Sunday sundae

Friday I visited the RA doctor. She took blood pressure, temp, and examined my joints, shook her head with a couple of tut-tuts added, and then we spent a few minutes discussing the sad state of America's medical system. She makes a living, I got prescriptions to keep me thinking I am living, and the world turns. This time, she gave my shoulder joints a workout they haven't had in a long time. She raised my arms until I grimaced, then lowered them and again raised them. She did this several times, rotating my shoulder joints a bit more each time. I ended up having much discomfort the remainder of Friday and most of yesterday, so anything I did was in a half-hearted way. Even typing was a woeful experience.
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I wasted an hour or so yesterday in front of the tv awaiting the giant tsunami to inundate Hawaii; it turned out more like a Fox News political debate; a non-event.
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America voted for "real change" in the last presidential election, and Obama expected to help deliver that change. Actually, the people voted for someone whom was as non-Bush as possible and that was the only change they expected or wanted. They cared nothing about healthcare reform or which war (or set of same) we were fighting; all they wanted was to watch American Idol on tv, go out for a burger, and down a few beers with their friends without the sneaky-looking grin of George W. Bush constantly appearing on every tv screen in every place they went. People no longer want to be part of our government; they desire to keep the status quo and and to allow laissez faire to rule. If something does go wrong in government, people do not want to know about it; after all, they elected people whom promised them they would fix any problems that may arise. Our downfall continues.
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I've concluded that as for Cable News Network (CNN) expert analysis goes, if a person has ever scratched his ass and can put together two or more words in a coherent form, he is considered an expert on diseases of the skin. By all means put him on the air!
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Have a great Sunday!
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A wobbly day

Two yellow roses

Like the Haitian catastrophe, the earthquake in Chile has taken many lives, and more may be claimed if a tsunami works its way across the Pacific Ocean.
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On the home front, XP is purring smoothly for the time being; it generally does great with fresh installs, but problems begin arising as more programs are added. I have a brand new never registered copy of 64 bit Vista OEM if anyone is interested; if you are building a new computer or buy one without an OS installed, it should work well. Asking $75 but will negotiate.
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As of yesterday, it snowed on 15 of 26 days this month. We had a sunny reprieve on Friday but today is cloudy with snow flurries or showers in the forecast, and it will remain thus for most of the ensuing week. Temps are and will be at least several degrees below normal.
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Have a satisfying Saturday!
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The Smoking Gun's Mug Shot's of the Week!
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This-'n'-that

A kiss is just a kiss, but ya gotta love the shirt

Everything seems to be flowing smoothly with the XP install. The problem I am having with a Seagate external e-sata drive is related to the drive itself, although it seems to work fine on Linux. The drive also has a usb connector and it works very well through it, but transfer rates are extremely slow compared to e-sata. When I purchased this drive, I did so for its ability to work on e-sata as advertised, with a mind on the future when I would build a new pc with e-sata ports; the future is now. Seagate knows the problem is present, but has done nothing to fix it. Of course at my age, most things are faster than me. I found a work around on the net and will give it a try.
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Megashot.net is coming along very well, with many new features being added or will soon be added. I don't know how fast it will be when it begins receiving a lot of hits (views), but right now I don't know of a speedier photo site on the net. This is largely due to the "cloud" servers Cyrus is using and also the site is built around Chrome and Firefox browsers. Chrome is particularly fast there.
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I am getting ready to go to the doctor, but I may not get my shot because I forgot to have my blood work done. C'est la vie.
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Carolyn is in bed due to a bad cold or maybe flu; she is the worlds greatest procrastinator. Each year she puts off getting a flu vaccine and then when her annual bout of sickness comes, she swears "it won't be like this next year", but it always is. A flu vaccination costs around $35, but a trip to her doctor will cost her around $100 plus meds.
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Have a Friday to remember ... a good Friday!
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New Siam bridge under construction

I loaded Win XP, and after running the test version of Win 7 for the past several months, here is a fact or two: XP is much slower to boot than is W7, but programs start up faster in XP. XP is also having a problem with my external e-sata drive where all my backups are located, but W7 had no trouble with it. About the best that can be said for either version is that they are real dogs compared to the efficiency and speed of Ubuntu Linux. I would gladly give up using Paintshop Pro for photo editing ( a program I very much like) for Linux, but I cannot give up Quickbooks because of Carolyn's business stuff. Running XP in a Linux virtual machine did not work as I could not access a printer or backup media.
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As I write this, my entire network connection has disappeared. Fortunately for the world, I kept a spare network card from an old computer; I opened the pc and stuck it in and I am now cooking again. I hope the pc isn't. I don't like for mechanical shit to whip me, and again it did not; at least for awhile.
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We hillbilly southerners woke up to an inch of fresh snow and somewhat slick roads.
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Well back to work starting to begin to commence to get ready to prepare to do income taxes. Hold me!
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Have a happy whatever day it is!

Installing Windows XP for the umpteenth time ... so far so good. I will write more as soon as I get finished; it could be springtime or I could be dead.
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All night long

All-niters! These days it probably means a party at a frat house or maybe a bunch of kids hanging loose just to watch the sun come up; of course they probably do other things while awaiting the morn. In the day, it meant flicks all night long at the local drive-in theatre; usually horror-type movies starring the likes of Vincent Price or Boris Karloff. It also meant that if you and your sweetie were of age, you could spend the night in the back seat of a car making whoopee! A lot of times, under-age kids would try this and end up being severely punished when they tried to slip into their homes at all hours of the night. My first foray into escorting an under-eighteen-year-old girl turned out very badly. She was 16 and I was 18, and she enthusiastically agreed to accompany me to see a midnight showing of a Jane Mansfield titty flick. Although Ms Mansfield's breasts were enormous and extremely pretty, the movie was so bad we left half-way through. My date happened to be a "nice" girl, and I was shy to the nth degree, so neither of us broached the subject of climbing into the back seat and doing the horizontal boogie. Do you know how difficult it is for a shy boy to get laid? When we got back to her house, the kitchen light was on and she told me that I would have to go in with her, because she knew she was going to catch more hell than she wanted to bear alone. I went in and we both caught more hell than I wanted, for sure. Anyway, I was banned from her life with no time off for good behavior. She was an only child and had her father entwined through her fingers; I picked her up at 7:00pm the next Saturday night.

The drive-in theatre is probably an American invention, and every town with a population of more than a hundred people seemed to have at least one of them during 50's and 60's. There were three in or near Johnson City when I was small. At the corner of E. Oakland and N. Roan St. stood the Tri-Cities Drive-in (I think that was the name), and over near where dear Alice lives was the King Springs theatre, and just past it on Rio Vista hill was the Twin-Cities drive-in. These three had at least one thing in common; we parked our car in a wooden stall which gave us much privacy from the sides. The loud speaker was built into the driver's side wall, therefore the car window had to be at least partially down in order to hear the movie soundtrack. By the late 60's, all three of these theatres had closed as more modern ones with in-car speakers and much better facilities were built. The Skyline theatre was of this type, and was built in the 50's. A little later, the Family theatre was constructed a bit closer to town.
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The theatre in the photo is in Elizabethton and isn't in very good shape. Hopefully it will re-open in April as it has for so many years, and who knows, maybe I will get a chance to to coo and woo in the back seat, but you can bet your sweet bippy it won't be with a 16 year-old no matter how much she begs.
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Have a great day!
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Meandering

Where the giant pitbull roams

I spent most of yesterday in bed with one problem or another; the weather was of course, wonderful. I am still feeling poorly today, but a bunch better than yesterday. I hope all of you had a fine Sunday.
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Carolyn had to work yesterday, so she is cooking today; meatloaf and I don't know what all. She is a very good cook seeing as she doesn't measure anything ... just guesses. Most of the time it works out well, but some day I will tell you about the goofs.
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The sky is cloudy, the air a bit moist, but the temperatures are mild. It will become worse as the week progresses.
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My rounds of quarterly, semi-annual, and annual doctor visits begin this week and first is Friday with the RA doctor. She will take blood pressure, temp, and examine my joints, shake her head with a couple of tut-tuts added, and then we will spend a few minutes discussing the sad state of America's medical system. She makes a living, I get prescriptions to keep me thinking I am living, and the world turns.
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Hope you have good weather for wash day!

Badass pitbull

Old Horseshoe Church

Yesterday wasn't too bad of a day; I was able to get a couple of decent photos, but best of all, I got to do it in 60° (15°C) temps and under mostly sunny skies. I also drove into the mountains at Wilbur and visited the Watauga river where fishermen and fisherwomen abounded. Most had lines in the water, but I don't think they really cared about the fishing; just relaxing in nice weather was catch enough. There were still many bufflehead ducks on Wilbur Lake, but most will be gone by month's end. I stopped to get some shots of an old 76 service station and grocery store combo, but a pitbull that was at least twice my size and had me well outnumbered quickly put me back into the Escape and on the road. I had no idea there was an apartment above the store, and even less that someone with a rhinoceros sized killing machine was living in it. As is usual for me, I snapped a couple of quick shots as I exited the car, but they are not satisfactory. The sign I wanted to photograph is one of those old, huge, orange, plastic balls that 76 uglified the landscape with many years ago. It is badly faded on top and I shall return when Carolyn is driving the van.
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There were several robins in my and neighboring yards, and a lot of them were females; the first ones I've seen since August. I suppose the males are happy. A lot of early spring flower photos are showing up on Flickr and elsewhere, so maybe the seasons are beginning to change.
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I was extremely tired last evening due to several months of vegetating and then finally getting a bit of exercise; it was off to bed early for me. Today, I am very sore from my knees to the bottom of my feet, but such is usually the case with the RA after inactivity followed by a blast of action.
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Happy Sunday!

Ambition is like love, impatient both of delays and rivals.

My true home ...

Today I celebrate the 108th birthday of Ansel Adams; photographer, patriot, and naturalist.
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I am also celebrating blue skies by going out to look for something to shoot at. I hope I still remember the basics of using the camera.
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The Smoking Gun's Mug Shots of the Week!
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Hope you have a serene Saturday!
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Title quote: Buddha.
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More later ... maybe ...

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It is Friday, it is shot day, and I am very, very tired. At last the sun shines; with any luck I can get out tomorrow and allow my camera to make love to all it sees in the outside world. I'm sure it is as horny for some action as am I.
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The sun shines! I was beginning to wonder if it would ever again do so. Temps may creep into low 50's tomorrow, which is normal for the date. Wise gardeners will be having their plots ploughed very soon so night time freezes can break up the soil before they break out the tillers. March 15th is the date of the next new moon, and potatoes must be planted on that date with their eyes up.

A lot of people no longer have the land ploughed, instead opting to till the same soil year after year. Tilling is ok, but even with using the best fertilizers and compost, the soil wears out after awhile. The best way to proceed is to use a tractor plough to turn the deep dirt to the surface and bury the top dirt beneath. If there is room, the garden area should be moved around every year or two so that some of it can lay fallow and rejuvenate itself for a season. Farmer John signing off.
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Have a funky Friday!
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Thursday woes

Simple Windows XP install on newly self-built computer: three install cd's (OS, motherboard drivers and utilities, Service Pack ((SP)) 2) register OS with Microsoft, download and install virus scanner, download and install SP 3, download and install SP 4, download hundreds of updates for the OS and Service Packs. All this requires numerous reboots of pc. More than three hours to have machine ready to begin installing software. $140 for OS plus cost of software programs. Cost to upgrade to newer Windows OS: $50-$200. Old programs may or may not work with newer OS.

Simple Ubuntu Linux install on newly self-built computer: One install cd, allow OS to download and install drivers and updates, two reboots of pc. One and one-half hours maximum to have machine ready for use. $0 including software programs. Cost to upgrade to newer Linux OS: $0. Programs are updated as OS is updated and at no cost.
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There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear.
~Book of John, Chapter 4, verse 18, Christian Bible
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Have a thrilling Thursday!
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Fail

Perps





Some girls had their Fuzzy Hole robbed!!!

This is a major fail by stupidity.

1. Robbery is a crime
2. Covering the head with a hood does not automatically conceal the face
3. Remember to smile for a security camera flash portrait while committing a crime if you are going to look directly at the camera while wearing a hood that doesn't automatically conceal the face
   
4. Don't hang around town once a flash photo showing you committing a crime while wearing a hood that doesn't automatically conceal the face has been published in the local newspapers
   

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No, I have never visited Fuzzy Holes during or after business hours; I am not allowed.
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Happy Ash Wednesday!

Ἰατρέ, θεράπευσον σεαυτόν

I missed two days of blogging and still did nothing of importance except write and answer a few emails. Maggie taught me another photography lesson about cropping and donated a background for my Megashot profile; thanks, my friend. She also informed me Sunday was Chinese New year. Beta Megashot is looking very good; a few new members have come aboard and Cyrus has tweaked the speed; it seems to be very fast in about every thing I've tried. He also did some work on my Wabi-Sabi community and it now looks great. I also managed to write a long overdue testimonial on one of my Flickr contact's profile; I hope it made sense. Maybe I did get some things done.
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How close did I come to going off the deep end over the past week or so? Saturday before last, I found myself using my laptop and deleting some of my oldest Flickr photos one at a time. I must have culled a thousand or more and some of them existed nowhere but on Flickr; I did not realize I was doing such a deed. I was stone sober, well fed, and completely insane. I dunno ... .

One thing for sure; things seldom fix themselves ere they may be mechanical, corporeal, spiritual, or mental. Mother Nature can repair all wrongs, but she has limitless resources and eons to do so. If I can make myself well from some of this, I intend to accomplish the task; if not, I will try to find other help. The status quo is unacceptable.
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My youngest grandson is off to take his entrance exams for the US Air Force; he did not and has not bothered to tell his granny or me about it. He stayed with us a lot up until he started courting and got himself a job. Good kid, but lacks priorities. His sister is getting married next month and everyone in the family knew about it long before Carolyn or I. Do people not care anymore? I can take a lot, but I won't be taken for granted by people whom should be, at least, respectful.
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I feel pretty good right now, but I hit a stone wall on the new story. I had that thing all planned out but now I keep firing blanks when I open the file. It will come in time; I just don't know how much time I have left the way things are going.
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My Windows 7 trial edition is about to expire, and I am going to have to reload a copy of XP from scratch. I hope Microsoft doesn't give me any lip; it is a copy I purchased at Office Depot in 2002; I'm sure they will have something to say as I am installing on a new hard drive. After installing the OS, there are two Service Packs to install plus I must download a virus scanner software and a trillion other things just to make it half-way secure and usable. Linux rules!
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Here is a link to a lard bucket just like the one I used to build a pinhole camera obscura which I described in an earlier post. We kept several of the buckets around because they were perfect for berry and cherry picking. I could climb a cherry tree with the bail of the pail hanging on my elbow, but I always ate my fill before the bucket received its due. Once when I was about eight years old, the black cherries weren't quite ripe but I stuffed myself anyway. When the pain hit my belly a very few minutes later, I dropped from the tree and made a beeline toward the toilet; I did not make it. My grandma was watching from the kitchen window and saw me change direction toward the house and she met me outside the door with her broom in a most threatening position. I was not to come into the house with poop dripping from both pant legs and stinking to high heaven. I swallowed my boyish pride and removed my pants and allowed her to draw water from the cistern and douse my naked bottom with a couple of buckets full. Still shaking and nude, I was forced to find a stick with which to pick up my pants and place them in a wash tub to soak. Next, I was shooed into another tub and handed a bar of lye soap and I "better be clean" when I got out. I was then let into the house and received clean clothes. I was totally glad I did not have any brothers or sisters; the ridicule would have been unbearable even to my immature ego.
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Happy Fat Tuesday!
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"... a time to plant, and a time to pluck ..."

“Inward calm cannot be maintained unless
physical strength is constantly and intelligently
replenished.”
~Prince Gautama Siddharta (Buddha)


I again apologize for the uncalled for personal rant. The heck of it is I don't know when I may again go off the deep end, so I think it best I suspend my daily blogging for a time. I've been doing Loose Laces nearly every day for almost three years, and I do not feel one bit burned out. Most of you have been with me for at least a year, and some of you far longer. You helped see me through my illness nearly two years ago, and have been inspirational for me when the RA was hitting me hardest. You were with both Carolyn and myself when she was close to death last year. I dearly appreciate each of you and your kindness; you all have been my mentors and best of all, my friends. Last year I said in one of my posts that I would be tested within the next year and I would be graded by the way I handle the coming stresses. I seem to have failed enough of these trials so it is now time for me to step back and reassess myself, my motives, and my actions. I will still post when I have something to say, and I will be hanging around other places on the net such as your blogs, Megashot and Flickr. Oh, yes; I will continue writing short stories and still hope to put a book together. Writing is one area where I feel re-invigorated and I am enjoying the creative process, so I will turn more of it to the stories. I am also going to make some more photos if it ever becomes springtime; I still have the burning desire when I see your photos or hold my camera in my hands. Later, y'all.
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Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?
~Book of Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3, Verse 22, Hebrew Bible

♥♥♥♥

How I became a photographer

As a kid, I was much like Thomas Edison in that I liked to tinker with stuff and take things apart and put them back together; sometimes they still worked when I finished my explorations. I never liked for mechanical things to whip me; I figured if it was made by man, I could fix it when it broke. I was pretty successful with that philosophy until the RA put the whammy to me. I also liked to build things, although I was never an inventor. Before I was 10 years old, I constructed a cat-whisker radio which would receive local A.M. stations. No cats were harmed. Another device I put together was a camera; at least it was what I called it. It was a camera obscura type device and of all things, I used waxed paper from the kitchen for film. In the ancient times before tv was commonplace in the countryside and before Howdy-Doody or Roy Rogers metal lunch boxes were introduced to rural kids, we sometimes carried our lunch to school in metal, one-gallon lard buckets. Around 1957, my first real science teacher told us about such cameras, and that wax paper could be used as film if the exposure was long enough. I realized one of the old lard buckets would work decently because it was pretty well air and light tight with its metal lid in place. I retrieved one from the smokehouse, took out my pocket knife and after some painstaking drilling on the center-bottom of the bucket, I had a neat, tiny hole bored. I begged a piece of wax paper and taped it to the inside of the lid, covered the little hole with tape, secured the lid tightly to the bucket, and went on a photo journey. I found a good spot to place the bucket camera, secured it with rocks and firewood, and had it pointed at a high contrast tree and corner of our smokehouse. I removed the tape and left the contraption to do its thing. Next day I went back and there was no image on the wax paper. I went through the process with fresh paper several times, increasing exposure by days. At last I was rewarded with a dim but discernible image of the building's corner on the paper after an eight day exposure. I kept trying and found that about 10 days was the best I was going to get. Of course the weak image soon faded away when the wax was re-exposed to normal light, but I had become a photographer. I've since been told that this technique will not work with plain, kitchen-type wax paper, but I saw it, my mother saw it, my uncle saw it, and my grandmother saw it. It definitely worked. Poo on the nay sayers!
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Sucky Saturday

Sorry for the post; I'm generally not as mean as I made myself appear. Some things made me a bit Grumpy; tomorrow I shall be Dopey ... or maybe Doc.
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Happy Saturday!
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Smoking Gun's Mug Shots of the Week!

An Unforgettable Valentine's Day

♥Once upon an evening, a guy I know won several hundred dollars playing pinball. After he paid his bar tab and a few other gambling debts, he had only $80 left. The next morning his friend "Bro" stopped by his house and they soon began to become exceedingly thirsty. Bro was between jobs and my friend was too worthless to work anyway, so many times they did not have the funds to buy beer. Both their wives worked, but getting an allowance from them had become nearly impossible; they claimed rent and groceries were more important than beer, which is a very female and blasphemous point of view. The day was Thursday, and it was also Saint Valentine's Day. The boys did some ciphering, and decided to fill the old pickup truck's gas tank, buy a case of beer along with some salty snacks, and they should have enough money left to pick up some nice flowers and a card for their darlings. The first two missions were accomplished, and they stopped by a K-Mart and got what they considered sexy cards for their ladies. They drove on to the flower shop, and as soon as they went inside, they knew they were in trouble. The cheapest Valentine related blossoms in the store cost more than what they had left, so they did some more ciphering and decided if they returned the cards to K-Mart and got a refund, they would have enough money to get the cheapo flowers and have less than ten cents left over, and that is what they did. The flowers (actually small garden bowls with more green leaves than flowers and a plastic heart sticking prominently in the center) included a small To:/From: card. The boys were a bit uneasy, but they knew their loving wives would understand, so off they went to spend the remainder of the day driving around back roads drinking beer and eating chips all the while becoming more secure with their gifts of love. It finally came time for them to collect their wives from work, so my friend took Bro to his truck and then went on to pick up his adoring bride. He sat in the parking lot awaiting her with a huge grin on his unshaven puss and the Valentine gift displayed proudly beside him on the seat of the Ford, right next to what was left of his last six-pack. His wife opened the passenger door, took a look at her smirking and high-buzzing spouse, saw the empty beer cans on the floor and the two full ones on the seat beside his love offering. He wasn't so drunk that he wasn't able to quickly pop open his door and bail out just as the flower garden whizzed past his ear followed by his last two remaining beers. She was screaming something about "you son-of-a-bitch you didn't even sign the shitty card". With that and a few more words of spousal rebuke, she slid beneath the steering wheel and drove away leaving him with some scattered foliage, a broken plastic bowl with a pink plastic heart imprinted with "I Love You", and two Miller High Life tall boys (shaken, not stirred) sitting on the pavement in parking lot central. He still had his dignity, but little else. Bro's house was closer than his own, so he stuffed the beers in his jacket pockets and began hoofing along the rush hour highway. When finally approaching Bro's abode, he saw his friend driving very quickly from his front door as a small flower garden crashed against the tailgate of his truck. Bro saw my friend and picked him up and they drove around some more as they decided it was all their lover's fault. Camping out along a cold river bank in mid-February with nothing for comfort but a pup tent and two Army blankets may not be the best way to spend a night meant for cooing lovers, but it was the way their special Valentine's Day at last ended. They were cold, hungry—and after my friend threw up on himself before he could exit the tent—quite smelly. But they did have three beers between them and tomorrow would be a new day.♥
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Have a great Valentine's weekend!

Story update

I have written a bit more to the "Are you a god?" story and you can find it at Brasstacks44.

Are you a god?

Caught in wreck traffic on I-26

"Are you a god?"

The voice startled me awake from my childish daydream, but I saw no one as I quickly looked around the meadow. I was sitting in soft grasses on a hillside, my bare back against the shaded coolness of a large, weathered boulder sticking out of the ground. After a few moments, I closed my eyes and began to drift back into my subconscious world of giants and dragons and crawly things; a place only little boys know of.

"Are you a god?"

This time I not only heard the voice, but the rock itself resonated the words deeply into my body. Scared, I jumped up and ran a few paces from the boulder, turning to see who was talking so loudly that it was shaking my world. There was no one in sight except a few cows grazing near a farm pond in the little valley below me and they were many, many yards away.

It was mid-summer and the excitement of being out of school for a few months had long past worn away, but it was still good to be a boy in a carefree world where make believe and reality blend into lazy afternoons.

To be continued ...
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Most of this snow event must be over, but THEY are promising another for the late weekend. Carolyn is trying to get out to the bank and drugstore, and the city streets are in pretty fair shape for the most part. She had to miss all her work last evening, and will miss the out of town jobs today; it makes for a very short payday at the end of the month.
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Don't forget to be kind to strangers. For some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it.
~Hebrews Chapter 13, verse 2, Hebrew Bible
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A heavenly Thursday to all!
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Weather

Hoping

Faceoff

Nandina

Squeakin'

Roan Mt. North Carolina

It just goes to show; the squeaky wheel does get the grease. Thank all of you for connecting with me on Facebook. I shall attempt to uphold the code of bullshitters everywhere, and to post as much meaningless drivel as mind and time allows.
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My test copy of Windows7 is about to begin its death throes. On Sunday it will automatically begin warning me that I have 14 more days of usage before it begins shutting down every two hours. The need for reboots will continue until June 1 when the OS will become useless. I will have to purchase a $300 copy of the system if I desire to run Carolyn's business accounting program, or I can buy a $200 copy but will then have to get a new copy of the Quickbooks program which costs $125. Actually, the price for Quickbooks isn't bad compared to what it used to be; $300 to $400 per copy. But, there is no way Windows7 in any flavor is worth more than $50 for an upgrade and no more than $75 for full retail. It is already found to be full of bugs and Internet Explorer is fast but still not secure compared to Firefox. I have a couple of copies of Windows XP that are not being used so I will try to install one of them. It is a hassle to do so, as Microsoft will most likely make me phone them and get a new install number and I cannot hear well enough to put up with or understand their crap. I still use Ubuntu Linux, but there is no comparable program for that platform which will do bookkeeping in an automated and easy way. The Gimp photo editor is highly effective, but it is nowhere as easy to use as is Paintshop Pro. Looks like this weekend is going to be a busy one.$
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Not much else going on here except it is snowin' and blowin' like crazy. Supposed to get down to around 0°F (-18°C) tonight. My project today is to clean the oven; how hard can that be?
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Wednesday is a good day to be nice of yourself; do it up right!
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A merry heart doeth good like medicine.
~The Book of Proverbs, Chapter 17, verse 22, Hebrew Bible.
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It's still winter

Politicians and pundits cannot change the direction America has taken; only the people can do so; the last election has proven this to be true. Washington is still business as usual with not one senator or representative willing to risk his chance of reelection for the betterment of the whole nation. If you voted for one or more of these people, you have some choices: turn them out next election and keep turning them out until they "get it"; cherish and love them; bitch and whine to one another until you or the country dies which seems to be the preferred modus operandi for most voters. Get off your asses and stop telling each other what the pundits are saying and make it clear to the politicians that YOU are saying enough is enough. Wake up, America!

I was trying to put the above on Facebook, but it is too many letters and words. People are always quoting or linking to some paid pundit somewhere who does their thinking for them. It is ok to read other opinions, but you better analyze the "what" and "why" of each of them. Everyone that writes about politics or any other subject has an agenda, and that includes yours truly. Mine is a noble cause as is always the case with anyone when they aren't paid for their special insights.
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After many months of being a member, I have only five friends on Facebook and two of them are family. I just cannot get into that kind of social networking. I have been on Twitter for a year and have but one friend there. I think I am anti-social. It is becoming more difficult to convince people that I know everything and that they know very little. Sigh ... and I used to be King of the Bullshitters.

Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.
~ The Book of Daniel, verse 27, Hebrew Bible.
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Happy Tuesday!
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3380*

Bumpass Cove Tennessee

Super Bowl forty-something is over and it wasn't too bad a game. The Colts left their defense at home, but otherwise both teams played very well. I had no bets on the outcome so it was a rather meaningless exhibition.
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Megashot had a lot of problems over the weekend, but Cyrus worked diligently to correct them. Other than a bit of sluggishness in some areas, things are looking good.
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Yesterday, JJ brought in a borrowed dvd set which I found interesting and entertaining. It is a live concert by the great Steve Vai and is titled Where The Wild Things Are. Vai at one time was in one or more of Frank Zappa's bands, where he was heavily influenced by the Zappa style of guitar playing and life in general. He is a true rock artist.
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Not anything of importance going on today, at least in my insignificant corner of of the Cosmos. There is weak sunshine about, but the air is still cold. Patience may be a virtue, but I feel very little of that particular resource as I await the song of springtime.
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*The title describes approximately how many wash days I have lived through.
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Happy Wash Day!
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“There are many persons who look on Sunday as a sponge to wipe out the sins of the week”

All that is left of the Arcade building
in downtown Johnson City. It was
the best landmark the city had left
but the wise ones decided it must go.
Photo 2007


Feeling better today ... so far.
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I watched one lap of the NASCAR "race" on Fox tv last evening and of course there was a huge wreck. One of the usual spoiled brats went on to win, according to this morning's news. The only reason I watched what I did was because the movie I was viewing on another channel went to a boring love scene. It was a decent movie from the 60's I've seen several times called Bullit.
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It is snowing here, but nothing serious. I won't complain too much after seeing what the mid-Atlantic and mid-West regions have gone through. It isn't supposed to warm up for at least another week. My skin color has faded and, along with my now pure white hair, I can probably get naked and stand in front of a snow bank and not be seen.
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Megashot is coming along after some initial problems with new servers, and we have several new members. One thing I do not understand about photographic art is why people make every photo they post look like it was painted on a canvas. I occasionally do it just to have something different, but mainly because the shot may show a tiny bit of camera shake and artistic plugins for software can make it look more acceptable. Some of the stuff these good folk post on Megashot and Flickr become boring to look at; it's as if their entire portfolio is the same picture. As the 70's song says, "different strokes for different folks".
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I have several targets for photo-making listed on a note card in my decaying brain, and if I can get a weekend with decent light and temps that won't stiffen my bare hands, I may be able to get some shots. I am becoming desperate.
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Title quote by Henry Ward Beecher.
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Have a Super Sunday!
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Gray skies

Like my memory, my blog posts will be short for awhile. I seem to have some kind of malady; slightly sore throat, tummy ache, and overall feel-bads. It marches in unison with the allergies and pre-spring fever. And gray skies.
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Megashot.net is having a few birthing pains, but Cyrus and the crew are working hard to make things smooth. Mark finally has been able to upload a photo, and my last submission went well. He has also begun a "gallery", which is similar to a "set" in Flickr. I like the Explore feature; members can anonymously rate photos in several categories such as technical and artist merits. The highest rated shots are displayed on the site's front page and Explore calendar. Reloading the front page in the browser will bring up more Explore photos.
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The Smoking Gun's Mug Shots of the Week!
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Have a safe Saturday.
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Johnson City viewing South by South-East
2/5/10

Ugly Friday

If anyone tried the new photo site links and had trouble accessing them, I think the problems are now fixed. Sorry for any inconvenience.
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Here is a link to the latest Olympus Pen micro four thirds camera. It is much improved and is about $600 with a 14-42mm kit lens.
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My life is the same old Friday crap, so no use to waste your time describing it.
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Happy Friday.
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Megashot

Good morning.

First, an announcement: The new photo site is now online and open for public participation. I hope you will stop by, take a look, and sign up for a free account. It can be found at this address: http://megashot.net/mega/. My profile and links can be found here: http://anonymouse.megashot.net/. The site is an ongoing project but everything I've tried seems to work fine. As for me, I am plumb tickled to be a part of Megashot.net. For those of you for whom I have email addresses, I will be sending you an invitation to come by and join in the fun. If photography is your passion, welcome to the future.
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The weather people say freezing rain tonight. We are gaining about two minutes of daylight each day, my allergies are acting up, there are robins in the yard, and daffodils are peeking from the earth. I now need a day of warm sunshine to soothe my winter doldrums.
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I seem so tired lately; it has been a troublesome winter and spring will probably be much the same except my woes will be warmer. Maybe I just have a case of pre-spring fever?
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Happy and peace-filled Thursday! What else is such a day as Thursday good for?
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A note ...

Dear friends,

Just a comment on comments: Due to daily incoming spam, I was planning on moderating comments on this blog; it is a common practice with bloggers. There was also a growing clash of personalities in the comments and I thought it best to delete some of the remarks. Please respect the spirit of this blog, each other, and me. You can take potshots at me but when the sniping is directed at each other it puts me in a bind, especially when my friends are involved. With the moderation now in place, I hope it won't be necessary to embarrass anyone or myself by deleting public comments. I am sorry if it did embarrass anyone, and if blame must be laid, place it squarely on me. I will understand if you do not want to read Loose Laces or participate anymore, and I will miss you and your comments if you decide to leave me. Peace.

Your friend and fellow traveler,
Ken

Mouse dropped by yesterday and we drank coffee and talked about "the day". I've known Mouse since '74, plus he and Carolyn were in the same class in the same school but claim they do not remember each other. They both went to school with Steve Spurrier whom became one of the most famous coaches ever in American college football. We all love to hate him. We mostly talked of how Johnson City has changed since we were kids, and I've previously covered the things I remember in this blog. I agree with Mouse that the single thing that changed this town the most was allowing liquor by the drink sales. If the city had stayed progressive, it would probably now have a population of around 100,000, but it turned very conservative beginning in the mid-eighties and the population has been stuck around 55,000 ever since. Before becoming conservative, we were allowed to see rock and roll concerts at a local city owned venue called Freedom Hall. Carolyn and I attended many concerts there from 1977 until the city was taken over by religious zealots. The real killer came in the late late-nineties when they refused to allow Marilyn Manson (Manson is a man and is on the right in the linked photo) to perform at what would have been a sellout concert. Local preachers literally raised hell at a city council meeting and put the fear of God and voter wrath into council members. I don't care for Marilyn Manson, but I do care for the public's right to choose. Religion was again allowed to desecrate not only the the law of the Constitution, but also the spirit in which it was written. Freedom Hall went from the area's main venue for live entertainment to one of kiddie shows and rodeos. I very much disapprove of the exploitation and cruelty to animals that these yee-ha! features provide. Oh yes, they still allow Christian and country music concerts and religious conventions to come to the facility, but it doesn't make the money as did good old rock and roll. Johnson City sucks and "Freedom Hall" has become an oxymoron.
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Have a wonderful Wednesday, y'all. Yee-Ha!!!
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Signs

Hale's Chapel

Groundhog Day in the USA! Unlike last year when we had bundles of sunshine for shadow making, today is rainy and foul looking. I hope it stays that way. Last spring was obviously delayed by the groundhog seeing his shadow, but this year will be quite different. As soon as I finish writing this blog, I will adjourn to the bedroom and replace my winter wardrobe with the latest 1985 spring fashions. Unless somebody in the family or a close friend dies, I will not wear long pants again until late next fall, and I will don underwear only when I visit a doctor. Life is looking a little better.
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My grandmother very much believed in "signs" such as Groundhog Day. She foretold the weather from what she observed in nature, and she planted her garden by sky signs, among other things. She always planted potatoes during the last dark moon in March. When I was small, I never got to cut the eyes out of potatoes for planting. Do you remember the oft repeated line from the movie A Christmas Story: "You'll shoot your eye out kid!"? For me it was "You'll cut your fingers off boy!". They were probably correct as I have been a klutz with knives all my life; I have many scars from blade encounters, all the way from my big toe to my ear.
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The above photo shows the many-times remodeled building where my grandmother attended school for her three years of formal education at the turn of the twentieth century. She had to walk about three miles to and from her home in the Headtown community to the Hale's community, crossing a very high ridge through fields and woods and over and under barbwire fences on a pathless trek to the one room building. It was later converted to a church, and is now a community center. The first foundation stones are still in place, and all the pretty white is just a covering for the original structure. There are a lot of stories here.
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Happy Groundhog Day!

Mondays are good ...

I would rather have thirty minutes of
wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special.
~ Shelby

We just received another tax document ... from last June. It is one from the county that I misplaced and now they are threatening to shut down Carolyn's business and seize assets. They demand it be filed by the 5th, and I shall attempt to do so. It is her business license tax and she already has one from the city. It is double taxation for small businesses, but it is the law. Damn, I wish Carolyn would get out of this lingering mess.
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The Lady Vols beat South Carolina for the 38th consecutive time but it wasn't easy; they won it in the last minute and one-half. It may be their last win over USC for awhile as Carolina had a great recruiting class and it certainly showed; they will be very good next year. As is the case with a lot of her teams for the past 10 years, Pat Summit has a problem motivating her players; she could take some lessons from The University of Connecticut's head coach.
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A note on the new style cameras I spoke of earlier. It seems as if some of them will not have viewfinders but will depend on the l.c.d. display for framing, focusing, etc. It may be ok for some, but I find the viewfinder indispensable for immersing myself in the scene to be photographed. I love my Canon S3's display, and the Pentax K200D has a good one, but it is difficult to see readouts in bright light.
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Happy wash day!
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