House Fire (095/365)

TIME: 5:58 pm

PLACE: 14th Street & Union 
SUBJECT: House fire

*~*~*

I heard sirens and saw smoke rising up from behind the factory shortly after I finished work today.

SD and I took Mulder and walked down the alley to see what was happening.

A house on South 14th street was on fire.

Chatting with the neighbors, I learned that it was empty; the renters had just moved out a few weeks ago, so no one was hurt which was good.

Many though it was suspicious, though.  I'm sure there will be an investigation.

Last of the Snow Mounds (054/365)

TIME: 2:27 pm

PLACE: Our block
SUBJECT: Snow pile

*~*~*

I walked the dogs at lunch today and only needed a light jacket.

  What a contrast compared with the single digit temperatures last week

Almost all the snow is gone except for the big piles like this one.

It can stay gone too.  I'm ready for spring.

Why Did the Chickens Cross the Road on Thanksgiving? (331/366)

TIME: 3:36 pm
PLACE: S. 14th Street
SUBJECT: Chickens!

*~*~*

After our Thanksgiving meal with just HH, SD, DQ and her boyfriend, I packed up food in my many takeout containers to make a meals on wheels delivery to my dad.

I was delayed by chickens in the road.  Which is weird - when did we get chickens in the neighborhood?

That white one on the right had some attitude and was giving me the evil eye.

See?

(Look at the strut on that sassy gal)

The joke is funny because it's true - they did want to get to the other side!

Lucky for them, it was a turkey cooking and not a chicken cooking day.  I guess they knew that and felt pretty secure being out this afternoon.

I want chickens, but after seeing what Scully did to the rabbit, I'm not sure they'd survive at our house right now.  Someday though!

Down on the Corner (172/366)

TIME: 3:11 pm
PLACE: 15th & Raab
SUBJECT: Street signs

*~*~*

We got new street signs!

They are part of the new street update - Our tax dollars at work.

Fallout Shelter (198/365)

TIME: 7:56 PM
PLACE: St. Mary’s School
SUBJECT: Fallout Shelter sign

A public service message from tonight’s walk with Mulder…

There is a Fallout Shelter nearby in case of emergency.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Church Door (187/365)

TIME: 8:54 PM
PLACE: Front of St. Mary’s Church
SUBJECT: Door & shadows

It was very hot today, so we needed to wait until it cooled a bit before tonight’s walk with Mulder.  So it commenced a little later than usual.

It worked out well.

The lights in front of the church made great shadows on the front door.

Iris (135/365)

TIME: 6:20 PM
PLACE: The neighbor’s yard
SUBJECT: Iris

My neighbor has some irises blooming.

Very purple-ly.

A Contrast of Grass (132/365)

Willy Wonka: Do you like my meadow? Try some of my grass! Please have a blade, please do, it's so delectable and so darn good looking!
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Warner Bros., 2005

TIME:  6:18 PM
PLACE:  Around the neighborhood
SUBJECT:  Grasses

When I was younger, I thought that grasses were a lame thing to plant in a landscape.
Now, I think they are pretty cool.

Monday Sunset & Cookie Selling Prep (005/365)

TIME:  5:00 PM
PLACE:  Down the street
SUBJECT:  Sunset

Enjoying this while trying not to think about the freezing air that is supposed to be arriving in the next few days.

TIME:  7:07 PM
PLACE:  Girl Scout Meeting : School cafeteria
SUBJECT:  Cookie Caravan poster

Fair warning…beginning this Friday evening and continuing throughout this weekend, you *will* be accosted by Girl Scouts hawking cookies at practically every grocery store, Wal-Mart, convenience store, video store and many other locations.

Good luck, we’re all counting on your support.

Monday (161/365)

TIME:  8:45 AM
PLACE:  Girl Scout Camp
SUBJECT:  StellaDella and her Wacky Hair

Girl Scout day camp began today…


TIME:  6:49 PM
PLACE:  Neighborhood
SUBJECT:  Ford Truck

And MonkeyBoy ranked up to Star at his last Boy Scout meeting…DH and I walked up to the school with him.  I snapped this picture on the way there.


TIME:  7:44 & 7:45 PM
PLACE:  Neighborhood
SUBJECT:  Train Tracks

…and these tracks on the walk home.

Thar She Blows (089/366)

“The cistern contains: The fountain overflows.“

William Blake (1757-1827), British poet, painter, engraver. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, plate 8, "Proverbs of Hell," (1790-1793).

TIME:  10:40 AM
PLACE:  Our street
SUBJECT:  Fire hydrant

A blue notice was hanging on our front door knob yesterday afternoon.  It was from the water company telling us that we would be without water service from 9am until 1am today while they were making some repairs/improvements in our neighborhood.  This morning, they opened the fire hydrant by our house to reduce the water pressure while they were making repairs down a side street.  Now we are under a boil order until Saturday morning at 4am.  Great.

Window Treatments (225/365)

“The truth in the matter lies in the fact that anything repeated too long without variation tends to become boring.”

Don Ellis (American jazz trumpeter, drummer, composer and bandleader, 1934-1978)

TIME:  7:47 PM
PLACE: Around the neighborhood
SUBJECT:  Windows

I took this photo while walking Oreo this evening.  This are the windows of a factory that is close to our house.  The top picture is SOTC and I like it.  But to have some fun, I applied some Photoshop Actions to it.

Here is one called “Old West”:


This one is called “Seventies”:


I like this one.  It’s called “Vivid Blur”


And finally, a “#2 Pencil” action:


I just love Photoshop.

State Of Inelegance (263/365)

  
"What dreadful hot weather we have!
It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance."

Jane Austen (1775–1817), British novelist. letter, Sept. 18, 1796.

TIME:  4:11 PM
PLACE:  Across the street
SUBJECT:  Hot squirrel

Fall is supposed to begin tomorrow, but you wouldn’t know that by the weather we are having and will be having for the rest of the week ~ we are going to be cracking the 90 degree mark!  The air conditioner had to be turned on and it’s making me cringe because I can just see the money flying out of our wallets to pay the expense.  Even the squirrels think that this is horrible weather for September…why just look at what he has to resort to to keep cool.

Walking The Dog (024/365)

  
“A dog is one of the remaining reasons why some people can be persuaded to go for a walk.”

Orlando Aloysius Battista (Canadian-American chemist and author. 1917-1995)

TIME:  12:09 PM
PLACE:  Union Ave.
SUBJECT:  Oreo

Confession time.  The dog does not get walked nearly as much as she should.  That’s why she is more of a Double-Stuffed Oreo than a Regular one.  I did take her out today for a quick jaunt, although I think it was more her taking me for a walk than the other way around.  Apparently, there were a tremendous amount of good smells on our journey as she stopped and had long sniffs every few feet.  The circuit we took wore her out – she’s been pretty quiet since we came back to the house.

Accident (323/365)

Accidents, and particularly street and highway accidents, do not happen - they are caused. 

Ernest Greenwood (Romanian-American, Professor of Social Welfare, Emeritus, Berkeley, 1910–2004)

TIME:  9:58 PM
PLACE:  Across the street
SUBJECT:  Overturned vehicle

Around 9:45 I hear a loud "boom, boom" and the house shook.  My first thought was that someone ran the stop sign and hit HH's car that is parked in front of the house.  I go outside and see that a vehicle has crashed on the side of my neighbor's house and is lying on the driver's side.  I dial 9-1-1 and go outside to see if the person is ok.  Other neighbors are there as well.  They are able to get her out through the rear of the car and had her sitting in the street.  I went back inside and got a blanket to cover her until the ambulance arrived.  Her cousin was following her and speaking with her on a cell phone(!) and said that the driver told her that the brakes were not working.  The car ran up a lawn, damaged a porch, came back down into the street and then went between a stop sign and a fire hydrant and clipped my neighbor's brick house (which was 4 houses away from the 1st house she hit!), ran into their air conditioner unit and somehow flipped and landed on its side.  Several police units, the fire trucks and the ambulance arrived on the scene.  They took her to the hospital and the truck was towed away.  I do hope that she is ok.  I also hope that the accident was caused by faulty brakes and not because she might have been under the influence.  Why am I feeling so cynical about it though?

Road Closed (222/365)

 
“The shortest distance between two points is under construction.”

Noelie Alito

TIME:  6:52 PM
PLACE:  South 15th Street
SUBJECT:  Construction signs

They are doing some sort of street work down the way from us.  I’m not sure exactly what it is.  HandsomeHusband thinks it might be sewer work as they have dug deep into the street and have shorn up the sides of the hole they have excavated.  Tomorrow I just might wander over and be nosy!

Round & Round & Round She Goes (147/365)

 
"Each makes this cosmos and its construction the pivot of his emotional life, in order to find in this way peace and security which he can not find in the narrow whirlpool of personal experience."

Albert Einstein (German born American Physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity. Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921. 1879-1955)

TIME:  6:44 PM
PLACE: The alley
SUBJECT:  Storm sewer whirlpool

We had some sun most of the day, but late this afternoon, the rain moved back in.  MonkeyBoy's 6:00pm baseball game was canceled.  About 6:30pm we had a massive downpour with thunder and lightning.  It rained so much that it overtaxed our city's storm sewers and the alley behind our house temporarily flooded.  This is a rare occurrence, I think this has happened only about 4 or 5 times since I moved here in 1993.  This whirlpool appeared as the water was beginning to flow into the storm sewer.  I give credit to HandsomeHusband as he pointed out this photo opportunity to me...what a guy!

Sunset Shadow (106/365)

 
"Orange is the happiest color."

Frank Sinatra (Singer, actor, producer, director, conductor, 1915-1998)

TIME: 6:59 PM
PLACE:  The alley
SUBJECT: Power line cables 

Not much going on today.  I worked on clearing out 2008 papers from around my messy desk area.  I thought with the rise of computers, we were supposed to be a paperless society...that is so not happening!  After supper, MonkeyBoy was out practicing his pitching skills.  The sun was setting and I captured the shadow of the power line cables against the factory cinderblocks.  I liked the colors and the shadow on the building.

Vote Early & Vote Often (097/365)

 
"Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting."

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (32nd president of the United States, 1882–1945)

TIME: 12:27 PM
PLACE:  H-- R-- School
SUBJECT: Polling place sign

Today was an election day.  Our city had a mayoral, several township and school board races for the citizens to cast there votes.  The mayor was unopposed, as were some township and school board positions.  At 12:20pm, I was only the 24th person to cast my vote.  I think when HandsomeHusband voted around 5pm, he was about number 53.  That's not a good turnout.  I'm thinking the numbers were low because first: many races were unopposed, and second: there was no local or bond issues for people to get worked up about...therefore, voter apathy prevailed.  But, still, I'm glad I went and did my civic duty by voting. 

Spring Flower (065/365)

 
"And Spring arose on the garden fair,
Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;
And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast
rose from the dreams of its wintry rest."

Percy Bysshe Shelley (English Romantic Poet, 1792-1822) The Sensitive Plant

TIME: 4:18 PM
PLACE: Our neighbor's yard
SUBJECT: Flower

HandsomeHusband left the house with MonkeyBoy to walk down and pick up his car from where it was being detailed.  About 30 seconds after he left, he calls me from his cell phone, "Your picture today is in Bev's yard, there are some flowers blooming."  (Isn't it sweet how he looks out for me?  One of the many reasons I married him.)  So, I grab my camera and head outside.  These purple flowers had blossomed in the warmth of today's temperatures.  I don't know what kind of flower it is, do any of you faithful readers recognize it and would you kindly enlighten me?  Thank you ever so much.