Toys

April 29, 2016 cthulu 1 Comment

Just as I accumulate books, I also accumulate toys. But not just any toys, they have to be mechanical, with a wind up key. How did I start this collection you may ask? It all started when we were in college. We were invited to a friend’s house for their child’s birthday. I think she was going to be six. So we went off in search for a present, knowing nothing about children, except from our own dim memories. The thing that I found most exciting was a wind-up frog. It had a lovely motion, was small and waterproof and could be used in the bathtub. Well, how cool is that? So after I bought one as a present, I had to get one as a present to myself, and another and another. These toys are inexpensive and they keep making new ones, so it is a great hobby to collect them.

It was too hard to decide which color to pick of these cheery dinosaurs, so I got them all!

These holiday hoppers were on sale after Easter so of course I needed to add them to the collection.

This one was a late (I mean we are talking months late) birthday present from a friend. A wind up and bubble gum, what a great combination.

This side walker looks like it could have been made for Easter as well, but perhaps not.

I’m not sure if this side walker is a dog or a polar bear, but I like it.

A hopping strawberry was definitely something I needed to have. And unlike books or clothes, when I get a new one in I don’t have to send an old one out. They are all mine forever.

Art, Town

graffiti

April 21, 2016 cthulu 1 Comment

Today was a photography day with the photography dude from Colorado College. Once a month we meet downtown with a theme for the day and a mandate to take a limited number of pictures on said theme. Today we met in front of the comic book shop and I actually found a place to park. About 15 people showed up today, more than usual. But then it was a nice day, with no new snow, unlike Saturday last! So our goal today was to walk around the streets and alleys of our little downtown area and think about color. I was ready for taking photos of the graffiti .

Not actually graffiti, this is a wall poster advertising a local beer: Laughing Lab. M always said he knew why this Labrador was laughing.

Further down the alley I spotted this building.

Although it sort of looks like real graffiti, it was purpose painted with these designs that wrap around the building. Inside is a hair salon and I certainly hope that they do trendy things in there.

I always find parking garages to be creepy places and I only use them as a last resort.

Who is the mad tagger, putting their mark all along the alleyway. Why it’s me!

Art, Ephemera

Shadows

April 16, 2016 cthulu 1 Comment

It was the monthly free day at our local museum, so of course I went on down there, because I like inspiration and I am a ~~cheap bastard~~ thrifty sort. But it was the same show as last month, so I decided to look at the art in a different way. One way that you can tell that a piece of art is important is by the way it’s displayed. It’s on a pedestal and has lighting to illuminate it just so. What I got interested in was the way this fancy lighting cast interesting shadows behind some pieces.

Multiple images like the sort of thing that Andy Warhol did, and totally ephemeral.

And you might wonder what the original looked like.

Large pieces have a big shadow.

Bird, angel or monster? (I forget).

This reminds me that I need a tiara.

Along with the ghostly presence of shadows, we need the spectral image of a reflection in the glass.

Town

Lovely decay

April 12, 2016 cthulu Leave a comment

When I took pictures of Las Vegas, NM I used the phrase “lovely decay” to describe the city. What I meant was that the city once was prosperous, they had pots of money and spent it to glorify the city’s position. Then came the decline, the city lost importance and the buildings were never updated and modernized. Time stopped and that’s what makes it so photogenic.

Here where I live, the downtown, theoretical heart of the city has been modernized in fits and starts. Some of the lovely older buildings have been demolished to make way for parking lots and upscale urban living. But, there are little islands of lovely decay, waiting for the time when they too will be swept away and replaced with the new.

Down along old highway 85 is the 4U Motel. It was very modern when it was built in the 50’s, and it is still in use as low cost temporary housing. But the sign is rusting away, it no longer seems of the future, it’s of the past.

This lovely old house is nearby to where I occasionally work. It obviously at one time was rather splendid, you can see the footbridge that runs over the creek. Yes, this house has a three quarter moat surrounding it. I suspect that it had wooden shingles at one time before it was covered in stucco. Now it sits boarded up against the homeless hobos in the neighborhood.

This tiny house sits across the street from the new modern police station. Ancient enough to have a brick chimney, it has been unoccupied for many years. It sits waiting for the real estate investor to be able to make a huge return on this investment.

This place is also downtown, right next to the Greyhound bus station. Formerly a car wash and gas station, it sits waiting for the proposed Olympic museum and baseball stadium that will send it’s value soaring. As our minor league baseball team is leaving the city in 2017, at least part of this plan may never happen. But eventually all of these buildings will be demolished and something else put in their place. It’s the nature of cities.

Life

Books

April 7, 2016 cthulu 1 Comment

One of the many foolish questions that is commonly asked in a job interview is: What is your weakness? (The correct answer is always “kryptonite”). But I would have to answer that my weakness is books. I love physical books, ink on paper, the feel of a hardcover book in my hands, e-books just don’t have this, they seem and are ephemeral, they can just be deleted. Because I love them, books just follow me home, so that even as I get rid of some of them, there are always more coming in. I really was not trying to acquire this current crop of books, but here they are.

The library had it’s semi-annual book sale recently. On the last day of the sale, it was $5 for as many books as you could fit in a grocery bag. All of these are mysteries, except for the one by my friend Barbara. Mystery is my favorite genre,

And I picked up these books, some of which I had read before, because they also fit in the sack. So what will I do with these books? Once I have read the mysteries I will probably donate them to the little free library at the Mennonite Church. Some will probably go on the empty spaces on my bookshelves, until the next purge.

These books came from a quilter who is downsizing. She invited me and a couple of friends to come over and take as many as we wanted. It was interesting to see how many of her books I already owned. It’s true that great minds think alike. 😉

She is an artist and quilt teacher that I had first met many years ago. And a lot of these books are autographed to her, but she is ruthlessly de-cluttering prepatory to moving.

So this led to the melancholy musing of what will happen to my books someday. Perhaps, I will take them with me, but in the meantime I shall enjoy reading them and I promise to make at least one thing inspired from the quilting books.

Life

Mail

April 3, 2016 cthulu 1 Comment

I’m not sure why I look forward to getting the mail out of it’s box, but I do. When I was young we got the occasional letter or box of goodies from a distant aunt, but then as now, it was mostly bills. But I live in hope, and every day I go down to the mailbox and see what the Postie has brought.

On this day I got a phone bill, an Easter card, notice of an alumni event, brokerage stuff, and two crisp new dollar bills for participating in a radio ratings scheme. Overall, it was a pretty fair day.

Here’s a more typical haul, adverts and special offers, but I also got another Easter card.

This day I got a catalog, a mortgage offer and adverts.

If an envelope says “Important: Open Immediately” you can pretty much bet that it is unimportant and can be safely ignored. But I did check just to make sure, and no, I do not want to buy a new car.

My favorite here: Get a free pest estimate. I would like a free dinner, but not enough to listen to a salesman flog their product. I don’t need tires and I certainly hope that I don’t need the services of a hospital.

This batch included a quarterly newsletter from an organization that I belong to, most other groups just send an e-mail, which I seldom read. This lot was rounded out with another credit card offer, insurance offer, brokerage stuff that they are required to send and an advert. Looking through all this stuff, it made me wish for the days when I got letters, although I was a terrible correspondent. Most of my letters started out with “sorry I haven’t written sooner”. Oh well, I still look forward to seeing the Postie six days a week, maybe next week I’ll get more interesting stuff.

flytippings

Monthly Archives: April 2016