Wild Tires

Need to go through my pictures and figure out what ones to have done in a large size for the gallery.
I want to have a couple large ones that can bring in some dollars. I have plenty of 4x6 pictures to bring.
Maybe I should do a couple photo books and sell those. Who knows.

Running late. Hit the snooze a few times this morning.

Is the coast here going to get hit or have a near miss with the hurricane?

I never knew rubber trees looked like tires.

Its Snot Friday

Had a great time yesterday. Went down to Salisbury and meet Autumn, a friend from high school. She actually was my brothers girlfriend during their freshman year. We had not seen each other since high school. She has a great group of friends who are artists and musicians so I felt pretty much at home. I am going down again in a couple weeks and they want me to bring some pictures. They think they can get me some gallery space. Sounds good to me.

Anyhow it was great to see Autumn and reconnect. It was like we had no missed a beat. I thought she lived on the Outer Banks but she lives on a little island of the South Carolina coast.

My parents always liked Autumn and she would stop in and see my Mom at the antique shop when she went back to Ct. So yesterday when my Mom called I had Autumn answer the phone and let them talk for a while.

Good time. I needed a day like yesterday. Busy work week then Asheville this weekend.

Hell Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Its Friday. Wooooo HO.

Going with one the the executives of the company that owns us to meet with an IT company to give them ideas on how to improve our very sad looking website. In my opinion it needs some major reworking to make it consumer friendly. Everyone has ideas on how this needs to be set up and what they want the site to be. I am glad I get to go and inject my ideas and I will get to learn some things on how this all operates.
As is usually the case people who do not work in IT have all kinds of ideas and even though they seem easy to do it is usually not the case.

May be able to meet with a friend from high school this weekend. Autumn lives on the Outer Banks, but will be fairly close by this weekend. All a matter of timing and plans. If not this weekend then soon.

Asheville next weekend.

Photo is Del McCoury at Wanee Fest in Live Oak, Florida.

New Hours

I changed my work hours from 8:30 to 5:30 to 8 to 5. I never really liked my old hours. Really I never liked getting out of work at 5:30. Now I also miss all the bus traffic near me when I go to work at 8.

Got a nice little present at work yesterday. The President of the company was here and he had a meeting with us in the morning. Then yesterday afternoon we all got a $25 Amex gift card as a thank you for the job we do. Nice gift to get. Things like that can help make your day.

My nephew starts his college life tomorrow. Hope he does well and does not party his out of college.
It will be interesting to see how it all goes. He really had no idea how life changes from this point on.

I see that Guilford County has put a 1/4 cent sales tax increase on  the ballot in November instead of raising property taxes. How this gets voted down. 8 percent sales tax in ridiculous. They also do not need to raise property taxes. How bout just holding the line until the economy reaches some sort of normality. I want to see what the tea baggers around here have to say about this.

Numbers

So we hear that the economy is slowly getting better. I doubt it.

We have a little over 14 million unemployed. To put half of those people back to work in three years we have to add 208,000 jobs a month if we continue on the same path. Seems like an impossible task at this stage.

Homes sales drop 27 percent in July and now we hear talk of more stimulus so we can generate more homes sales. I say no to this. Let home sales drop and let the prices drop. The ultimate benefit is when homes prices drop to a natural level then more people will be able to buy homes at an affordable level. Homes are meant for people to live in, not to be something that you live in for a couple years and then turn around to sell for a massive profit. We have our priorities backwards here. The goal should be to put families in homes and not to use a home as a short term investment. People living in homes for many years is what makes a community.

The economy is not getting better or worse. I think it is settling into a natural state of affairs and all will be fine if we stop manipulating things. Not easy to accept. But it may be closer to the truth than we want to believe.

Going Local

With the outbreak of salmonella from all those eggs I think this will do some great things for the local farmers.
I have been buying eggs at the farmers market since I moved up here and I have to say that they actually do taste better.

Although local farms and farmers are not going to be perfect they do have a vested interest in running a clean farm. Mega farms are worried about the bottom line first and local farmers worry about putting out fresh, great tasting products first. It comes down to pride of ownership for the local farmers and pride of money for the corporate farms. Buy local when you can and support a real local business.

Temps in  the 70's today.

Running late. Mind is slow and foggy this morning.

Overall

A fairly quiet weekend overall. Saturday I did head over to Saxapahaw and had lunch/dinner then watched Holy Ghost Tent Revival for the first hour of the show and then headed home. A great locals event with  a large crowd. Nice time.

Yesterday I went for a little drive and got a few pictures. Stopped in at an antique shop and bought a couple tintype photographs. Nice day overall. You can tell the very beginning of fall is coming as the mornings are decent and humidity is not so bad. Ready for some cooler weather.

Quote of the day:

"How can we have a war on terrorism when war itself is terrorism."   Howard Zinn

Picture is of my parents house before the porch was repainted and flowers put in the front.

Refreshing

Man it is nice out this morning now that the humidity is gone for a day or two.

No real plans for most of the day. Think I may head over to Saxapahaw later on this afternoon. They have a farmers market and that is followed by live music. Tonight is a band called Holy Ghost Tent Revival. I have heard them on Pandora and WNCW in the past and they seem to be pretty good. Outside free music with low humidity, seems like a plan.

Picture is from Newport, Rhode Island. Great town to visit. Some super seafood. There are a couple places that have the most amazing clam chowder, which I could go for right now.

Special Delivery

May I suggest to all the paranoid people of America that we don't build the mosque only if you agree that we stop doing any business with Saudi Arabia. Since most of the attackers were residents of Saudi Arabia I suggest that you carry your xenophobia to any dealings we have with the Saudi government, businesses and oil companies. We must ban all Saudi travel to the United States and no Americans can be allowed to travel there either. Really we must do this so you feel completely safe.

While these same folks are also suggesting we consider repealing, rewriting or making some other changes to the 14th amendment then I want you to be open to consider repealing, rewriting or making changes to the 2nd amendment. Bet you will not be open to that debate.

You see people if you start to push too hard there are many of us who are sick and tired of the insensitivity and paranoia of people on the right and we will begin to push back and demand that you start to understand that this world is for all peoples of the world. It is not for white Americans to dictate to everyone else how to world is to be shaped. Continue to push to the right and the pushback will be much more that you imagine.

Boxes

How many more years before people do not know what these are?

While I read the news online I love to read newspapers. One thing that most people do not read when reading online are the little gems of news that are hidden deep in the newspaper beyond the headlines.
Many stories that are very important are buried in the paper for many reasons and if we lose newspapers those issues will never get told. Buy a newspaper this week.

Rod Blagojevich basically gets away totally free in round one. Pretty amazing the governments case was so weak after all the press it got. Makes one wonder.

I need to camping soon. Hopefully will go sometime in Sept. when the weather turns cool. Have not been camping in over a year. It would be nice to sit around a big fire with a beer.

Cry For the Indians

We owe them much, for we have taken plenty.

The countdown to Friday begins................................

A fairly uneventful weekend again. Weather was iffy most of it. Periods of rain here and there with not much sun at all.

Went to the big farmers market yesterday and you can see it is the beginning of the end of the growing season for many. Not nearly as many farmers now as there was just a few weeks ago. Between the heat this summer and whatever crops they were growing the growing season is slowing down until the fall crops start to come in. Although I did not get them I did some huge red peppers called Macaroni peppers that looked pretty cool. I think they would make a good stuffed pepper.

My apt. complex sent me a nasty letter because I did not pay my water bill last month. We have to pay them for some reason. It was $13 dollars.  What a fucking joke. I know it is just part of the deal when you live in a place like this. Maybe I should go pick up 13 piles of dog crap, they are all over the place, and leave them on the porch of the office.

If you want to listen to a good station online listen to wncw.org. They play lots of different music. Each weekday morning from 6-7 they play bluegrass before going to NPR news. Then the rest of the day the play great music. Check it out.

Build the mosque.

Picture from Lakeland, Florida.

Headaches

Headaches every day this week.

Change

Two years ago America voted for Barack Obama because he promised change. Now here we are and little or no change is apparent to the American public and many people are pissed and are being vocal about it. So what does the White House Press Secretary do, go off on a rant about the professional left. He said we would not be happy unless Dennis Kucinich were President and the Pentagon was gone. Well for one if Dennis were President I would be happy. I wanted him to be the Democratic candidate. He is much more to the left than President Obama and has a better world view of what America should be.

The thing is Robert Gibbs misses the whole point. President Obama has done very little of what he has promised. He basically caved on health care and it is a shell of what it should have been. Guantanamo still open, war still raging, and what I find distressing is he really is George Bush lite. Long on promises, short on delivering promises. Great speeches with no follow up. The left is pissed because you are doing nothing, plain and simple. If the Republicans win November it is because the change you promised has not come close to  happening. Open your eyes dude. Not hard to see if you take your blinders off.

We got slammed with a nasty thunderstorm last night. Tons of lightning and rain. Stokedale which is about 20-25 minutes northwest of here had 5 inches of rain. Here just over two inches. Crazy weather, hot and no rain for days then big storms dumping inches of rain at one time.

Jimmy Martin Lost Highway

Some say Jimmy Martin is the Fsther of Bluegrass. Because he was seen as a rebel in the music industry he never got many of the things he deserved.
He recorded some classic music and here is one I like quite a bit.

Sleepy

This is one of those mornings I could have stayed in bed for another hour or two. Oh well Saturday is not that far away.

Overall my pictures are doing pretty well in the Megashot contests.  Too many damm flowers rank high in the contests for my liking.

High heat and poor air quality today in Greensboro. Bet the views from the Blue Ridge Parkway must be quite hazy.

That is it for today. My mind is hazy like the weather.

Photo is from Cherokee, NC. This place is closed and the sign may be gone by now.

Hold on

Hold on folks the politics in this country as going to start to turn very ugly. With Senator Jefferson Sessions, yes his first name is Jefferson, not Jeff, and others on the right calling for repeal or changes to the 14th amendment, the gay marriage challenge added to everything else going on you will begin to see the right as the party of the white bigoted haters they really are. It is not going to be pretty I assure you.

Brush up on your civics lessons of the past and read the Constitution, the Amendments and Bill of Rights.
It will help you understand what is coming down the road.

Not a bad weekend. Did not do a whole bunch really. Just messed around a little each day.

Picture is from Crater Lake, on July 5th. The road around the top of the lake had just been cleared of snow for those who wanted to take that journey. As you can guess that road is closed for much of the year.

Sammy Johns Chevy Van

This is in my top ten favorite songs of all time. I can see myself driving this van and have visions of the girl. Such are dreams.

Go the Fuck away, please

So the right-wing nuts jobs continue to push the story that President Obama was not born in the United States. In a stunning show of ignorance and the continued downfall of the American education system 27 percent of Republicans think Obama was probably not born here and 14 percent say that he definitely was not born here. A complete shows of stupidity by 41% of Republicans. These are the same fools who adore Sarah Palin, so I guess we should not be surprised by those numbers.

Now you same folks are claiming that children born in the United States from illegal immigrant
parents are not citizens of the Untied States. Really, go read the 14th amendment, section 1.
What is the first word in the section "ALL". Guess the word has a new meaning and I missed the change in its definition. I urge you to go ahead and try to change the 14th amendment and see where that leads the country.

You are a sad, pathetic and simple minded group of Americans.

You all need to just "Go the Fuck away".

Hooray

Yea, its Friday. Another crazy week at work so the weekend it a welcome friend.
No real plans at all. I think tonight I'll head downtown for the First Friday event. It is an art and music event that is all free with artists around downtown and bands in the main green downtown. I'll go weather permitting. Otherwise no real plans to speak of.

Maybe I'll look for some yard sales tomorow morning. Clean the house and mundane things of that nature.

That is it for this morning. Nothing else to say.

Dumb people

Time for some politics.

I see where one of President Bush's former speech writers has said the United States government should apprehend, extradite or even kidnap Julian Assange of Wikileaks for espionage for publishing the 76,000 pages of military documents. Well I have to say that Marc Thiessen is a complete fool. This is a perfect example of why the rest of the world has such contempt for the United States. An editorial coming from that staff of an administration who tortured people holds no creditably in my opinion. The war has been ill advised, poorly run and continues to create more random terrorists to strike at the United States. It must be ok for other governments around the world to do the same to U.S. citizens who do things that they deem inappropriate. What an asshole. Scary that there are many people like this running our country. We should be more afraid of these type of people than terrorists. He would be much more willing to give up his rights because of his fear than fight the government to retain those rights.

The other story in the news that Sarah Palin and other losers on the right are latching onto is the mosque being built two blocks from the WTC site. They are creating a false story here. The city, the neighborhood and city commissions all have approved this. The only people crying over this are right wing nut bags. If the overwhelming people of the city approve then there is simply no reason to stop the mosque from being built. We are a country founded on religious freedom and this story is about intolerance, hate, fear and the drive by the right to create false hysteria among Americans so they can further clamp down on people who they disagree with. Please go the fuck away. You will be the cause for America's decline if you continue to push your intolerant views of people not like you. Simply put this not a real story and it has been fabricated into a big story by Fux News, Sarah, the dumb shit, Palin, and Fig Newt on Gingrich. You people make me sick and if there was ever a reason to be ashamed as an American it is because of zealots like you. You people scare me more than any Muslim.

Good Morning my Friends

The woman who was the main figure in the picture from yesterdays post found the picture on Flickr. That is one of the cool things about Flickr. Bringing the world together through photography.

Well the cool weather is gone and it will be 90 today. It was nice will it lasted.

Well my Tampa Bay Rays are giving the Yankees and their pocketbook a run for their money in the race for first place. Hopefully they continue in the nice run they are having and get to the World Series.

The guy in this photograph was dancing away during Mad Tea Party's set at Bele Chere. Later on I saw him and it was behind a set of drums at the drum circle.

That is it for this morning.

Monday Night Gifts

Two little treasures here for your Monday night enjoyment.

BTW, The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test is one of the books that turned me onto reading.
And of course he wrote One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest which I think is one of the best movies ever.

Jerry would have been 68 yesterday. We miss you, your laugh and just having you around.

Odd Weekend

What an odd weekend of weather we had. In the sixties the last three mornings and it did not reach the eighties here. Saturday it rained very lightly all day long and then a few minutes of sun at the end of the day and yesterday cloudy all and and a few minutes of sun very late in the day.
It was nice to have the house opened up all weekend. From what I could tell I was the only one who had my windows and porch door open.

Went to the Carolina Shinefest yesterday and had an ok time. Did get to see a band called the "New Familiars" who I saw down in St. Pete last year. They are a rock, bluegrass fusion type of band. The two main singers also play electric guitar, mandolin, banjo, acoustic guitar and a resonator dobro style guitar. They are very good and were a good way to end the weekend.

Our store was broken into Friday night. The police caught the guy inside the store. He had gun magazines and snake boots already and who knows what else he may have wanted to take. The guns are in a vault so there is little chance he would have gotten those. I wish we used a different alarm company because he never would have gotten in. The people I recommended have an audio system that goes along with everything else and any odd sounds who have had them alert police. Since we have hurricane film on the window you have to work very hard to even break the glass. He never would have even gotten in the building.

The picture is of street artists in Asheville.