I've Been ...

adrift in a sea of hardware/software problems
after a week without you hope seemed to dry up
my day is splintered when I don't get to visit

I'm just about back to whatever the hell normal is

Happy Labor Day

Hug a worker

At The Edge

Do photographers get lens block? I haven't had any creative inclinations since Christmas. It doesn't help that I don't feel well and that it's really difficult to navigate piles of snow with a cane.

I found this photo in my archives. It kinda sums up how I feel. Just standing there at the edge staring out into vast bleakness.

And now I'm whining. I hate when I whine, it's so unattractive. Hopefully I'll find more decent shots in my archives and I'll get back to posting regularly.

Be well everyone.

Mid Week Blues: Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder

I was parked in a lot adjacent to a huge blue factory and I immediately thought of MID WEEK BLUES.

As I looked around I first decided the scene was ugly and not worth shooting but the more I looked the more I saw.

The sun was very warm ...



Bare tree limbs are beautiful and touching. I love how they reach toward the sky ...




I think this one little weedy thingie is sweet and pretty, and she posed for me ...



I arrived at this spot frustrated by traffic and anxious about an appointment. Stopping for a moment to truly see what was around me turned my mood around. That is the gift of photography.

Mid Week Blues: Some People are Respect Handicapped

I was at the store the other day and watched a woman and her two daughters (I assume they were hers since they were as obnoxious as she was) cut off a van with a handicapped parking permit in order to get the clearly marked spot.

The elderly lady in the van looked as if she were about to cry. I pointed to my car a few spots down and told her she could take my spot, it was next to the cart return and there would be plenty of room to off load her husband's wheelchair.

As I returned from moving my car down she noticed my cane. I had to laugh at the expression on her face. It was part laugh, part horror and part divine wonder. She saw me laughing and she and her husband started to laugh too. She said I shouldn't have given up my spot. I said it was no big deal and asked if they wanted to help me key the car in the handicapped spot. The three of us were laughing out loud as we walked/limped/wheeled toward the store entrance just in time for a patrol car to enter the lot. The officer immediately noticed the wheelchair and asked if we needed help. We pointed to the offending car and watched in pure joy as he got out and began to write the ticket. When I told him how they had cut off the van he decided to wait for the driver.

As we entered the store we saw the terrible trio leaving and we watched the scene from the store window. I did color commentary LOL

The Mom was gesturing and acting indignant. I did see one of the daughters say she was sorry so there's a little bit of hope there.

The last thing the driver saw as she backed out of the spot she wasn't supposed to be in was the 3 of us - the man in the wheelchair smiling, his wife waving and me giving a salute with my cane.


MID WEEK BLUES

Purple Photo Passion: The Frame

Looking at the Sky On Friday is right below

My niece gave me this frame for Christmas. I just finally put in the wedding photo of my son and his wife.



April 30 was their 3rd wedding anniversary
May 9 was his 36th birthday
My first grandchild is due July 1

So many moments to frame ...

PURPLE PHOTO PASSION

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

Looking at the Sky on Friday: Christmas Eve Pilgrimage

The trip from New Jersey to Brooklyn is never an easy one. If only Staten Island would get out of the way ...

But on Christmas Eve. As Santa would say - Oy!

The skies were gray - at times very dark - and the rain was on and off.

It took 3 hours to get from my house in Central, NJ to my brother's house in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

One entire hour was spent on the approach to the Goethals's toll plaza. The people in the car behind us got out and walked their dog.

I like how the gray skies provide a backdrop for the urban blight and the traffic lights.






Go check out more sky shots at the new LOOKING AT THE SKY ON FRIDAY

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”