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.

Redwoods for Tammy

Ok Tammy, here are some redwood trees. If you look at the first picture you will see a red thing off in the distance. That is a person. This was the fallen trunk of a redwood. It is insane how huge these things are. The second is just looking up. In the third one I am standing inside the burned out trunk of a redwood. This tree was still alive. It is as if the fire never did anything to the tree.

It is just a cool place. There is a nice river running through this area. Peaceful.

This was when I stayed in Crescent City, CA. A small town with nothing going on most of the time. I was here over July, 4th 2006. So they had a party down on the green on July 3rd with a band, beer and locals. They were somewhat amazed we where there on vacation. It is usually fairly cool/cold here. Because they are so close to the mountains the Pacific Ocean keeps the area cool. The one thing that was cool was the previous winter there were tons of storms so the main beach, which was a couple miles long, had tons of driftwood on it. On the 4th after the parade tons of people went down to the beach and built huge fires and partied on the beach all day waiting for the fireworks. The amount of driftwood was staggering. lots of big pieces. People actually built huts out of it. Very cool.

It is great because overall there are not many people so everything is pretty much in its natural state.

When you go bring your jacket.

National Parks are cool

Labor Day weekend 2005 as the world was fully awakening to horror of Katrina's impact on New Orleans I was heading out to Vegas as a layover night before heading to the north rim of the Grand Canyon for a few days, then off to the south rim for a couple nights and back to Vegas again. Very cool and interesting part of the United States if you have never been there. I would like to go back again for a few weeks and just roam around. On the third day there I went to Bryce Canyon, above, and Zion National Park. A very long day with lots of traveling. I absolutely love Bryce and Zion. Very beautiful and vastly different from one another given how close they are to each other. I hiked down to the bottom of Bryce and very cool and not so easy. Going down was easy, going back up was a long tough trip for me. Thankfully I had plenty of water. It was just a tad warm. Some wild rock formations. When you were on the other side from where this picture was taken you had views for a long ways off. Up where high up on the plateau and were down on small towns and vast amounts of wide open plains leading to the mountains in the distance. Very cool.

So on this trip I was able to go to three National Parks, Hoover Dam and Glen Canyon Dam in the in five days before getting back to Vegas. The great thing it never seemed rush, except when we needed to get out of Utah and to Arizona to get a bottle Early Times before the liquor store closed. There were none in Utah and this only one for many many many miles. You understand.

I would go back to Bryce and Zion before the Grand Canyon truth being told. And if want you go to Hilldale, Arizona or Colorado City, Utah and hangout with the fundamentalist Mormons as they live out in the area. They are pretty remote.

Just go.........................

Return of an old friend

It is nice to return to an old friend to say hi and see how time has treated them. Well I returned to my friend and photo partner the Underwood Motel last week. The photos here will give you and indication of how time has treated her. The top photo was taken in October of 2009, the second was taken in March of 2006. The 2006 picture was the actual beginning for me to take photography to another level. I had only been on Flickr for two months at that point. So you see that things were coming together as a photographer around the same time.

So this sign, which I love as an old classic neon sign, holds a special place for me. It is my version of Linus's blanket. It always give me great shots and shows how time and mother nature take its toll if left to her own devices. As you can see the arrow is now completely hidden from view and at the rate the field around her is growing the whole sign will soon be invisible to those who do not know she is there. I am going to head back up for more pictures as soon as we have some cold weather and some of the brush and shrubs have died. I have a fear that the sign is not long for the world and I need to capture as many pictures as possible before it disappears either from man or mother nature, although as long as it is there I will photograph it.

Thank you Underwood Motel for being my blanket.

I'm just Sayin'

Who won what today? How the fuck does that happen? Mr. President you had best get moving so you can show why you won the Nobel Peace Prize. I'm sayin' I am just a wee bit cynical. I am sure you can understand.

And what was that hype about the rocket crashing into moon. Well I fell for it. I watched the big nothing happen on tv this morning. If you were hoping for some good press and then generate more dollars for your budget I would say you failed. I'm just sayin'.

Why is it still so damm hot here. I was 92 today. Hello Mother Nature, it is supposed to be fall. Enough with this breaking records with the heat garbage. We would like to turn off the AC and open the windows. Thank you very much my dear.

The photo of the Chrysler was taken just south of Starke, Florida on 301 last Saturday.

World as Art

So tonight when I was not listening to music and playing on the internet I watched a show on PBS called "Craft in America". The show focused on assorted artists doing pottery, which is my favorite, glass blowing, metal working, weaving, book making amongst other art forms. What was cool is they were small independent artists who worked in traditional ways and excelled at their craft. It was cool to hear them talk with such passion about their craft.
One last thing on pottery. When I go on vacation I like to by a piece of pottery, from a local artist, if the chance presents itself. It is much better than a t-shirt.

I wish I had learned a craft in the arts as a kid.

So maybe today you heard about the healthcare bill, its cost and such. However the things that is complete crap is that even in ten years, 2019, there will be 25 million still uninsured. The estimates say 1/3 of those will be illegal aliens. There is no acceptable reason that they can not pass a bill making sure that all Americans are insured, now. Yes it will be costly, however it is morally corrupt that you can not get this done. You disappoint me greatly.


The photo is of plans for the new Tampa Art Museum that will be opening which will be opening in Feb. of 2010. These were tossed outside near the trash. This was before they torn down the old museum, which was in very sad shape. I thought at the time I should take them. Now I am pissed that I didn't. Oh well, more crap I really did not need.

Too Long

So this week we are entering nine years of the "War on Terror". So glad that it is working so well. What have really accomplished during this war? Are we really safer? Are you happy with all the powers the government has now? Is the Obama war plan what you expected?

Did you see Brett Favre last night. Amazing how the guy still is so damm good. It is great to watch him because he is having so much fun.

Looks like I may need a hot water heater soon. I am trying to talk my landlord into a tankless system. I hope he goes for it.

Photo from South Beach. January 2007.

Rock On

So today while watching the Bucs lose again I saw something that I think is just stupid.

It is not a big thing, but it annoys me. I saw the woman at the table in front of me eating her chicken wings with a fork and knife. She would hold a chicken wing with a napkin, pick some chicken off with the knife and eat it using the fork. Come on now. You eat chicken wings with your hands.

I got some good pictures yesterday, including some more of the Underwood Motel sign. It is slowly being consumed by plants. I would guess in a year from now you will hardly be able to see it at all.

Have another tough week coming at work. We were short a person last week. Jonathan, one of the three who is in the office everyday, was in the hospital. He went in last weekend for what he thought was kidney stones. Well not so lucky. He had a tear in his colon. It actually burst when they had him in the cat scan machine. They actually saw it happen. He is lucky he was at the hospital when this happened. Could have been much much worse. He will be out of work this week for sure and maybe next week. Then I am on vacation. Thankfully.

The holding company that owned us has sold us. The new owners are called Prophet Equity.

I think this should be good. We will be the main focus of their investment. They are looking to buy other company's and grow the company that way. We shall see. It will be nice to be the main focus of the investors. I missed most of the conference call about this, the store was super busy, but on thing that the person who was going over the purchase stated was they are Christians. Big fucking whoop. That has no place on the call announcing that your company has been sold. It is not their website, so why does that need to be mentioned.

Photo is in Asheville.

Whats going on...........

I for one am glad that the Olympics are going to be in Rio. AHHH, its Rio people. I may be wrong but I suspect it has more to offer as a whole party scene than Chicago.

Afghanistan is so screwed up that no matter what decision Obama makes it will be wrong.

Today I am going on a photo roadtrip a couple hours north of Tampa. A little more of old Florida. Hope I find something good.

I need to go buy ne some good Octoberfest beer. Must look today.

My tummy aches.

Sorry for the weak post today.

Photo taken in Asheville, NC.