Month: July 2017

Florida wildlife, kids, lizards, memories, nature, silliness, simple things

Just in case…

naturecoastimagesblog

There’s a lizard in the house! Charley wasn’t Mr. Fix-it by any means, but if I screamed that there was a lizard in the house he would leap into action, not to rescue me, but to rescue the lizard from what he thought I was going to do to it. “Don’t kill it!”, he’d yell. Every time. Made me mad because while I would swat a gnat or mosquito, and I’d spray a Palmetto bug with bug spray in a heartbeat, there was no way I would kill a lizard. I’d be far more likely to stand on a chair squealing until the lizard had been relocated outside.

Just ask Michael. One day I answered a knock on the front door and discovered a contingent of neighborhood kids at the door. The ringleader announced, “Michael has our lizard!” Now Michael had earlier asked me for a plastic container with holes in the lid, ostensibly for a caterpillar. Actually he said ‘calapidder’, at 4 years old it was one of his last fractured words. He’d gone off with the container, which I had forgotten all about, but upon hearing about the lizard I had a new understanding of his recent return home. He came in, slammed the door, and dashed straight upstairs without saying a word. Hmmm. So I marched upstairs, knocked on his door, and said, “The kids say you have their lizard.” His face fell, and he walked to his closet and opened the door, and in my mind’s eye I saw the plastic container on the floor of the closet. But the reality was that there was only one thing on the closet floor, and that was a bare, naked lizard. So I did what any good mother would do, I screamed and jumped on the bed. That startled Michael as much as the lizard had startled me, so he scooped it up and I don’t even know where he went with it, all I knew was he saved me.

Even Zoe, who hunts lizards outside, hasn’t ever seemed interested in catching one inside. Or notice it’s there in the first place. So the teeny tiny little lizard I spotted this morning has disappeared, magically, sort of how it showed up in the first place. Which is fine by me. It would be kinder to hunt it down and relocate it outside, because you know I’ll most likely find a teeny tiny little body after rigor mortis sets in. Even then I’ll leave it for a day or two before I remove it. Just in case…

life, memories, on closer examination, responsibility, the big picture

A Classy Bunch…

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Not too long ago I wrote about my birthday, #69, the last of my 60s. Which means I was born in 1948. But I couldn’t think of any photos I had that I could include in the post, except some photos I had taken of an old truck at a salvage yard. It was definitely past it’s prime, kind of like me, so that’s what I included in the post. But a friend said that she didn’t understand the significance of those particular images and why I had chosen them. And, truthfully, I had looked online for images of model year 1948 cars, but the photos were really quite nice and didn’t portray the 69 years of wear and tear that I was going for. And again, truth be told, I knew the day would come that I’d like to include those nicer photos in a different blog post. A post that would celebrate all of us, born in ’48, the class of ’66. I actually think that the cars produced in 1948 look very classy, not at all what I was looking to portray when I wrote that first post. But thinking about it now I think we, my fellow 69ers, are a classy bunch too. Enough of a twinkle in the eye to know how to have fun, but not likely to embarrass ourselves, or anyone else. We sort of straddled the more prim and proper ways of the generation before us, but we tweaked it without actually going as far as the let-it-all-hang out ways of those younger than us. We worked hard to earn our place in the world, doing the right thing, raising our children to be good citizens, only to see many of the lessons we thought were important to teach our children become irrelevant in today’s world. It’s nothing new to wonder what this world is coming to, but we still proudly carry the banner of our generation, yes, a classy bunch are we.

Buick Super
Buick Super
Oldsmobile Custo Cruiser
Willys-Overland Jeepster
Ford Fi pickup
Tucker Torpedo
fun, humor, on closer examination, photography, sending a message, silliness

Keep on Truckin’…

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I was out walking the dogs recently and came upon this truck (above). Something about the writing on the back caught my eye and I hurried the dogs along so I could read what it said, which was ‘LOADED WITH POLITICAL PROMISES’. I was really curious about what business this was with that particular message on the back, so stopped to take a picture, and then hurried more because they started driving away from me. They would have to turn right or left at the stop sign and I thought I might not be able to see the name of the business, and the whole thing would be a mystery forever. More about that in a minute…

One of the tricks I learned about iPhone photography was that you can take a picture using the iPhone earbuds that have a built-in off-on switch. I had just heard about this and had been attempting to do some stealth street photography in Tarpon Springs the day I spotted this next truck. On the way home I had the phone mounted to the windshield when I was stopped at a traffic light behind this guy. Everything about the messages this truck was sending with their signage cracked me up, so I clicked the earbuds that were still attached, and I got this picture. If I hadn’t been torturing myself over kitchen remodel ideas for years I might not have had the same reaction to the messages they are sending. But they are advertising that you may have paid through the nose for your Wolf, or Sub Zero appliance, but it’s gonna break! And when the inevitable happens you should call them because they are High End Service? Really, and they come out in their Mercedes truck? Would you call that number? That’s like saying please fix my fancy, expensive, high end appliance, and be sure to charge me BIG bucks while you are at it. Hilarious!highend

And lastly we have this truck, which I spotted on my way back to work at lunch time one day. Who wouldn’t want a plumber who smells good? It’s a no brainer. That’s all I have to say about that.smellgood

And back to the first picture, and the message ‘loaded with political promises’. The truck got to the corner and took a right, and emblazoned on the side, in big enough letters that even I could see it, was White’s Septic Services! Of course, what else would it be?

 

boats, memories, nature, on closer examination, photography, sunset

Sunset at Dunedin, FL…

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I had just started the classes offered by the iPhonephotographyschool.com in June of 2016. The classes were eye-opening and I was anxious to put what I was learning into practice, and sunsets and sunrises were the photo ops that I sought out back then.  To that end I headed to Dunedin, FL, where I had visited for my son’s wedding a number of years before.  It proved to be a pleasant sunset experience, with music provided by a nearby restaurant, and a marina to provide fodder for extra photos. I’ve wanted to go back ever since that first photo trip, but there are closer places for sunset photos and so far I’ve opted for the easier photo ops. But remembering how much I liked the photos I took that night made me look for them in the computer today, afraid they weren’t there. But, yay, there they were, and now that I look at them again I love them all.  They were taken with my iPhone 6+. by the way. What a nice setting for photos, I’ve got to go back…

coping, dogs, home, home improvements, life, nature, old dogs new tricks, photography, procrastination, responsibility, simple things, sunrise

Theory vs. Reality…

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My husband had joke about theory vs. reality. It was long and involved, and despite hearing it way too many times I both can’t remember the details, and wouldn’t repeat it even if I did. But in real life my theories of how I think things are going to be bump up against reality all too often. Daily, actually. Tuesday was the first of three days off, so I had the luxury of getting my long postponed dental visit behind me, ka-ching, running errands, and going out to dinner with a friend, all while knowing that I still had two days off coming up. So, in theory, if I spent Wednesday doing housework, laundry, clipping Zoe and bathing both dogs, and washing the car, I would still have another day off ‘just for me’. Ha! The reality is that I did most of what I intended to do yesterday, including a sweaty, hair-covered, couple of hours of clipping/bathing dogs, and washing the car. And the end result is that Zoe doesn’t look any different. Really? My theory was that if I bought clippers and kept up the clipping she’d look good all the time. I don’t think she is popular with the groomers with her nervous ways, and she is calm for me. I have watched the groomer run the clippers down her and the hair falls away, and she looks like velvet when they are done. How is it that I run the clippers down her and hair falls away, but she turn out looking all spiky? Must be the clippers, couldn’t possibly be me, right?

Before
After

Oh well, I was kidding myself about having a day to myself anyhow. Not too long ago the front yard looked like the jungle was about to reclaim it. So I pulled down the vines that were climbing the front, and that’s as far as I’ve gotten. In theory it will be cooler soon and I’ll have nine glorious months of perfect weather and somehow, magically, my house will be perfectly clean all the time, my yard will be perfectly groomed, and so will Zoe. That’s my theory anyhow…

adventure, dogs, memories, nature, on closer examination, photography, travel

The Lure of the West…

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It was 1991 when my husband decided that he wanted to take a trip ‘out west’, to see for himself the landscapes we used to see in the westerns on TV when we were kids. So he made a list of places to see on the trip, which included the Grand Canyon, Mt. Rushmore, the Rockies, and everything in between. It was my turn to try to impress upon a person who had grown up on the East Coast just how vast ‘the west’ really was. My introduction to this fact was when I was visiting my (now ex) in-laws in Colorado Springs and I got a brilliant idea for what we could do that day, we could go to the Grand Canyon! They laughed, and I felt silly, but to a New Englander when something is in the next state over it’s a day trip.

We got travel brochures from friends who had been to various places out west in the past, and lots of advice as to what to be sure to see. This was in the dark ages, before computers, and GPS, and even cell phones! My husband decided that what he wanted to see was all available in Colorado, so that’s where we headed. I had my new 35mm camera and I took lots and lots of pictures. It wasn’t hard to find 1 hour photo developing places, so we didn’t wait to get home to start enjoying our pictures, and I put them into an album, with notes, right away. Thankfully, since I can at least have some idea of where they were taken. But it is so frustrating to look at this album now, in this digital photo age. I want to pinch them open to see the details better, and adjust the exposure. I can see that some of them really would be great pictures… with some adjustments. Oh to be able to be there now and taking photos! I want a digital do-over!

 

We brought our dog, Nugget, with us on this trip.  We thought she was on her last legs at the time, but the Colorado air must have done her a world of good because she lived to be 18 years old.  She loved the trip, I took her picture once I noticed that she was always looking out the side of the car with the best view.