10 26 12

More Blue Hair Highway!

 

Why is is that at my age I feel "Young" when travelling the I95 corridor.  Maybe it's because relatively speaking I am!

 

I guess that's really not fair.  There is probably someone under 65 in every 15th or 20th car on that road.  Coming south from DC to Richmond is always a lot of fun.  Normally there is parking lot traffic in either one direction or the other.  This time it was stuff coming North that was stopped.  And because I was going South, I got to gloat.  The neat thing about this picture taken at 8:30 in the morning, and traffic heading into our Nation's Capitol, is that it was taken 30 miles south of DC.  They going to be late for work me thinks.  Probably govment workers anyway, so it doesn't make any difference if they are.

 

BTW if I offend anyone in what I say in this blog...I apologize in advance.  Sorta like the president [small p intended]  apologizing all around the World for the US, while not apologizing in a meaningful manner to the parents of the slain in Benghazi! 

 

The BH Highway makes for some awfully good people watching.  Sort of like New York City where the people watching is a real art.  Not like taking photographs of course when I say art, but it really can't be beat in that town. 

 

Folks on the highway call into a few categories.  Of course there is the Blue Hairs riding in the passenger seats of the vehicles driven by the White Hairs with the deep golf cart tans.  That is when they are coming North.  Same thing when they head South.....X the tan.  Some of them can actually see over the dash boards.

 

Other of the snowbirds, normally from Canada, bring their RV's.  You've seen them.  They are the ones with the big wheel three wheelers with large shopping baskets between the rear tires of the trikes.  They often are towing a Subaru of unknown vintage and travelling about fifteen miles an hour under the posted speed limits while the rest of the traffic is doing fifteen over.  You may think them slow when viewed on the highway, but don't get in front of them when they are headed for the Early Bird Specials at three in the afternoon.

 

Then there are the Beamers, Caddys, and upscale Lexus where the driver has one of those talking devices wrapped around one ear replete with a speaker for hands free control.  The dirty secret with those successful looking guys is that they only talk to someone every 200 miles.  The operative word in that sentence is "Looking".

 

Then there are the corvettes and other flashy, expensive, sleek new vehicles with the top down being driven by some lady who thinks she is still twenty as she passes trucks with hair, hand and skirt waving in the breeze.  Never mind that she is over 50 and having a mid life experience that we men could never begin to identify.

 

The guy two rows over with the sombrero and mustache is driving some early fifties factory created muscle car that gets about nine miles to the gallon.  He's being passed [passed I say] by one the those electric egg beaters that has to be plugged into an outlet for power created in a coal fired plant.  And right there is the fallacy of the "Green" car.  Save gas and use more coal....genius Washington!....we tax payers will never get paid by GM for the "Volt" scam.   Think of a piece of tin foil wrapped up into a ball and you get an idea of what one of those little things on the highway will look like in a head on collision.

 

I did get a fantastic art print from all the  fall colors along the highway, but nature cannot hold a candle to the diversity we see in the other cars.

 

 

 

 

10 25 12

Left Friday Back Tuesday!

 

I spent the better part of last week and this travelling to Hereford Inlet Lighthouse to do the NJ Lighthouse Challenge.  I have shown there for 10 of the last twelve years and it was wonderful visiting with new friends and old.  I have not done a show in two years and it was fun to see that the old BS ability is still with me. 

 

 

Here you can see me conning a new victim, while Sam the Barbary pirate looks on.  It's good to have an old friend handy to correct one's approach.  Like--"$250?  You just charged the previous guy only $200!"  Thanks Sam....a big help.  But we do have fun.  This image was taken late on Sunday and most of the hanging stuff had been sold.  Which is a good thing!  It was a good weekend for sales but prices had to be down and I did get rid of a lot of inventory.

 

We rode up from South Carolina on the "Blue Hair Highway', stayed overnight on Friday at my son's beach house in Delaware, and took the Lewes/Cape May ferry across the Delaware Bay on Saturday morning.

 

 

The ferry enabled me to get a few images of the two lighthouses at Cape Henlopen and a couple of the light at Cape May.  It is a nice trip but a round trip ticket is over $80 for a car and two people, so it probably would not be a good choice for a daily commute.  Last time I made the trip two years ago it was around fifty.......so there ya are!  Inflation!

 

We spent Monday doing R&R.

 

And wandering on an almost deserted boardwalk in Ocean City, MD.  I always get a bit of a sad feeling for the boardwalk after all the people have gone and the weather is cooler.  But that's just me.  The color and romance (?) of the place still can be found.

 

And that image my friend is why they invented color film a million years ago.  More tomorrow if my feet hit the floor.  Good to be back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brief follow up!

Well, the computer is at the digital hospital to have a virus removed and Lord know what else that they can do to ring up the bill.  I have to admit that I guess I am lucky in as much as this is the first time I have been invaded with the malady that probably originated in some mother's basement by her teenage  nare-to-do son, but now is probably done by some entire department of either an Iranian or Chinese anti homeland security outfit.

 Regardless of who did it, I would love to use my 357 to give him/her a double tap.  Yeah, I know about such things.  Hell, I do watch television!

I am now using the other computer we have and it is fine except I have no access to all the photographs without going to disk and it just isn't worth digging all that stuff up.  So here I am phoning it in so to speak.  Just showing up, like somebody I recall doing at a debate a week ago.  

Friend of mine from the old Easton Waterfowl days just posted some videos of the color up in New Hampshire in the White Mountains.  He was in the vicinity of Mount Washington on the Kancamagus Highway.  Made me homesick even though that was never my home up there.  Just fished there every spring for 40 some odd years. If you have the patience you can probably find my writings about those trips about a couple of years back on this blog.

Good News....for some but not me!

I will be giving you guys a rest for the next three or four days....Got hit by the FBI virus and it's a minimum $200 fix....Sheeeeeeesh!  I understand that it is the virus of the moment and that a lot of people have been destroyed by same.

 I even called the local FBI office to confirm it...we had a laugh or two at my expense.  But the guy was nice about it.

 You get a screen that obliterates all else on your puter....But, it says if you pay them $200 bucks (same as the geek squad ... hummm?), they will give your computer back.  Don't do it as it is obviously a scam.  The screen tells you that the FBI has frozen your computer...ain't them.  Just take the machine to your local computer fixit guru, pay his bill, get a better anti virus program, and pray it doesn't happen again.  C ya in a few days.

10 8 12

Finally!

 

I have gotten around to adding descriptions to the Lighthouse postings in the Fine Art America galleries under, strangely enough, the "Lighthouse Gallery".  The lighthouse images in the "Sepia and Black and White Gallery" are also updated.

 

  Oh, and I hope you are clicking through to all the links I'm putting into the text.  That's my lame way of getting you to look at the artwork in the strange hope that you will buy something.

 

  Furthermore, think wall groupings....that's three or more pieces of one category making an interesting statement.  You can get any hangings, in any presentation of your choosing, from FAA

and there is a 30 day satisfaction guarantee with not questions asked.

 

 

Or for instance

 

 

 

Now there is a reason to look at these images other than..."Gee they purty"!  Or...."Look George, you have that same picture"!  There is actually some useful information there, and George may not have that part of it.  Look for something called "Description" and forget about the grammar and spelling...or Miss spelling for that matter.  It makes it all quaint!

 

It seems like this week and next will be devoted to getting ready for the show in Angle Sea in New Jersey, at the Hereford Inlet Lighthouse.  For those of you in North Jersey...It's at the shore!  North Wildwood!  The event is Oct. 20 and 21.  I will be there from around ten am till six each day.  Bring money!  I mean, I love your smile but the green makes me smile and I don't want to be left out of the conversation!

This is my first show in two years and it will probably shorten my life by an equal amount of time spent on my feet brow beating potential buyers.  But it is fun and if the weather holds should be worth my while.  And besides I get to see old friends and they do make me smile!

 

I have done this show, which is actually the NJ Lighthouse Challenge, for a number of years and the weather has always been perfect with only one exception. 

October 2009!!!!

A Noreaster blew for of course three days...That's what noreaster's do.  As you can see from this photo, there are two outstanding aspects of most beach towns.  The first is that electric wires are a state wide economic boom for the electric and phone companies.  Try to fly a kite on this street!  The second is that the towns tend to flood during big storms.  Hey...It's a barrier island.  Surrounded by water.  With Tides...you know up and down.  In or out!  And when the wind is pushing the big pond westward, well your town tends to flood.  We even had to move my part of the show into the gazebo with temporary walls.  Some of the other lighthouse were closed because of flooding in their respective towns.  Not us!  Amazingly, the number of attendees was about the same as the previous year with perfect weather .  We are, after all, lighthouse freaks and not much keeps us away from a party!

 

In Good weather this is what the place looks like!  At least beach side.

 

 

And the back door, which was once the front door........or at least the door facing the ocean.  The Victorian gardens are enough to draw tourists from all over the world.  And that is only about an eighth of the gardens.

 

Great place and great people.  If you're in the area please stop by or for that matter go do the challenge.  You have two days to get to all the lights and it makes a fun trip.

 

There will be about a baker's dozen lights open to the public over the two day span and participants in the challenge must get to every one of the participating lighthouses.  If you manage to complete the tour, you get a seventy five cent award of some kind.   It's fun and we lighthouse freaks love to see, get together, tell stories (lies mostly), and just have a generally wholesome time.

 

For those of you aspiring photographers, artists, curmudgeons, crafters and other near to wells.... there will be more to come about show prep later this week. 

 

 Now I do have to get to work!  Well, maybe coffee first.

 

 

10 4 12

The 4th?

 

  I thought that was just yesterday.  No I mean the one with the fireworks and stuff.  My younger, less seasoned citizens, take it from me the older guy... the more seasoned ya get the faster time seems to go by.  I mean I am all in favor of being born old and growing down.  Then you have the money and life experiences to start with and you don't make the same mistakes all over again.  Guess I will just have to wait for the re-incarnation for that.

 

I watched the debates last night along with 50 million or so of my closest friends.  Looked to me like one man wanted to be there and the other didn't.  Also looked like maybe, just maybe somebody can solve some of the problems this country faces.  Just sayin!  Problem there is it's the same with the growing down or younger bit...we won't know for another four years or so.

 

Rain this morning and I have no idea when that happened.  So I must have slept soundly which is a new experience for a change.   I must have had my patron saint looking over me.  That's her in the tree there.  Ya know the one that looks like Casper the Ghost. 

 

 

For my less seasoned friends, Casper is of the same Generation as Wiley Coyote of Road Runner fame.

 

MEEP MEEP!

 

10 2 13

Quiet Morning!

 

It's a bit cloudy here south of the sun.  Seventy degrees at 7:30 hundred AM and the first cup of Pike Place Roast is beginning to kick in.  It will probably be warmer than I would like at this time of the year because I do miss the sharp breaks of a season change.  If I remember correctly, the end of September happened with an almost instant drop in the temperature, but not so much down here in south Shangra La .

 

 

In the North, the beginning of fall also marked the time of the Hunt and it was fun to watch when they came by or if you heard the horn blowing four fields away. 

 

The midlands of South Carolina don't tend to exhibit a sharp change in rural shrubbery color as do those areas further north.  So I would have to make the three hour drive to Asheville, NC to see the color.  That is a fun trip and offers a great jumping off place for the wilds of Appalachians in that state and Tennessee. 

 

That is the Appalachian Trail...the Trail! In western North Carolina.  Looks pretty tame right?  Bet it isn't after about thirty days of walking.  I once entertained the thought of walking the trail from end to end.  Georgia to Maine.  But I was just turning seventy at the time and somehow my youthful exuberance just didn't bubble up enough to commit to such silliness.  I did a lot of reading on the subject and found that for most of the trail, it was simply gruelling plodding through the woods and not scenic vista upon scenic vista that one would imagine.  So, I'll just drive to the pullovers and snap my photos like all the rest of the tourists.

I'm not sure what the allure of extremes is all about, but the beach and mountains seem to call to me.  I guess it's like Jimmy Buffett being drawn to the Caribbean Islands.  In fact Buffett just went into the computer and "I got a school boy heart" is playing.

  Just something about a natural desire to be thrust into the extremes of mother nature.

It's like does God offer "Do overs"?  I would love to have been a storm chaser in Kansas, a forest ranger in New Hampshire, or fishing guide in the Keys.  All things that probably provide less income than social security.  And that ain't much! 

 

The trail runs through the middle of the Smokies in Tennessee and could you just imagine having to walk the distance along the cut between the mountain ranges from top to bottom of that picture.  Smell like stale uneaten Tacos when you finish.  And that is probably less than ten miles of the over two thousand miles of trail.  Would have been fun thirty years ago.

 

The far left and top of South Carolina does offer some sense of the weather changes, the mountains, and pines close to a tree line of sorts.  This is table Rock!  A place that one can drive to and have only a short walk...And....a view of something other than your right boot plopping down in front of the left.  Repeat as needed! With a seventy pound pack on your back!

 Probably one of the very few best decisions I have ever made in life was to recognize that I really did not want to walk "The" trail.

 

Blind hog finds an acorn category.