Mom and Dad

So the quick visit with my parents ended yesterday morning as they headed south to sunny Florida for a month. On Sunday we headed down to Seagrove, the pottery capital of America, and went to a few pottery stores and a few potters own shops. Most of the places are closed on Sundays but there were still a fair amount of places open. My mom bought some things that she is going to be giving out as Christmas gifts. I also bought a large vase that had some minor glaze problems. It was $45.00. Regular price on it was $90.00. I bet if most people looked at it they would not know there were any issues with the vase. I saw many things in the area that are photo worthy and will head down there again fairly soon for a photo safari.

It was good to have my parents here even though it was a short visit. You take what you can get.

Not sure if they are going to stop on the way home. I suspect they will but who knows. They may be able to be here for my birthday and that would be cool.

Looks like we will be getting our last blast of winter snow today. Anywhere from a dusting to 4 inches on the high side. Seems they really are having trouble predicting this one.

Parental Units

So with the weather being screwy in New England my parents scheduled run to Florida was out of kilter and they had decided to leave Ct. today and get here Monday. Well yesterday morning my Mom calls and says "Hi, we are on the road. See you tomorrow." Then at 4:30 yesterday afternoon I get a call "See you in three hours and have dinner ready."

Well its a good darn thing that the house is clean and I actually had plenty of food in the house.
So that is where things are at. They made good time yesterday and decided to head straight here. 11 hours of driving time and they only stopped twice. Better than I do. I stop all time just to get out of the white line fever zone.

Dinner. Little 8 oz steaks, corn on the cob, rice and sweet potato fries.

Not sure what we are doing today. I think I will head down to Seagrove and we can go to some of the pottery shops and then see where things go from there.

Enjoy your Sunday. Time for coffee and host playing.

No parents allowed

So my parents were supposed to be arriving tomorrow morning as they head to Florida for a month. They were going to spend Saturday and Sunday night here then head south on Monday morning. Now it looks like they may not get to leave until Sunday and get here on Monday sometime. However they do not know that there may be a storm hitting here on Tuesday. Depending on what is going to happen with that storm I may suggest that they just head south instead of coming here. As things stand they will be several days behind schedule.

They can stop on the way home and I suspect that at the beginning of April the chance of a snow storm here will be very slim.

Going to an antique show and a record show/convention Saturday. They are both at the coliseum and are free to get in. Looking for something to put on the wall behind the tv. Who knows what I will find, if anything.

Fall of the Underwood

So this weekend I was in Asheville and meet up with fellow photographer Michael, aka Desolation Row, and his wife. They drove up from Jacksonville, Fla. for the weekend and we had a excellent time. Check out his pictures on Flickr if you have a chance.

The picture posted here was taken by Michael at one of our favorite sites. Yes that is the Underwood Motel sign. He went there to get some shots before the weeds come back to life.
Well to his horror and now mine the sign has been severely damaged. Somebody vandalised the top of the sign. It appeared that they tried to topple the portion that said "Hotel" by twisting it. I suppose that they were going to take this for scrap metal. How very depressing it is that one of my favorite places to shoot has been ruined by some idiots and now I can not get back there to complete my series of Underwood shots. Complete bummer.

Thanks to Desolation Row for the use of his picture.

A buzz in the air

It was a great weekend in Asheville as there was a buzz in the air emanating from the first real hint of spring. Low 60's weather brought out a lot of people to shake of of some of the rust that has built up over the winter. Although the weather this week does not look quite as promising everyone now knows that trees and flowers will soon start coming back to life.

It will be nice to finally be able to get out and about and explore, open windows and let fresh air in. Maybe an overnight camping trip is in the future.

Picture was taken at Gillettes Castles in Haddam, Ct. from one of their gardens.

North Mississippi Allstars

Heading down to Asheville to see these tonight. A good time will be had by all. These guys play some real rock n roll. Will also get in some photography so it will be good all the way around.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Teach me Tiger

This is for Tiger Wood, all his fans and all his haters. Now please go take a long walk off a short pier.

This song is by April Stevens, not Marilyn Monroe as many people think.

Support Locals

I was out shooting a couple of Sundays ago and saw this sign in front of a garden/antique store.
This sign is so true. You need to support your local merchants and help keep your dollars in the community. These are the people who make up the fabric of your community. Without them your town will become just like so many other places. Bland and dull with the same stores as every other town and nothing to distinguish it from other places. It may be a local garden shop, antique store, office supply store, artist or farmer that need your support. Do you pay a little more, yes you do. However if you are buying local you are supporting a local family who ends up paying your neighbors and that helps keep your community strong. It should not always be about buying cheap. You may buy cheap but when you buy cheap you end up buying more because the quality is not there. Local merchants care about the community and their reputation and they will work to get and keep their good name. If they do not they will not last.

Lazy and the Web

It seems that I have been pretty lazy lately. I have a couple different email addresses and I use one as my main address and the others for Flickr, Megashot and a couple other things. Well I do not always check the other email addresses everyday and when I checked them on Sunday I had many emails that had been recieved almost a week earlier. Oops. One from Ken was very good.

It fits right into the Monsanto story that I am going to post. Check this out and sign it today as today is the last day too do do.

Tell the USDA to reject Monsanto's application to market its geneticallymodified alfalfa -- a threat to organic crops.

During the Bush administration, Monsanto illegally won USDA approval forits genetically engineered (GE) alfalfa by convincing regulators to bypassa mandatory environmental review. In response to a lawsuit by consumergroups, the courts then stepped in and banned GE alfalfa until the USDAfollowed the law.In December, the USDA released its belated review of Monsanto's GE alfalfaseed and determined that Monsanto's alfalfa met the Obama Administration'sstandards, despite the risk of organic contamination.This conclusion came despite the acknowledgment by USDA researchers thatGE alfalfa is virtually certain to "contaminate" normal seeds.Cross-contamination is the number one concern with genetically engineeredcrops.The USDA is accepting public comments on Monsanto's application throughFebruary 16. Tell the USDA that Monsanto's alfalfa cannot be approved --the future of organics depends on it.http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=5258&id=7696-2407603-nEXlzJx&t=14

Organic contamination is devastating for organic farmers, especiallyorganic dairy farmers, most of whom use organic alfalfa for feed. Thepresence of even the smallest amount of GE material can cause a farm tolose its organic certification. And court documents indicate that earlyplantings of GE alfalfa did contaminate conventional alfalfa. Yet the USDAmaintains that Monsanto's existing safety protocols are good enough. Thisis ridiculous!Even worse, the USDA concluded that the possibility of contamination oforganic fields is of no concern, since consumers won't care if theirorganic food or milk contains genetically engineered components. Yetcentral to the definition of the USDA Organic label is the total absenceof genetically modified ingredients. An overwhelming majority of consumersbuy organic to avoid GE products and would be shocked to learn the USDA isso cavalier about the risks of transgenic contamination.Tell the USDA you care about GE contamination. Keep Monsanto's genes outof our food!http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=5258&id=7696-2407603-nEXlzJx&t=15

Thank you for working to build a better world.Adam Klaus, Campaign ManagerCREDO Action from Working Assetshttp://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=11&id=7696-2407603-nEXlzJx&t=16

Did you know CREDO has a Facebook page?Click here to check it out!http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=3854&id=7696-2407603-nEXlzJx&t=18

Picture is in Greensboro right near work.

Monday

Well it is Monday morning and it looks look like a rain/snow mix later this morning. Hopefully it is a quiet day for Presidents day.

I painted the wall in the living room the Behr Honeydew and it looks really good. Now time to put some pictures up and complete the decorating. It should look really good.

Good Daytona race yesterday. Nice ending. Long race and I am sure there were many freezing people there yesterday.

Otherwise I did not do a thing. Very lazy weekend. Need to get motivated and get some shots on Flickr and Megashot. Just plain lazy.

Asheville this coming weekend and my parents the weekend after that. It will nice for some diversions and nice to get out of the apt. I always feel cramped in here.