cutting each other off and hogging the only entrance I just sat in the corner and took some photos.

These 3 shots are different perspectives of the old twisted trees that line the far end of the parking lot. They form a barrier between public and private land and are so neglected but they do provide a place for birds and squirrels and other little creatures to live and stay warm. Many of us leave food. If we pushed the PO to clean it up they would most likely tear it all down and put up some awful fence so us bird lovers just shush the others.





Finally I got close enough to the back of the building to be able to park. No one goes back there because it means you have to walk around the building and through the lot to get inside. Shocking! Walking in NJ – surely this can’t be legal! And I have to laugh at the young ones in their sports cars and the big fat asses in their SUVs all waiting for a spot right in front as I make my way, cane and big black walking boot, across the lot. I am in and out and back at my car while they sit there polluting the air with their car exhaust and crappy attitudes.




And I have photos too!

Please visit all the SOOC and SHADOW SHOTS participants. There is some great photography floating round these Internet Tubes.

Happy Sunday

Temporarily Out of Focus

I posted over at the other blog how sick I feel. Some kind of something ... plague I think.

I don't have any creative spirit at the moment. In fact I'm such a disaster that my photos are hiding from me - they're all hunkered down in the camera.

As the crazy ass Gov. of California would say - I'll be back

Sepia Scenes: Athena

My Athena collection. Please go HERE to see more Sepia Scenes.

I have always been interested in mythology – Gods and Goddesses and all that. I became a big fan of Athena once a friend, a mentor – oh alright – a shrink – started calling me Athena.

When I was being especially stubborn, particularly obtuse, about control issues. When I was insisting I should be able to see, to know, to sense, to fix. While I was digging my heels in and taking it all on me this lovely little lady would throw up her hands and exclaim …

“Oh Athena how omnipotent we are”

Sepia Scenes: Treasure Ship

This little wooden ship is nearly 30 years old.

My son made it his first week at 'big kid day camp' - before this he always spent the summer at nursery school, no different than the rest of the year.

He enjoyed the first week of the first time at 'big kid day camp'. He got to go on 'the giant bus that smells like gasoline' and he met kids from all over, not just the kids he knew from the neighborhood.

It was a short honeymoon.

The 'big kid day camp' soon became 'these people are trying to kill me camp'. On the first day of his second week they fed him tuna sandwiches that had been sitting in the sun all morning. On the second day of the second week they sent him into Clove Lake on Staten Island without his water wings even though he told them he didn't swim very well.

On the third day of the second week they put him on a horse that tried to throw him. This was the day the camp got it's new name. Jeffrey called me at work from a pay phone at the riding academy and in the true theatrical fashion that would become his trademark whispered into the phone - "send Uncle John to get me NOW, these people are trying to kill me."

On the fourth day of the second week he didn't go to that camp anymore.

The rest of the summer was a nightmare of babysitters and taking him to work and using up all my vacation and sick time - childcare for working Moms wasn't so great in the 70s.

But we do have this treasure.

Check out all the SEPIA SCENES