Almost over

Thankfully this week is almost over. It has been a real bitch of a week. Too busy at work to effective like I like to be. Catching up everyday is not my idea of fun.

Going to the doctors today. Something is wrong and I need the doctor to get whatever it is fixed or I am going to find another doctor. Enough screwing around.

Looks like the weather will be nice tomorrow and a 50% chance of rain on Sunday. So tomorrow I am heading up the road about 30 miles to Madison, NC to Shinefest which celebrates many things including the moonshine heritage of NC. There is a lot goig on and there are some bands playing that seem pretty decent and it is free for the most part. Of course I will go the market in the morning for some fresh bread, eggs, coffee, blueberries, mushrooms and whatever else strikes me.

Picture is of the little downtown section of Weaverville, NC just north of Asheville.

Treading on Glory

I can not wait until this week is over. We have been insanely busy and I still have things from Monday that I have not finished. Not how I like to work. I see no breaks coming today at all.

I went to Fuckmart last night to get my prescriptions and decided to pick up a few things in the grocery dept. Grabbed my few items and headed to the checkout. Went to the self checkout because as usual the other lines were to damm long. Had to wait forever because the register kept having problems. When I get my turn more problems. Before I even ring up anything or even do anything it says some crap about something in the bagging area. WTF. Then I go to scan item 1, nothing. Does not scan after several passes. Same for item two. Then it says call cashier to do some damm thing. Before that happens it clears itself but still does not scan any items. Meanwhile the line behind me is getting longer and the fucking cashier watching the registers is doing nothing. Finally I said not so quietly "Fuck this shit" and left the counter full of my stuff and walked out. The thing is every time I go to Fuckmart their self checkout registers NEVER fucking work right. Now the grocery store I go to "Harris Teeter" has the self checkouts and they have never had a problem, never. So just like much of the cheap crap Fuckmart sells they buy the crappiest registers for us to use. FIX THE FUCKING REGISTERS YOU ASSHOLES OR HIRE MORE GODDAMMED CASHIERS. CHEAP MOTHERFUCKERS.

This flag is on the grounds of the Guilford County Historical Society. It was early on a Saturday morning and was like this an hour later. Very odd.

Extra Extra

In my mad attempt to eliminate all debt I have not left myself much breathing room if I actually needed cash for something like the gas pump in this picture. This was $650.00 which is actually a good buy if one is inclined to have something like hanging around the house.

So yesterday some areas around here got hammered with rain. About 2 inches near work and about 4 inches just some of my house. On the way home I went past this stream that is usually 2 feet deep or so and not all that wide. Yesterday it had to be 10 feet deep and was wide. This stream is one of those that gets lots off runoff from the other streams in the area. Over the years it has carved a nice gully caused from storm runoff. Good example of flash flooding.

Notice the spin beginning in the news about the oil leak. Since the well has been capped and oil is getting harder to see on the surface the reporting is slowly turning towards "The spill may not be as bad as we thought". Watch the drumbeat on the positive spin grow louder.

Did you see the story about the guy who bought the Ansel Adams glass negatives for $45.00 at a yard sale and are allegedly worth $200 million. Well who knows what they are really worth but they are more than $45.00. What a great find. I am heading out Saturday morning.

Sunglasses and Dreads

Tell me whose hair is more frightening. It is the dreads or one of the two women with the sunglasses on. I pick the woman on the left.

This was the Asheville drum circle on Saturday night. I was going back to my truck to dump the camera off and they were playing at one of the stages. Well I had to stop a watch for a while as they are pretty darn good. Quite a variety of people in the drum circle. Black, white, native American--a very old Eskimo woman, a woman with downs syndrome and her Mom all playing and having a great time. Although not the leader of the group Mr. Dread was clearly the one who was the best, in my opinion. After I went and watched some of Grace Potter, who had a massive crowd, I went back to the drum circle. Had to get back to some primal tribal feeling music. Watching a good drum circle is a blast. It has a way of striking to the core of who we are if you just go with the drumming. How these guys played for a couple hours Saturday is amazing as it was so blasted hot on the street. I wonder how much water they went through.

Bele Chere and Asheville Weekend

It was a very good weekend in Asheville. Very very hot on Saturday being on the streets of Asheville. I'll post pictures later today from the weekend.

On Thursday night we went to an Indian restaurant called "Mela". This is the second time I have been there and both times that food has been excellent. With your dinner you get an appetizer that is basically Indian Doritos, although they and very light and almost wafer like.
With that you get this dip that is mint, cilantro and some else in mixed in that has an almost root beer flavor. Very very good. For dinner I had lamb tandoori that comes with basmati rice, and a little cup of soup. That also has a mint and cilantro sauce for the lamb. The food here is flavorful and tasty. We sat at the bar for dinner and ended up bullshitting with the girl who was the bartender. She was pretty cool and had just moved back to Asheville after having lived in Connecticut for the last three years. So it was cool because we had plenty to talk about.

During the day Friday we went and cruised through a bunch of moutain towns and through the mountains northwest of Asheville. Stopped in the little down of Marshal, NC. A neat little town of about 900. It is right on the French Broad River. A small town that is becoming a little art village.

I'll have more as the week goes on. Some pictures of the weekend and so on.

Gotta run. Time to shave and shower.

Did I say it was hot? Brutal I mean.

Southern Culture on the Skids

This is one of the bands playing at Bele Chere this weekend. I saw them several years ago on News Years Eve. Great live party band. Lots of fun.
Will be good fun to be in Asheville for a few days. Should be a great weekend for picture taking. Lots of characters will be out and about.

Enjoy your weekend. I'll drink for you.

Love -- Wig

Oops, did the President and others jump to the wrong conclusion when they fired the women from the Agricultural Department yesterday. Nice study of the facts.

I know you are probably not watching the Tour de France but it has been a very good race this year. Would love to go to France to catch this while touring the country.

The week is almost over. Leaving at 2 tomorrow. It will feel good to be in Asheville for a couple days. Need a little break.

Here is a cool site. Need to figure out how I can use it. www.kickstarter.com

Bynum North Carolina

Here is a little blurb about this old store.
bynumfrontporch.org

Why is it that the prescription nasal sprays work like crap and the crap you buy over the counter works well but its effects may not last long except you can get addicted. I have used Flonase, Nasonex and Astelin and none of them work worth a shit. You would think they would be able to find a way to make the OTC sprays so they are non addictive.

This is where I will be staying in Asheville. cabinlodging.com

Bobby Darin Simple Song of Freedom

Right on Bobby.

Roger Waters We Shall Overcome

Man do I wish that this video was seen by millions upon millions of people in this world. We have a long way to go as a people. Now is the time to stop all this madness of war and hate, if not we are doomed to a very sad ending.

Thank you Roger..................

Tough

Man was last week at work very tough. Very busy and the beginning of this week will be exactly the same. Some big bids that are major dollars are in the pipeline. The phones are also ringing off the hook. Everybody was glad when the end of the day rolled around Friday.

We got hammered again with rain yesterday. Another 2 1/2 to 3 inches. So we got 6 inches this week. It looks like the heat will still be here with temps in the upper 90's as the week ends.

Watched a couple DVD's yesterday. One was "The Cove" and the other called "Earthlings". The Cove was excellent and very well done. Earthling, not so much. They both deal with the same theme. Man's inhumanity towards animals. While "The Cove" was focused on the capture and slaughter of dolphins in Japan, "Earthlings" was focused on mans inhumanity towards animals overall. The video footage in "Earthlings" was totally unsettling and showed the absolutely most disgusting, horrible and vile things one ever wants to view. While in general I would agree with much of the movie I found its self righteous attitude to be a bit much. The movie was so shocking that there was no way in hell that the movies intended audience would ever sit through more than 20 minutes of it before turning it off. The movies producers attempts to use shock value ultimately is a turn off.

Watch out for our lovely gov'ts attempts to pass the "Internet Kill Switch" bill. Can we really trust anybody who is running the country to use this with any measure consistent with the "Bill of Rights". I hardly think so. Remember that China, Iran and other countries that we are politically opposed to use this all the time for things they find to be inconsistent with the views of their government. Do you really think once this bill passed that it would not get used by our government to shut down things they opposed. Add this to the Patriot Act as another attempt to slowly whittle away our freedom. Do you think they would only use this in case of cyber attacks against the United States? I suspect that the hackers who would launch these attacks are already so far ahead of these kill switch attempts anyhow. I fear where we are going. Libs, Dems, Tea baggers, Repubs are all the same. You all want control, not freedom.

The picture of the cat is from Black Rock Mountain State Park in Georgia. He came wandering up to my campsite from the woods like he owned the place. I gave it some milk and after drinking it up he/she wandered back into the woods.

No Fun Allowed

Big surprise that the FDA let Avandia stay on the market. What kind of pressure helped that decision along. Typical poor drug regulation. I bet Tammy sees plenty of this everyday.

When will governments across the country finally wake up and legalize marijuana? The amount of money spent just enforcing these laws in stunning and could be better used in other places.

Oh my, BP's latest attempt to fix the oil leak is another failure. Who would have guessed that?

Totally pathetic.

Banana peppers are coming hot and heavy right now and I have another round of cayenne peppers coming. Good little porch garden.

My brother will be getting home from France today after his three week vacation. Can't wait to talk to him about it. Three weeks in France seems like a very nice vacation.

Talk to you later.

Don't Tread on Me

I doubt many have been really following the story of the New Orleans Police Department and its actions after Katrina but you should. Please check out propublica.org and follow the story on the front page. It leads to a number of story's that are shocking and are still under investigation.
There have been a number of NOPD already convicted of murder. Not that this is new, but it is utterly disgusting an American city has a police force like this.

Why can't Obama use the passion from his speeches in the way he governs.

We got hammered with rain last night. 3" total yesterday. Drought gone for now.

Super busy at work this week. Friday can't get here soon enough after yesterday's chaos.

Adios, amigos and amigas.

Views of stuff

Caught this guy while out driving on day. Wonder if he has a gun in the truck.

Did you know that the Pentagon is BP's largest customer in the United States. They pay them $980 BILLION dollars a year to supply the military with oil.

Why aren't we seeing any photos or videos from above the oil leak. They have been using stock footage for some time now.

Massive headache yesterday. Did not go away for hours even after taking two migraine pills.

Everyday I am getting phone calls from people wanting money for assorted causes. It really gets annoying. I do not call them back and yet they still call. Fucking go away, please.

I have a picture I took at Bryce Canyon in the Megashot nature contest. It has made it to the third level. Hope it does well there.

Time for Special K and blueberries for breakfast. Shower and watch a few minutes of the Tour de France. Have a good day.

Back to the Grind

Did not do much this weekend. Kept things fairly low key. Saturday morning went to the market and bought a few things, including blueberries which are coming in pretty well. They are quite tasty. I also went down to the Greensboro Cultural Center late Saturday afternoon. It has a few different small art galleries in it. Saw some pretty good art, including some good photographers and some photographers that I have pictures as good as what they had.

Going to have a few pictures printed and matted and look for shows to enter them in. Also going to start to get some prints ready for a portfolio to bring to galleries outside of Greensboro. The ones here are not going to work, however I an eye on a few that might be a better fit.

We are starting need rain pretty bad. Things are getting pretty brown.

Picture is of an old barbershop. This was taken through the door.

Split Lip Rayfield Never Make it Home

Great song to close out the weekend. Enjoy

I C U

Damm the hot Russian spy has gone home. Maybe we will find each other through Match.com.

What the fuck is the deal with Lady Gaga. Her music sucks, in my opinion. Then again it is not like she is making it for me.

It is Friday and I have no plans for the weekend. Weather may play into whatever I do.
Maybe I'll go to an art museum.

Switched my anti virus program from Windows One Care to Microsoft Security Essentials. Both of these seem to work much better than anything else I have ever had. I have always hated Norton.

I love 4 day work weeks. They should be mandatory.

That is it for this morning. time for a shower.

Hands

I wish that all weeks were four day work weeks. Nice that the week is half over already.

Heading down to Asheville in two weeks. They have a big street fest called Bele Chere.

Going to take Friday off from work and head down Thursday night after work or maybe Friday morning. This is a huge festival on the streets of Asheville. Lots of music, arts, and crazy events going on all weekend. This is one of the biggest events in Asheville. Can't wait to go.

My peppers love the heat.

Fool

So I made it to the beach for the 4th, sort of. I drove down to Carolina Beach on the 4th ans got there about 10 a.m. and the place was hopping. Lots of people all over the place. The temps were beautiful and and I was happy for a short time. I did not realize the that there are very very few motels or hotels, very few. Tons and tons of monster size houses for rent and all packed one on top of another. Well there was no vacancy in Carolina Beach and none in Kure Beach. So I drove up to Wrightsville Beach and more people and even less hotels. So guess what. I drove all that way for fucking nothing. What a dammed fool. Do you think I was pissed?

Saturday morning I did get downtown to watch the parade and that was pretty cool. Parades are always fairly neat. Lots of family's. They also had a bunch of stages with locals bands and there were lots of vendors selling there goods.

Saturday afternoon I went out and bought a bike trainer so I can start riding at home to get some exercise and lose weight that way. It's the Tour de Mark.

The temps were perfect this weekend, but they have cranked up a whole hell of a lot since.
It is going to be 99 here today.

Picture is from an old mill in Bynum, North Carolina.

Grateful Dead U.S. Blues

Happy Birthday America

Shooter Jennings 4th of July

Enjoy

My contest winner

Ken showed us the contest winner for the Megashot flower contest yesterday and I have to say that I am underwhelmed. However it give me a whole bunch of confidence that Ken and I will win future contests because there are categories in which we both excel at. So there. :)
I looked at so many flower pictures I got allergies from my computer.

Was Ekaterina, my Russian love, a spy?

Well the big national birthday party weekend is here and the temps will be great. The excitement is high. Going to Greensboro's big downtown party tonight. Should be a fun time.
This is the first big event I will be going to in town. I expect it will be packed with people.
Camera time for sure.

Tomorrow morning is the big parade downtown and I am going to go to that. That should also be a good photo opportunity. I expect many crazy red, white and blue themes all around. Maybe the tea bag party will be there protesting. :)

Ken, all the food you had in the post the other day works for me. I love having a monster breakfast. Well, I will skip the pickled eggs and beets combo. Just make sure your plumbing is working fine because a big breakfast will most certainly clear my pipes.

Rock n Roll my friends...............................................................................................

I Spy

Does the Russian spy thing seem like complete bullshit or what. There is something missing here. What is the real story?

I have had all these companies calling me at work recently wanting to sell us their products. They have sent me samples. Have gotten a flashlight, a fixed blade knife, pocket knife, a duck decoy and I have a ceramic pocket knife coming any day now. More goodies on the way.
Thank you folks. I like free toys. I think I'll look for companies today and see what they will send me for free.

The weekend is almost here. Do you have your fireworks yet?