Greensboro I'm a coming

Well I hope that you all had a very good Christmas holiday. Mine was very good. Good times with my grandmother and her friends. Way too much food, as usual. She is very sad I am going to Greensboro. But she understands I need to do what I have to do.

So I fly up this afternoon, get my car and hotel and get an idea of the area. If I have time I am going to go by the store and visit them. If not today I will go there tomorrow morning. Since none of us have ever met each other it might be a good idea. One of the ladies who works there did work for Law Enforcement Supply when I was there, however she worked in the Panama City office so at least we know each other through talking on the phone. Once I get that out of the way I while begin looking at apartments. I have a list I am bringing with me. I hope the first place I look at turns out as decent as it seems from what I have seen on the web. If it is then I am going to take that place and be done with the whole thing. That way I can get the utilities and all set up and have the rest of the time to get my bearings around Greensboro. Since I am one of those people who am pretty damm good about directions and figuring streets out I should know where things are pretty quickly. It should leave me time to take some pictures of the area. So maybe I can sneak in a little roadtrip and see what my photography future has in store for me. This whole area is much more suited to my style of photography as you would expect.

I am going to run. Have some loose end to tie up this morning. Have a great week.

Merry Christmas Happy Christmas War is Over

Over the blacktop and through the tollgates to grama's house I go. The Gps knows the way I go today through no white drifted snow.

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas. Eat some good food, enjoy the time with family, friends and anyone else you chose. Hope you all receive some peace and harmony on Christmas day. The pagans would want it this way.

Maybe one day the leaders of the world will embrace this song as the rest of the world does. We can all hope and pray in our own way.

Goodbye dust collectors

Well I sold most of my "collectibles" and some furniture yesterday for $500.00. It was what I expected, but less than I hoped it would be. I never could have received that much at a yard sale unless I put many hours of work into getting it all ready and then doing all the right advertising to get as many people as possible. The guys will be here shortly to take all the stuff away. After all of that is gone then I can start to pack. First clean and then pack. Everything will getting a good cleaning, dusting and so on before it gets wrapped and pack. There will not be a whole bunch for the movers to take with them. Then I can start to use the "Florida" room as thee main room to store everything. I also sold $100 worth of some other items the other day and have sold about $350.00 worth of goods on Ebay. So at least I have a little bit of cash.

Gotta run for now the guys are here to clean out the goods.

Merry Christmas from the Family Robert Earl Keene

This is one of the best non traditional Christmas songs there is. In fact it may be my favorite. Hope you enjoy this. Robert is great and if you have not heard of him you need to check him out. You know there are many families out there that have a day just like this.

Turn the Page

Tammy, thanks for helping me figure out what to post today. This is great song. I love both versions. Bob's is classic of course and I love the gritty feel of the Metallica version.

So far my version of the GAN, Great American Novel, has been pretty cool.

I put the final touches on all the things I am going to sell. It will be very easy for the guy to look at it all and give me a price.

Yesterday I replanted my lemon balm into a much bigger pot. It now has room to explode with new growth. My friends from Fort Myers came up yesterday and we did some messing around in the afternoon. Then we went to Sam Seltzers Steakhouse for dinner.
We all ended up getting there bbq rib all you can eat special. I ended up getting all their ribs when we had seconds. I have lots of ribs in the fridge. Thank you.
When we came back here we sat outside and I stoked up a nice big fire in my chimnea.
We just sat around and bullshitted until they decided it was time to get back to their hotel. It was a good day.

Today I need to call and confirm everything with the estate guy and then I am free. I think I will take a little trip to Tarpon Springs one last time and then head down to the usual Sunday football bar for the last time. I also need to head to the post office and mail some Ebay items.

Have a great Sunday and get in the holiday spirit.

Sorting the junk

Well I have pretty much finished sorting out EVERYTHING I have. The only thing that is left is my clothing. I might as well go through that and get rid off what does not fit anymore. I usually do that on a regular basis anyway how. Its not like I shop for clothing a whole bunch anyhow.

There is a whole lot for the estate guy to buy. I hope I get something close to a decent price for it. After all that is gone then I am going to start packing. That will be fun. Actually that should go fairly quick. I hope.

I am taking the rest of the day off from the moving process except for doing laundry. I am going to wash all my blankets, sheets, towels and then move to the clothing I am taking. That way it is all clean and fresh when I move into my new place. It is all clean now. However since some of that sits in the closet for so long I might as well freshen it up before I move.

Have a customer from the old job stopping by today. He is actually a friend now. It ended up that we actually grew up in the same area of Ct. as kids. We are going to go have a few beers and maybe some wings at Hooters. Seems a good way to say goodbye until he gets a chance to come north for a visit.

Enjoy your day in your lovely weather.

Repent from having too much crap

Repent from owning too many things.

So I am into sorting all my "stuff" and all I have too say is #$%^$#. Too much. I found a guy yesterday who has a junk shop/thrift store who buys out estates. I talked with him for a bit and he is going to come over Monday and give me a price for all the items I am not going to take with me. I'll never get what it is worth and I will get more than I would at a yard sale. Believe me when I say that not much is going. I will still be more than enough for one person.

I have always dreaded this day. I knew at some point I would have to clean out. Oh well that is life.

Off to more purging.

Lookout Greensboro, The Pez is coming

For good or bad, better or worse, and all other things that apply in this situation I am making the plunge and moving to Greensboro, NC. The exact date is still to be determined but in the first or second week of January I will be living in North Carolina. It looks like I will head up on the 28th and head back on New Years eve. Those couple days will be spent getting a place to live. I hope that is enough time to accomplish everything. If that goes well I guess I will move up sometime the following week.

So that means I have a whole ton of things to do the next few weeks around here. I have plenty to pack and plenty to throw in the trash and what I do not trash or pack is going to get sold. There are a few places near my house that will come in and buy whatever you have that you are getting rid of. I doubt you get a whole bunch for those items but any cash will help at this point. The less I have to move the better off I am and I suspect it will also cost a little less.

This is going to be a massive change for me. I have lived in Tampa longer than I have lived in any other town in my life and the house I live in now is the second longest I have lived in any place outside of the house I grew up in. So it will all be a bit overwhelming for a few weeks.

One of the big advantages is I will moving closer to Bluefield, Asheville and Ken's house. :)
It will be good for my photography. This area is much more rich with the things that I like to photograph. It should be a little cheaper than Tampa. Not much, but any amount helps.

So I am happy, glad, scared, nervous, excited, and so on......................................

That is enough for this morning. My brain is swimming with chaos.

Rock n Roll Breakfast

Here are two of the greatest live performances of all time in my humble opinion.
Queen was such a killer band. They were so different than any thing else that was out there in the world of rock.

The Queen song was for the Live Aid performance in 1985. All you have to do is watch and you will know how damm good this is. Perfection.

The George Michael song where he is singing with Queen at the Freddie Mercury tribute is amazing. He does such a fantastic job here. I do not think there is anyone better would could sing and sound so much like Freddie.

Weekend Review

Saturday in an attempt to save money I did nothing except take pictures of items that I am going to put on Ebay today and tomorrow. I did however locate some very good friends on Facebook. When I was a kid a family from Vietnam moved into a house next to my grandparents, who lived the next street over from me. There were five kids all around the same age as myself. During junior high school and high school I practically lived at their house. Ahn, the middle son was the same age as me and we hung out all the time. Their house was like my second home. There many many crazy things that happened at that house and for the most part his parents let us get away with whatever we did. One time we caught a squirrel in a live trap and we brought the trap into the house. Well Ahn's youngest brother was checking it out and decided to open the cage. Naturally the squirrel bolted out of the cage and proceeded to tear around the house in total panic. Their Mom freaked at this scene. She was so afraid of this thing. She jumped up on the coffee table and frantically jumped around and screamed in a total panic. All us kids thought this was the funniest darn thing and fell on the floor laughing like a bunch of stoned fools. She was screaming Vietnamese so of course I had no clue to what she was actually saying. After several minutes we were able to get the squirrel out of the house and back into freedom much to its delight. Outside of yelling and screaming when the scene was over their Mom did nothing. This was all too typical. When all of us stoners, and there was a large number of us, started eating too much food their Dad put locks on the cabinets. Being the industrious stoners we were we would take the screws out of the hinges and get out munchies that way. Our primary source of munchies, ramen noodles. This was way before ramen noodles were a mass market thing like they are today. His parents would take roadtrips to NYC and do the massive shopping trips at an Asian market there. These events were so common that they did not seem out of the ordinary. So anyhow I located three of the five kids on Facebook this weekend. Reconnecting will be great. All the kids live in California now and I have not seen them in over 20 years.

Yesterday I went to my usual Sunday football hangout and watched the Bucs get hammered. I think this was one of the worst games I have ever seen them play. Totally pathetic. One odd thing yesterday was the sea fog. It was just right along the beach and very heavy. It did keep the temps down quite a bunch. After the game I went to the beach and took a few shots. A couple look like they may have come out quite well. If so those will be tomorrows posts.

I think I am going to go to the Webster flea market this morning. Then come home and do the EBay stuff and take some of the plants out of the starter pots and put them in the garden.

Have a good Monday my friends.

Bright Eyes

Last week at the opening for the Xmas art show they had a professional photog doing sittings for $10.00. Even though I hate getting my pictures taken I decided that for that price I would give it a shot and see what happened. Well these are the three that he sent me from all he took. I am going to give one of these to my parents as a Christmas present. I just need to decide which one.

I think for them the standing shot would be the best.

I am amazed at how bright my eyes are in the last shot in the series. I have been told by a few people that my eyes really stand out depending on what color shirt I am wearing. The thing is he showed me the shots right out of the camera and they were like this at that point so I know he did not Photoshop them to make them like this. I know my eyes can be green or blue depending on what I am wearing but never have I seen them like this.

And now for the week ending garden update. All is going quite well to this point. On Monday I started green beans, cucumbers, cilantro, bell peppers and sun flowers from seed. I put them in a seed started tray and them put them in the shed until today. Well the green beans and cucumbers have gone crazy. I should be able to plant the green beans in the garden on Monday and the cucumbers on Tuesday soon followed by the sunflowers. It seems the peppers and cilantro will take a bit longer. I take some pictures and post those this coming week,

Feeding Frenzy

Enough of the Tiger Woods feeding frenzy. I am not passing judgement one way or another on what he has done, that is between him and his wife. I also am not a huge Tiger fan or golf fan for that matter. However it sickens me that we continually build people up to such huge levels and are more than willing to dig in the dirt to find any faults so we can smack them down. I am sure that a large number of these moral perfectionists have plenty of dirt in their backgrounds that they would not want to have shown to the world yet they are willing to pass judgement on someone they have helped build up to unreasonable expectations. Maybe you should go out and do some real reporting.

I think I will buy myself a netbook this weekend. I has become time for this to happen. I have sold close to enough on Ebay that I can use that money to buy a netbook. Have been looking on the Web and I see one from Asus that gets good reviews. Not sure overall but $300.00 is all I am going to spend. We shall see.

Heading out for some pictures since it is sunny today. No more rain for a few days. Maybe I'll head toward the beach and see what I can find.

If you look at the vultures eyes and facial features he looks sad. He is also looking at me to make sure I was not going to steal his feast.

Eye on the Future

So I am trying to figure out where to live if I end up moving. Should I rent a house or deal with an apt. for a year and try to bank some cash. Saving cash sounds very good, however apt. living sucks for the most part. One thing that is certain is no matter where I go washer and dryer must be included. Some many have washer/dryer connections as a feature. No that is not a feature. Put the things in the apt. or home and that is a feature.
I like the space a house offers and at least you do not feel so boxed in. But you spend more cash.
Heck no matter how much I get rid of I still will more than will fit into a 1 bedroom apartment.
Decisions.

A dear friend of my grandmothers and someone I knew fairly well as kid passed away this week.
Joseph Bella or Jo Jo was 82 years old and in good health. He was home alone and was working on a ladder. He fell off the ladder and hit his head on the concrete floor. When Lill, his wife, came home he was in the bathroom cleaning up. Lill called 911 and by the time they arrived he was unconscious. He never regained consciousness and was declared brain dead at the hospital. The family decided to let him pass on instead of being kept alive by machines. Jo Jo and Lill were married for nearly 55 years. One of his great passions was his gardens. When you went by the house the yard was full of flowers. In the back were veggies, apple trees and blueberry bushes.
May he rest in peace.

Off to get a coffee maker for my grandmother as a Xmas present. She has little one that works well but now that she is part of the breakfast club with a couple others in the park she needs a bigger pot. Then I am going to the bookstore and look at some baseball card price guides. I forgot I this pack of cards that was given to me a few years ago. I did some research last night and found out these are from 1950 and were sold at the Baseball Hall of Fame and some baseball stadiums. It seems that some may be quite valuable. If I send these in to get graded then they have to the potential to worth a whole bunch more. My only reservation is the cost of getting cards graded is expensive. It may well be worth it so I will use the bookstore as a library.
I figure at the least the set is worth $200 dollars and at the most several thousand.

Time for research.

Good Times

This has to be one of the best uses of music in a movie. If you have not seem Almost Famous check it out. It is a pretty cool movie. Kate Hudson is great in her role as Penny Lane. I love the end of the clip when she says "You are home" and does her little hand gesture.

I hear them playing Reveille at the base. They play it at 6:20 every morning. Then at 4:20 they play the Star Bangled Banner and at 10:00 p.m. they play Taps. Its kinda cool. You can hear it every morning and when the wind is blowing this way you can hear it from all the speakers across the base. I like it.

Have to go over to Jim's this morning and give him some lessons on how to use Outlook. He has had AOL as his email for years and something happened that would not let him retrieve his AOL email. I could not even fix it. So last week I went over and set up his email through Road Runner and set it up through Outlook. He does not quite understand it. So I need to give him lessons.

Fell asleep last night at 8:30, woke up at 9:45 and decided to back to sleep on the couch. Got up at midnight and spent about an hour and a half watching Graham Norton clips on YouTube. If you have BBC America check this show out. It is on Saturdays nights at 10:00 p.m. It is a talk show/comedy show and totally irreverent and usually pretty damm funny.

If the weather is going to be nice tomorrow I think I am going to take a photo roadtrip someplace. Not sure where but I need to get some pictures and it has been a little bit since I has gone out for a bunch of shots.

Special Delivery

Well I got a phone call tonight from the gentleman who looks to be my new boss. It seems the deal he is working on to become president of the company is done. All paperwork for that is going to be signed in two weeks. If I take the job my salary will be the same as was it was when I left Law Enforcement Supply. It is also looking better that they would have me go to Greensboro, NC. If that is the case I have lots to get done. I will have to have a moving sale to get rid of lots junk I do not want or need anymore. Then there is the small matter of finding a place to live. I would want to rent a house, not an apt. Seems that with a little looking around I can find a place for less or at least no more than I am paying currently. Thankfully I have been getting rid of junk for some time. Now I really need to step it up. Massive Ebay sales will be coming up. Maybe take some things to antique shops and see what I can do.

Things may get crazy real soon.

Crappy weekend

Well this weekend sucked. I started getting sick of Friday with a sore throat and ended up spending all day Saturday and Sunday taking heavy does of assorted cold medicine to fight off this thing. Still feel crappy this morning. My sinuses are all screwed up and that is my biggest concern. I do not want to be come addicted to nasal spray again and afraid it may happen if this thing hangs around for a few days. Yippee. Hell on a good day my sinuses are not all that good.

Will take some pictures for Ebay today no matter what. Also plan on getting some flower seeds and veggie seeds started.

Footprints---The Midday update

Well I just got off the phone with my potential new employer and things are looking very good.
I suspect I will have a job within a few weeks. Some legal things need to get handled but all things are pointing up. It seems like it would be either Tampa or Greensboro, NC depending on a few things that need to get ironed out. Also same pay or a tad higher than I was making as LES.

The art show is tonite so I hope to sell my cars. Hopefully all of them.

Traded some very very old bookcases/display cases for a table at an antique shop today. I wanted on old beaten up table and I got one. The table was selling for $165.00. So I got rid of cases I did not like or want any more for a table I wanted. It is a round drop leaf table that i want to use as a table to work on photography stuff.

Woo Hoo all is good today.

Cause and Effects

There are causes and effects for everything we do in our daily lives and this picture is a perfect example of it. I took this picture Thanksgiving morning will walking on the beach across from Patrick's Air Force Base. I found three needles like this across a large area of the beach. I also found two other different types of needles.

Since this is an insulin needle it belonged to a diabetic at one time or maybe it was used on a diabetic at a hospital. Was the cause of the insulin use a poor diet? That is one of the major effects of the poor diet Americans eat today. How does medical waste get handled so poorly that it becomes trash on the beach. It seems that there are no Federal standards for this type of waste.

All I know is the effect of poor handling of this crap was it washed up on the beach. There is absolutely no excuse for this. Assholes I say.

I did pick up all the needles and put them in another piece of fucking trash, a Gatorade bottle.

Go figure that. I have the needles at home. Maybe I'll plant the bastards.

My broccoli plants are really thriving. They really enjoyed getting into the earth. They were not happy in those little pot at the nursery. I can not wait for the bounty.

Would you hire this guy?

Well here I am in all my bearded splendor. I have shaved in a month. The joys of not working can be quite pleasurable. I did get my hair cut yesterday. It was getting a little crazy.

It seems I may have a job soon actually. I talked with the person who hired me seven years ago to work at Law Enforcement Supply. He is going to be President of one of the companies who are Law Enforcement Supplies major competitors. If all goes as planned I would manage the Tampa store. There would be a chance I would could move. They do have stores in the Atlanta area, Greensboro, NC also Columbus, SC and Jacksonville and Miami. I told him yes to all except Miami and that Greensboro and Jacksonville would be my preferences. If it happens it would be sometime late this month I expect. Since jobs are few and I prefer not to go back into retail this may be my only choice. I know I would be treated very well and that is a major plus.

I have more things on Ebay with more going on today. First five things I list are free and all the rest listed today are half off the listing fee. I think I will take advantage of this.

Thats all for now. Heading over to Orlando today to mmet some people. Hopefully I get back home before we get the storms they say we are going to get. I sounds like we may get hammered.

Refreshed

Well it has been a week since I have posted anything as I was away on holiday.

Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving. Mine was just fine even though it turned out different than planned. Spent Tuesday through Friday morning with my grandmother. It was good to spend some time with her. I know she enjoys it quite a bit. She's 87 and still going strong for the most part. She has a broken wrist and that is not something she likes at all. It makes things much more difficult for her. But she still manages. She cooks all her meals everyday. She has more darn food in her fridge and freezer than I do. It makes laugh because she has so much.

Spent Friday afternoon through late Sunday morning with Mike and Tammy. We had a good time just kicking back and relaxing all weekend. We spent Black Friday shopping, at a flea market and then we hit an army navy store and to top it off when went to a few pawn shops.
It was a hell of a lot more fun than going to a stupid mall or MallWart. Then we ended the evening sitting around a fire drinking gin and tonics. Saturday was another flea market then off to get plants for our gardens. I ended up getting six broccoli plants, two spinach, two dill, cilantro, habanero pepper and a super chili pepper plant. These only cost me 10 and change.
Seems very inexpensive to me. I was delighted at the price. Tammy gave me a lemon balm plant. Those damm things smell so darn wonderful. Heck I wonder if I could make ice tea with it. Has to be one of my favorite smelling plants.

As always meal time was very good. It is a treat for me since for the most part I do not like to spend a bunch of time in the kitchen.

Well I have done pretty darn well on Ebay since I put up my first auctions two weeks ago.
At this point I have done $160.75 in sales and my expenses on these items were very small for the most part. Some of the things I have owned for years so selling them off this way is great.
I have been thinking about opening an Ebay store and really start dumping things on there.
I may go the route of marking things a couple dollars higher and charge all customers in the U.S. $1.00 shipping. It is a gimmick that works. I have tested low or no shipping fees and the results from those tests are good.

Garden is planted from this weekends goods. Will plant seeds tomorrow, get my haircut, get the oil changed and ship some Ebay winner their goods.

Peace my friends.

Going to Grandmas

Today I am heading to my grandmothers for the Thanksgiving holiday. I have spent somewhere around 15 of the last 20 Thanksgivings with my grandparents. I enjoy it although my grandmother thinks I get bored and would rather be elsewhere. She is wrong. I enjoy spending time with her. At 87 I know those holidays and other visits will not be going on for too many more years. Plus she has made me a batch of pumpkin cookies with chocolate chips. They are very good.

On Friday I am heading to Tammy and Mikes for the holiday weekend. More holiday fun with friends, really family. Tammy will have to give me gardening tips. I'll need some. Maybe Mike and I can go for a spin in his new car. Of course we will eat and eat well. Tammy cooks very well, so does Mike. Nothing like eating well cooked and tasty food. Maybe we will go to the St. Augustine flea market and the Farmers market. It will be a good holiday week.

I sold six of the thirteen items I had on Ebay last week. Three of the items are going out of country. One to Canada, one to England and one to Australia. It is somewhat of a pain in the ass to ship out of country. Trying to figure out the shipping charges can be a pain in the ass. I relisted what did not sell and listed a whole bunch of books.

This picture was taken when I was camping in St. Marys, Georgia. This is the St. Marys river.
I was standing on the street in front of my campsite and was looking the whole place over and saw the top of a vehicle going down the river. Of course I said "What the hell is that?". I grabbed my camera and went running to the cliff and caught this. Kind of cool.

Hope each and everyone of you and your family have a Happy Thanksgiving.

See you Sunday.

No picture today

Very busy day today. Primered the post and plant hangers that are going on the corners of the garden. Then I burned all pictures and edited pictures I have taken over the last year to cd.
50 cd's worth of pictures. Outside of the fact I need to do this I have a fan in the computer that needs te replaced. I thought it was the main fan and replaced that at a cost of $40. Come to find out it was a fan I could not see because the one I replaced was hiding it. The fan that need to get replaced keeps the video board from over heating. That will be $10 or $15 to replace.

UUgghh. Thankfully I will be going way for a few days. Then come back and get refocused.

More purging of items and finish painting and get the carpets cleaned. I have not done that this year. Yippee. By the time I am done it will be a new house.

Drats my house is out to get me

This is another picture from by blanket. I was supposed to have a Flickr meetup there tomorrow with three of my contacts. Since the weather is now looking iffy and three of us are driving a couple hours to meet we have decided to postpone it for a couple weeks. Also one of the people I was to meet fell down last night and messed up his shoulder.

Now for my house being out to get me, well yes it is. Remember early on this week I crashed into one of the poles for the carport. Well today Jim and I were fixing it. Well he had started while I was out this morning and when I arrived home he asked to help him hold a board in place. When I stepped onto the lawn there was a board there with a nail sticking up. Yep a nail through my shoe and into my foot. I hurt like hell right now. WTF is next. My confidence is a little shaken today.

Yes Mr Politician this means YOU

I guess our esteemed leader in the do not get the meaning of this t-shirt I saw at a book fair a few weeks ago. As you may know some of our Democratic gutless wonders in the House caved into pressure from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to put the abortion prohibition in the healthcare package. There are minor alterations in the Senate plan. The fact that you caved into the Bishops clearly shows you have no idea of the separation of church and state. The Catholic bishops do not speak for the majority of Americans. How you justify your decision?

All healthcare issues should be covered. There only needs to be one plan for all Americans. You can roll Medicare and Medicaid into the national healthcare plan.

Please read the healthcare plan put forward by Dennis Kucinich and see what you think.
At this time this is the best plan put forward. At least He has the guts to put forward a plan that will be a benefit to all Americans.

www.kucinich.us.

Enough of me

So enough of me for the moment. A little politics for today.

So Sarah Palin is upset that Newsweek put a picture of her in her running outfit on the cover this week. You should have not posed for that picture if you did not want something of that nature to be brought to the public at large. However I suspect that you are actually glad it is on the cover. Now you can go out and say it is degrading to you, you did pose, and generate some level of unwarranted sympathy. Only fools will fall for this trick. There are many fools.

I see that Howard Berman D-California and the House Foreign committee Chairman has said that the United State has no right to restrict us from traveling to Cuba. Cuba is the only country that we can not travel too. It is about time that somebody gets the ball rolling here. We should have been able to travel there years ago. The embargo NEVER worked. It is amazing that we have been held hostage by the older Cuban community in Miami. Do you think those folks would move back to Cuba today if they had the chance? Not a chance in hell. It would snow in Miami before they would move back. No matter what the Cuban gov't says in public you know they want Americans coming to Cuba. The United States will be the driving force behind getting Cuba back on its feet. The Miami Cuban community needs to get their collective heads out of the rear ends and look at the facts. Time for bitterness is over folks.

Now for tonight's dinner. Last Friday I went to the Friday Market in downtown Tampa. I ended up buying some pasta. There was a booth selling tons of different styles and flavors of pasta.
I ended up getting one called fanciful fruit blend. It is lemon, lime, tangerine and raspberry.
Hope it is good.

My house is invaded by freakin ants again. Bastards won't go away. Time to nuke the whole darn house.

Picture is from Tampa.

How F***ing Dumb

Here is how my day started. Oh yeah, just freakin great. How did this happen you ask.

When Jim, aka the landlord, showed up this morning so we could dump more dirt into the garden. I had to move my truck from under the carport and onto the lawn. When I was backing up I swung the truck hard so I could get onto the lawn. Out of nowhere I here this awful sound. I say "What the fuck was that?". I look out the windshield and see one of the supports for the carport all busted up. I say "This is not good". Then I get out and look at the front left of my truck and say "@#$%%$%%#@$*" or "This is not good. While this happened Jim was sitting in his truck at the end of the driveway. Yippee for me. Can I start the day any better than this?
Well Jim is more worried about my truck and I am more concerned about the house. Go figure.

Thankfully the wood was just window dressing around the real support beam so no real foul.

As for the truck it is ok. Some of the plastic for the housing is broken. However I was able to snap it back into place for now. No way am I spending cash on a replacement at this time.

I think some rubbing compound and buffer will take the paint off the truck. There is a minor dent. However because of its location it really does not show.

Good way to start the day. Now this goes along with the fact I spilt paint on the rug while painting the hall the other night. I got 90% recovered. When I showed Jim he said what paint on the rug. I can see better than him. Then for the topper when we were getting one of the loads of topsoil today when somebody backed into the front of his truck. No real damage. Just lots of paint exchanging between vehicles.

Can you do better for today?

Cleaning the Junk

So after looking for jobs this morning, finding nothing in this area or Asheville except retail jobs,
I decided I would clean out the laundry room and the shed. Since the laundry room is outside off the porch it is like a shed and full of junk, aka crap. I went through both of these storage areas and tossed a bunch in the garbage and then put a bunch by the side of the road. It did not take long before the junkers came by and hauled off a bunch of the items for scrap metal and whatever else they were going to do with it. All that is left is a bookshelf and a perfectly good Dell monitor.

I just looked at my Ebay auctions and see that one book has a bid and four others have people watching the auction. Seems like a good sign.

Photo is from Tarpon Springs.

Sleepless in Tampa

So here are a couple images I want to use for my Christmas cards at the next art show. I have another black and white image of a church that looks like a spanish style church that I want to use. I will need to go through my cd's and find the darn picture. That will be a chore, since my cd's really are very poorly labeled, Ugh, my payback for being lazy. I'll post that picture and one other that I want to use and see what use think. I am going to use Shutterfly to print these so they should look pretty nice. I think I will sell them individually and in a packs. If they do not sell I will use them myself. Hell it will be cheaper than getting cards at the store.

Fell asleep around 9;30 last night. Woke up at 3:00 and could not get back to sleep. So I got up and did dishes, vacuumed, folded a load of laundry and have now put a load in the dryer and the last load in the wash.

Now I am going to get my camera and upload the pictures to the computer. Then crop the pictures of the books I am going to put on Ebay this morning. If you want to see what I am selling my Ebay user name is 7e29. Follow the auctions for some never ending excitement.

Oh yeah, you can bid also and put food on my table.

The Other Side

Well I have been out of work for a week and at this point I have to state that I have not not been this happy in a long time. It is amazing what stress can do to ones mental health. Wow is all I have too say.

I have not shaved since I lost my job and I like having a beard coming in. It is crazy how much gray is in my beard. Not much gray on top, the beard is making up for that. It may be a few weeks before I shave. Depends if the thing starts to itch a whole bunch. We shall see.

The art show next month is a Christmas theme. You can enter ornaments or cards. I think I may put some cards in the show. If you look at my Flickr stream I have a set called Got Jesus. I think I'll pick out a couple pictures from that series and have Christmas cards made from those for the show.

My next post will be 5 pictures that I want to use for the cards. Opinions please.

Not sure what I am doing today. Think I will go to some yard sale this morning and see what Ebay items I can find. One never knows.

My grass is always greener, on the other side.

Things

Well my landlord, Jim, and I put up some shelves on the backside of the shed today. We are going to put in a garden. It is going to be 12 x 16. So it will be decent size garden. Veggies and flowers. I also have put up a couple bird feeders. They have yet to attract birds. However I have thrown some food and I have seen finches eating in the lawn. At least I think they finches. not really up on my bird knowledge. I know I have a very good bird book that I need to dig out and get up to speed on my birds. As long as I see some cardinals around I will be happy.

Tomorrow morning I am going to head out and do some picture taking as long as it is not cloudy like this morning. Then head downtown in the afternoon and check out the Friday downtown market. I want to see if I can sell some photos without a business license. Hopefully I can.
Then tomorrow night some of the folks I worked with want to take me out to dinner.

This picture was taken near downtown Tampa. For many years there was a store called Hyde Park Hemp and this was painted on the pole in front of the store. They went out of business earlier this year. times got too tough for them.

Torn

We are becoming a nation of hardened hearts, splintered factions and people who are unwilling to compromise with those who have a different view of how we need to grow and advance as a nation. Is this what the lasting legacy is going to be for those who have decided to become members of our armed services? For those who paid the price of their lives is this how we are going to pay respect to them?

We have leaders inside and outside of politics who completely refuse to listen to views from people with differing views. The soldiers who have given their lives are being desecrated by these actions. Those soldiers are just like the rest of America. They have different views from one another on all aspects of American life yet they decided to join the armed services and work towards a common goal of a better America.

While you can agree or disagree with the merits of war you need to respect the sacrifice of those who have joined our armed services. We owe them that.

Today as we celebrate Veterans Day please think of those of have served this country, are serving this country and those who have given their lives. We owe them much and give them very little back.

We are torn.

Get your Produce. $1.00

So today I filed for unemployment online, at 6:00 a.m. Wanted to be ahead of the curve.
Then I decided I wanted to up to Webster and visit the super huge flea market. It is actually two really big flea markets. One part is 99% antiques, collectibles and such. The other side is a mix of old, new and some complete crap. They do have one main area that has tons of produce, cheap.
I bought fresh green beans, corn, red creamer potato's, broccoli, 7 bananas and a three pound bag of tangerines for a dollar each. A pineapple for 2 dollars. All good deals and all fresh. These farmers are mostly from Florida. Some come down from Georgia. Oh yeah I also bought two nice sized mint plants for a dollar each. They smell yummy.

Low temp today, but very very humid and windy. All from Ida buzzing by.

Tomorrows blog may not be as nice. I feel I need to bitch about some things I have seen lately.

Damm I think I already used this picture on this blog. Well who cares cause I like it. This is from the LAAFF Festival in Asheville. This is actually one of my faves from that vacation.

Good news Sunday

Now for some good news. I went to Publix this morning to see how much my blood pressure medicine would cost now that I have no insurance. It cost me $20 a month with insurance and it is going to cost me $23 with no insurance. Cool. I was concerned about that. The next thing I found out about is also insurance related. When you get terminated like I did you will have the option of picking up your insurance through Cobra. This is not always affordable to many people in situations such as mine. I found out that there is a provision in the stimulus plan that will pay for 65% of your Cobra charge. So as long as the Cobra is a decent price I will be able to have insurance and pay only 35% of the cost. Thanks Mr. President.

I plan on looking at whatever other options for food assistance, rent assistance or whatever other programs are out there. Time for me to get my end of the public dole.

The Bucs won today. What else do I need.

Out to Pasture

Well just like this truck I have been put out to pasture by the corporate paymasters. I was fired, terminated, downsized or whatever term one chooses to use when you lose your job.

Outside of the fact I am now jobless I actually feel pretty free at the moment. It is time to take stock in my situation in life and figure out what I need to do to make some changes in the direction things have been heading. So I will be looking at many possibilities and see if I can move in a new direction and find some meaning in what I do next.

So the options are great even in these times. I am taking this as a blessing and will look forward to the next chapter in my life. Onward and upward my friends. Do not fret or worry about Mark.
If things are going poorly you will read about it here first. If things are going great listen for the cheer from the top of the mountain. If a loud cheer comes to your ears in the middle of the day you will know that something good has happened for me and you can sit back with a smile and know I am moving on to the greatness I was meant to achieve.

Peace my friends. Thanks for listening and enjoy your weekend. I will be enjoying mine as a free man.

Paralyzed

Ok so I am not going to post anything of substance. If I post all the turmoil I have going on in my head I think I will have a fucking mental breakdown. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFuck.

I feel like I need a shit storm to kick my ass and make me do something with life. For me it is painful to do anything these days. I just wallow in my own self pity and it really sucks.

Ok I am going to watch Dexter. A great Showtime series. It gets addicting. Well written.

I have been listening to WNCW from Asheville tonight. It is a great radio station out of Asheville. The music helps soothe me.

I have been listening to it since I got back from vacation. Not some short lived love of a radio station you hear while away from home. It is good.

Well I have the art show tomorrow tonight. It will be interesting to listen to what people have to say about my picture. I know not all will like it, that is the way of art. Anyhow I just need one to like it enough to take her home. Hell I may have to buy some art while I am there. Pottery perhaps?

Off to the couch. Thanks for listening and hope you understand.

Photo from Tammy's garden.

The Old Road

Traveling the back roads through yesterdays towns

No super highways with droning sounds

The small towns welcome us with open arms

Local foods and locals smiles a welcome sight

Mom and Pop inns, we spend the night

Dreams of tomorrow run through the youths mind

We are today's tourist trade, hope you don't mind,

The old road is gone

Tourist trade has passed us by

The Mom and Pop Inn shuttered and dusty

Old signs weathered and rusty,

We have forgotten the small towns

Its where we all live

Come back to us America, we will forgive.

Now what to do...............

So last Thursday I got my prints back from Shutterfly, who do an excellent job, and got them mounted and matted. The picture above is the other one I will submit for the Gallery if the first one sells. I bought frames for them and I have dropped the black and white chair picture off at the gallery. But now I have a problem, a good one. I had the picture above matted in about the same color as the palm cross. When I had this printed I had it done glossy. Now I like this one more than the other and think I should put this in at the opening. I have it framed in a light tan frame and it speaks to me more than the other picture. I think I should go with this picture first. My gut tells me this is better for many reasons. Subject, color, appeal and so on. This is more like my photo hero Eggleston than the other picture.

What do you think?

Panic in my brain

This is a picture of the Sidney Lanier Bridge in southern Georgia. It takes one too and from Brunswick, Georgia. Ever since I had a panic attack going over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, a bridge I had driven over countless times, I have not been able to drive over bridges that have any height to them. This is one of those bridges. I have no explanation for this as the panic attack came out of the blue. This bridge has 185 feet of clearance from the river below at its highest point. So even though I wanted to check out Brunswick for photo opps there was no way in hell I was going to go over this bridge.

When I had the panic attack I was close to the top of the Sunshine Skyway. This is 173 feet above Tampa Bay. Go figure I want to stay away from bridges this high. This is not a place I need to experience a mental freak out.


If you have a panic attack you will understand.

And I know one person who reads this blog who will find this to be totally funny because I gave this person a whole load of crap for not wanting to drive over these things. Payback from the brain is a bitch. :)

Google these bridges for the facts. Interesting.

Get a Guru

One of the trips I made on while vacation was to Tarpon Springs. Just trying to find some next little things to photograph. One of the neat little stores is this place called "Get a Guru". They usually have tons of different scents of handmade soap. This time they did not have many scents. Business has been good lately. They use olive oil with assorted scents. I bought one with basil and anise. It smells great. One strange side effect of the scent is that last few days when I have come home from work the house smells like the soap. At first It was wondering what the hell the smell was. I was an unexpected pleasure.

Its Friday. Ye Haw. Will be going out to see folk artist Ruby C Williams tomorrow and also dropping my picture off for the art show. Trick or Treat and enjoy your extra hour of sleep.

Off to work..............

Open for Who?

Most big banks are making huge profits, not lending money, paying big bonuses and raising rates on credit cards to huge apr's. Despite the fact the media would have you believe the housing market is recovering I say it is not recovering. If not for the tax credit there would be very little in the way of home sales. Gas prices have risen 30 cents in the last 30 days. GM needs more money. The recovery is stalled in my opinion.

The tax credit for homes should expire so that prices would free fall to a affordable level. Once this was achieved then you would see new home starts rise. I think they are still too high. That is still the case for much of the Tampa area.

Most people did not get raises in 2009 and I bet companies will use the poor economy as the reason for no increase in 2010. No increase in salary means no recovery in the economy. I know that some people in my company will have gone three years with no increase. As of January it will be two years for me. It is not like my cost of living has decreased in the last two years.

Until people see reasonable increases in take home pay the only people who will see any benefit in the economy are corporations.

Heavily manipulated picture from a BBQ joint in Woodbine, Ga.

Running Late

Running late this morning. Quick post.

We got hammered with rain last night. Been getting hot and humid again. Were is the fall weather.

I will start posting some vacation pictures on Flickr tonight. I got some great shots. I am thinking of taking a bunch of my junk to sell at a flea market soon. They charge $9.00 for the table. Good way to get rid of some stuff. Price it low and watch it fly away.

The picture is charcoal kilns. These are near Dunnellon, Florida. I could not believe it when I saw these. Never had a clue these things were anywhere in Florida. Very neat find.

U BULY U

It was so fun going back to work yesterday. We all had to go in early for a meeting. We got bitched at for a half hour. Thanks for the comments and veiled threats. We appreciate it.
We have gone from 26 employees in the Florida market to 16 employees in the last year and are expected to be able to do the same job. Seems a little unrealistic to me. We did not get a raise this year and I bet none will be coming in January. Time to ratchet up the job seeking. What to do.......... Once again he brought religion in a meeting. We have been sold and he just had to mention that one of the new owners is a Mormon bishop, like the current president our company. Stop with that crap. I COULD NOT CARE LESS.

Keep your eyes out as I will begin to post pictures from vacation. There as some goodies.

Picture taken in Ybor City on News Years day.

My show submission

Back a few posts ago I mentioned that I wanted to put some work in the Tampa Artist Emporium. Well with money being very tight I have put that on hold. However I stopped in on Thursday for look around and ran into a guy who used to work for me at Big Lots. It has been 8 years or so since I had seen him. Well come to find out he and his wife are co-owners of the gallery. We started talking about the shop and they told me about an upcoming show for emerging artists. The show is called "Sticks of Fire" a Tampa Theme Show. They thought there was one spot still left for the show and said I should put something in the show.
Well I submitted the picture above and got accepted for the show. So the picture above will be going in and hopefully it will sell. If it does sell I can put in another picture as the works get to stay in the gallery for a month. I am going to get this professionally matted and framed and see what happens. Keep your fingers crossed. I know mine will be. The picture was taken in an alley in Ybor City. I think I will name it Ybor's Torture.

Avett Brothers Live at NPR

Now I know I post music that many of you may not like but here is a band on the move.
I saw the Avett Brothers at Springfest in 2007 and they put on a great live show. Some much energy from a band playing music of this style was music was fantastic.
They just released their first major label record which was produced by the master record producer Rick Rubin. If you do not know Rick Rubin check him out. He is the best in the business these days by a long shot. Anyhow their album was number 16 in the top 200 albums in the U.S. the last time I checked. When you think about that it really is amazing considering how much crappy overproduced music the public buys and how much real music get lost these days. It is a testament to how good these guys really are. Congratulations.

Repent Now

My immediate supervisor is disappointed because I went on vacation this. Because we are short a person in the office due a health issue we have been shorthanded. I offered to delay my vacation until we came back to a full staff and you chose not to accept that offer. You said take it next year. Well there are several reasons that is not acceptable. I am not a slave to you or the corporation. It is me and my life before work. We also have been purchased by a new corporation and who knows what changes they will make in HR policies. We earn our vacation time and while it may mean nothing to you it does mean something too me. It is clear you really do not know me as a person, although you think you have quite the clear vision. If I offer to delay my vacation I am doing it because I feel it is the right thing to do for my "FELLOW CO-WORKERS". You should have thought about that. You were not thinking about that at all.

Your whole vision is clouded because I know you that you do not like me one single bit. I know you wanted me to be fired earlier this year. You think I make too much money. You have told people that you are not sure of what my value is to the company. Since you have terminated so much staff over the past 18 months I am now doing the jobs of two and half other employees beside what I am supposed to be doing. How the hell is one supposed to properly do ones original job when you are spread so thin. Remember I hear all you have to say about me. You view of me is so clouded by dislike you have no idea who I am.

You claim to be this super Catholic and are always trying to sneak little Christian themes in conversation where you think you can. Believe me I notice this and it pisses me off. You see the thing is I do not care if you are a Christian and want to pass some of this of were you think you can. Your actions show me that you need to practice what you preach. Go back and read your bible and understand what it is saying to you. REPENT NOW.

Trials of Life

Another long time friend of our family passed away yesterday. Barbara Grieder passed away yesterday at the age of 65. When my brother and I were kids we spent a fair amount of time with her daughter Laurie, as we were all pretty much the same age. When my brother had his race team Barbara's brother worked on the team with my brother and Web Lewis who passed away two months ago. It must be tough when you get to that stage of life when you start to see your friends pass away. Rest in peace Barbara.

So Far

Well vacation has been very good so far. Visiting old friends, Mike and Tammy. Meet an old Flickr contact, mscrant1971, for the first time. Sat around a fire and just relaxed. Ate good food, drank some beer, took pictures, walked on the beach, went to a flea market, photo museum and did nothing at times. Relaxing. Bought a book at the flea market called "Brass Tacks" by David Cushman Coyle. This is about economics that seems to be fitting for today. It was written in 1935. It was written so that the average American could understand it. Seems to be quite interesting. I'll keep up updated. It cost me a quarter. I also bought a 78 rpm record, it is a little warped, that is the size of a 45 record. It is red vinyl and is a religious record. It is old for sure. It was also a quarter. Maybe I'll frame it. I like old colored records. At the Florida museum of Photographic Arts the teeny tiny museum had a teeny tiny show of works by Burk Uzzle.

Check out his website and see great works from Woodstock among his works.

No comments on the news. I am on vacation and really could not care less for now.

Look for me in my balloon.

Photo is from last vacation. This is in Asheville.

Why the FUCK is Blogger not letting me create paragraphs. It is creating on big mess that is a pain in the ass to read.

Republicans are Fascists

Yes I think the Republican party is a fascist party. When they call us socialist or communists lets call them fascists. I can hear them howl now. I urge you to check out the description for yourself and see what you think. Bet you find I am right.

I guess the banks giving all those huge bonus payouts is their way of saying thank you for bailing us out, now go fuck yourselves. I amazes me that Congress is acting all huffy about the bonus payouts. It is one year later and they passed NO legislation to have some form of control over the issue. The banks should be forced to pay back all loans to the people of the United States before they issue any bonuses. Banks are still the cause of all the unrest we are having today and they simply do not care. They are not renegotiating mortgages for the most part, not giving loans and holding on to a large portion of the money they have coming in. If you dig into the banks financial statements, and you do not have to go far, you will find that the profits they are making are by not doing business as normal. If you vastly scale back on mortgages, loans, layoff large numbers of staff it is no wonder your profits look large.

Do you really think because the Dow is over 10 grand that things are getting better. It is a shell game and I am here to tell you that we have not seen the end of the problems banks have caused. My recommendation is to hold onto your money and stop building up your debt. There is more to come. We are one terror attack or some other major national tragedy of the country having a major meltdown.

The picture above was taken on a little street in St. Pete. This was out behind a bar. Was this intended for the trash? It seemed like and odd place for this. They had a courtyard with similar works inside. Anyhow I liked how it was just sitting there like trash.