Iguana

Here is a friend that we met on the beach today - I hear it snowed in Iowa, only white sand here.

Hasta Luego

Here we are in the land of slow, not snow. More news if any later.

bye bye

1 1/2 Days and Counting

As always, I suggest that you click on the image to get a better view. Those of you familiar with Washington should recognize the subject matter. I am posting this to avoid doing things that I should be doing - what's new with that? We are about to go on our annual photography trip and I have things to get done. As a result I am posting a rambling article with no real subject or meaning.

We are planning, if it works to continue these posts from Mexico - although there are too many variables to assure that will work.

over-heard quote of the month!!!

I was on the square the other day when the regulars from a CCG (Coffee Complaint Group) broke up and flowed into the street to get their last few complaints aired before they left for the day and stored up a whole new batch for the next CCG meeting. Complaints ran the gamut and bounced off me right and left. As they gradually ebbed away, the CCGers got into their over-sized pickups to seek truth, justice, and the American way. At last there were only two left and they had not yet shed their entire inventory of complaints. One of the last caught my attention and I heard, "We don't need all them changes anyhow."
What came next has to be the quote of the month, if not the year. It was, "We got to slow down really fast."

I'm not kidding that is what I heard, wow. That was also the end of the session for the day and the last two standing got into their pickups. There are so many levels to that quote I hardly know where to start. Without getting into dialetheistic debates or arriving at some level of paraconsitent agreement, I would say that we don't have to slow down really fast anymore than we need to become fast really slow.

Where's Paul Harvey when you need him?

When Lazy is Not a Virtue

It was pointed out to me that the previous post was not correct when I stated the windows would have looked like what I illustrated - that was because I was being lazy and doing the whole thing with as little changes as possible. The photo here is actually closer to what would have been the original windows. We can thank the "Queen of the Boulevard" for this change in the post.

Another picture that I felt like I must include is this picture of the new library construction at night, it was a bit chilly and it was a minute and a half exposure, but it's interesting.

Hasta la bye bye Street Level

Deterior Exterior

This building was once a hotel catering to the travelers that came with the many passenger trains that stopped at Washington. It was built so that every room had an outdoor window, which allowed breezes through all the rooms, this is according advertisements from the time. It has been re-muddled many times and as is typical the windows have been despoiled by changing their historic profile. Below is the way that the building may look with more appropriate windows is shown here. You may like the naive primitive flags, but then you may miss Dick Cheney.

Street Level...

Pictures on a Sunny Day

The first picture is a cute little "Fixer-Upper". It has shake shingles and two brick flues. It sits on a charming little lot in a country setting with plenty potential for formal gardens. There are plenty of trees and the interior has plenty of cross breeezs and nature light. Don't wait long or you'll miss out on this cozy little first time buyer opportunity. The second picture is a sunny rural cemetery.





Any of you who have read Mosquito Coast will appreciate the title of the this picture, it is entitled Fatboy what it really is - I haven't a clue. It looks like it may be some sort of high tech ladder holder or maybe a quantum computer, but I can't be sure.

One week left before escape...

Jug Band Music

So, here we are days from the equinox and the sun is cooperating. As always click on the picture to see a bigger version. There was a bit of a chance to take a few more pix today so I am including them for your amusement. The first is Jug Band Music, draw your own conclusions. The second is called Sun and Stacks. The third is called Sleeping.

Hasta La Bye Bye Street Level...

Rural Sickos

When I look at the picture to the right, I see why there are so many folk songs about drownings, hangings, and other rather unpleasant activities associated with bucolic rural areas. You can get up to a whole lot of things in all that space. Why it's important to write a song about all of it, is somewhat a mystery. I would like to think that it is caused by winter, as are all bad things. Trapped indoors with a misbehaving mind can't be good for proper social conduct.

The scene to the right invites misconduct in a mind predisposed to such behavior. It is obviously a case for Physiognomy, since it should be clear to anyone that facial features predict people's character. Anyone who cares to can go to any public place and foresee who is a deer-jacker, or socialist by the shape of their nose or set of their lips. The eyebrows of pork producer and an accountant are never the same. All our public safety officers should be trained in the science of Physiognomy to save the taxpayers their precious wealth for things that matter like large screen TVs and boats.

So, in this winter of our discontent, we should remember those of us that are not facially challenged should remember how lucky we are. Please drive safely and remember to shop often.

Thanks from Street Level...

Burn Baby Burn

Yesterday accidentally got warm for a few hours so it was time for Barb and me to take our cameras out and snap some pix. If you click on the picture you will be able to see it a bit better. The trees are not actually on fire, but rather just amped up a bit on the old laptop. Did I whine about the mud yesterday, well that is a lesson in wishing - you might get what you want. There is no mud in the backyard just frozen everything. No matter, in a few days it will be back and I will again be able to whine about it.

Good day.

Fastfood fast

Left is someone really chowing down on one of the many treats that can be had at the food court at the Coral Ridge Mall. You should be able to click on the picture to see even a larger version, if you are so inclined. Did I complain yet about the amount of rain in my former backyard turned marine training camp mud hole - I believe I did.

Yesterday was a trip to the mall, which gives me hives. It seems to me a time warp from some 80's teen movie. It's like an enormous elevator with bad muzak. It is the best that the late 20th century could come up with in the form of a cathedral. It is a place where the facades are on the inside and happy shoppers strut their colorful "one use" plastic bags with some nitwit's name on it. It's a great scam to have people pay to advertise for you, one that still amazes me.

This particular mall is a General Growth Properties mall, which traded in the $60's not that long ago and now would take a bushel basket of the stock just to buy a taco. So next time you want to pay to advertise someone's ego and private jet, want to see a movie in a theater the size of a shoebox, or just have a hankering for some really good fast food, consider a General Growth Properties mall, where you won't be surprised or your money back.

Shoes for Industry Comrade

Time Change

This is a message from delugeland, USA. At this point there is a lake where the backyard used to be. There is more mud here than a marine training camp. Enough rain to float an ark full of non-evolved intelligently designed animals has fallen here in the last two days. Lightning and thunder sufficient to please an angry Norse god has filled the skies. All ye who enter here abandon all hope of being dry. There are extinction event warnings about flooding on the rivers here, well duh. Could this all be the result of the time change? People complain all the time about Climate Change, but do you ever hear anything about Time Change.

What good can come out of messing around with time? How many times can time be changed before we just wear it out? There is no question that time has been changed by human intervention. Street Level interviewed leading time scientists at the University of Iowa about the effects of human intervention in time change. No one was available to comment before press time so we asked the ultimate authority - Rush Limbaugh.

Street Level: "Rush, what do you make of all this time change that we have been experiencing?"

Rush: "As we all know it is just another part of creeping socialism. If time needs to be changed then the market will change it, not some bureaucrat in Washington working for the Obama administration.

Street Level: "So you believe that if we need to change time then market forces will take care of it?"

Rush: "God made market forces, not the Democrat Party!!!"

Street Level: "Do you think we will experience long term problems as a result of changing time?"

Rush: "Anything the government does is bad, well except for war, that's OK, not that I'm saying that Market Forces shouldn't start it to begin with."

Street Level: "You've said that Climate Change is bunk, that it has just been made up by Al Gore, what do you think about Time Change?"

Rush: "First let me set the record straight, I have never said that Climate Change was made up by Al Gore, what I said was, Climate Change was made up by Al Gore AND Hilary Clinton."

Street Level: "Thank you, but is it bunk?"

Rush: "I said Al Gore and Hilary Clinton in the same sentence, of course it's bunk. If the climate is changing and I'm not saying it is, but if it were, so to speak, it would be because Market Forces changed it, but I'm not saying it is."

The entire interview can be seen at our web site, but we believe that it is clear that the unnatural changing of time is the road to socialism, plagues of frogs, and rivers of blood. It is clear that Arizona doesn't observe this abomination of nature, so that if John McCain had won, as god intended, we wouldn't have this moral failure of our entire fiber of family and safe neighborhoods.

HDR Day

Yesterday warmed the spirit and allowed movement in the outdoors without spacesuits and moon boots. As a result photos could be taken with some thought to the composition, as opposed to thoughts of frozen extremities. So with tripod in tow I went to north side of the tracks, no I wasn't taking my life in my own hands, I didn't go that far north. So just north of the tracks I shot a few HDRs one of which is above. The almost stuccoed shack had some interesting light, so a picture happened.

Today's forecast is for more pictures and a bit of stop action shooting for the upcoming "Celebrate Your Senses" world premier video. The cast is made up of Crocs, P.F. Fliers, Pumps, Sandals, and some sensible shoes. Stay tuned for more.

From Street Level in Washington - Good Day

A Brief Guest

Paul Harvey stopped over today on his way from Arizona back to Chicago. He stopped to ask me what I thought about the recent trends in internet architecture and lawn care. I knew he had something else on his mind.
I said, “Paul what’s up? You don’t usually hem and haw around like this. You got something on your mind?”
He said, “yes…there is something, something on my mind. You know the story of the child who comes to ask his grandfather what it was like to live in olden times...”
“Paul, Paul, let’s not go there, you have something on your mind, what is it?” I said, looking through him. It occurred to me that was quite easy to do. Against the back windows he was nothing more than a shimmer.
“Well Craig, can I call you Craig?”
“Sure Paul, that’s fine.” I would say that he took a deep breath, but that wouldn’t be right, the shimmer seemed to draw a breath before
He said, “Craig, I’ve one year left on a ten year contract, but under the circumstances I’m going to find it hard to finish, that’s a 10 mil loss, nobody wants to take that kind of loss.”
I sighed, “I understand your concern Paul, but really under the circumstances does it really matter? Don’t you think it’s time to move on?”
“Move on? I’m getting screwed out of 10 mil.” The shimmer brightened a bit and then he said, “I’m not moving an inch until I get the total 100 mil. I haven’t been in the business for 75 years to roll over and play dead just because I died.”
I was silent, hoping that the irony of that statement would sink into the shimmer. After a too long pause, I jumped in, “Paul, I’m sure that you’re not the first shimmer to want stick around and finish something, but you’ve got to move on man. You’ve bit it, kicked it, and it’s time for your all that eternal stuff.”
“You gotta sell yourself, Craig. If you don’t, nobody else will. If I stop now how long will it be before “This is Paul Harvey”, is totally forgotten?”
I looked through him out the window where a Robin was pulling a worm from the cold ground,
“Paul, is that it, you’re afraid you’re going to be forgotten? What’s wrong with that, do you know your first grade teacher’s teacher name? “
“Who was my first grade teacher’s teacher?”
“Yes, who taught your first grade teacher?” I could see his shimmer was getting a bit annoyed.
He said, “I just spent 75 years talking to millions of people about all kinds of feel good human interest stories, it got me parodied on Saturday Night Live, that should be worth something.”
I felt a frown on my face, “It was worth millions, I understand - that’s more than I’ll ever see, I would say you had a pretty good run.”
“Listeners are fickle, how long do you think it will be before someone will be telling grandpa stories and selling Jell-o, to people who have no business preparing food with processed cow and pig skin and bones.”
“Don’t forget the inedible connective tissue,” I said.
“Yes that too, but the point is in the end I am going to be replaced, some Rush knockoff and that will be that.”
“Paul,” I said, “You had over 75 years of grea…”
“What does it mean; it seems like just an instant. It could have been yesterday.”
“Get a hold of yourself, you’ve got places to go.”
The shimmer smiled and faded.
I stared a minute and then said, “Say hello to Elvis for me.”
As the shimmer winked out, I heard a disembodied voice say, “and now for the end of the story.”