tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58260236336578733622024-02-18T21:05:01.344-08:00Theo's Thoughtsted kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02651707333439328352noreply@blogger.comBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5826023633657873362.post-21480632733303956622021-11-19T08:11:00.001-08:002021-11-19T08:11:26.182-08:00The Capital "I" - part two<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXZG5Hl3vr-ITWWf6BgjSqG632S5duzlYowOWX7s7sAuD-obwX4sJ4q32KOpIVMvxAyjchtlF_eYgXZ2NBccVLpqnA9ALg0ZkYvY8wQ8hasKZsP1xCCXvndHawadgzCI5hgJ-r8kN8pEY/s800/I_done.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="737" data-original-width="800" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXZG5Hl3vr-ITWWf6BgjSqG632S5duzlYowOWX7s7sAuD-obwX4sJ4q32KOpIVMvxAyjchtlF_eYgXZ2NBccVLpqnA9ALg0ZkYvY8wQ8hasKZsP1xCCXvndHawadgzCI5hgJ-r8kN8pEY/s320/I_done.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> The "I" project - part two<p></p><p><br /></p><p>Old friends are the best friends, right ?</p><p>Before the age of social media I would have had no</p><p>problem with that concept. For a variety of reasons I'm not so sure anymore. </p><p>Sure, some people change and we certainly do. We drift apart and tend to remember them the way they were and can be put off when we reconnect and find they're not the way we expected them to be. Of course this has real life implications too.</p><p>I'm hesitant to go into the two groups who spring to mind in this regard. You all probably have similar experiences with old school friends or folks from a place you used to work. Briefly, my high school friends didn't really surprise me but some of of my army buddies did.</p><p>I will mention someone who just blew my mind. Our lives crossed about twenty years ago through work. I'll call him Joe (not his name) and he was very good at his job. He was very good at partying like there was no tomorrow too. He was a good father and a good guy. He paid his child support and remained involved to a great extent with his daughter. I never did quit my job to be his partner though he made some good offers, because I thought he was not entirely reliable. Boy did we have some good times and adventures though.</p><p>We drifted apart but both of us would occasionally keep in touch somehow. We both got married and when my marriage fell apart he reached out and I went to vist him and meet his new family. It didn't go well. To make a long sad story short I feared for my life before the weekend was over. I didn't want to hurt him or anything but felt it was best to go away as soon as I could. I understood that he was under tremendous stress and he was it seemed having trouble living a different life style. He was always an easygoing, overgrown frat boy and now had a small business, two young boys and a wife that expected him to act like a grown up. </p><p>So, I bailed out. I apologized for making him feel uncomfortable and put some miles between us. After about ten minutes I tried to send a more formal apology and explanation to him. I don't think it's okay to throw away old friends over small problems. I guess he didn't feel the same way. I was unfriended, blocked and couldn't even call him. I did snail mail a nice note to him but never got a reply. </p><p>I'll admit that there are times that ending a relationship is necessary and appropriate. I have a friend right now who I think should pull the trigger, so to speak, before their significant other hurts them in ways they might never recover from. </p><p>I do think that we don't value our relationships like we used to. We don't hold on to them like we really should. Yes, our friends and family will hurt us. They will do inexcusable things as well as things we do enjoy. That's just how things are. Sometimes our friends help get us through trying times and by gosh they ought to be able to rely on us to help them too.</p><p>Full Disclosure on the motivation for "part two"</p><p>I had a discussion with my oxygen delivery guy yesterday. I noticed the cigarette pack in his pocket and we got to talking. I mentioned, and he agreed that tobacco is like an old friend. Yes it treats us badly, like old friends sometimes do but it's always there for us when we need it. You know ? Like old friends are always there too.</p>ted kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02651707333439328352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5826023633657873362.post-85789968109045140942021-11-18T20:31:00.000-08:002021-11-18T20:31:24.055-08:00The Capital "I" Project<p> <br /><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLbeNNfOitQzEacWSJIUQvJy6bsANNVBKoOITyKC-Az4MYAbEA9pKPbwSxPqBZNZ22U63yh9PPXcWXrJ6zkRXnEPkZPicweQwGqa0JMBeQggyIDUFlNe9eLWgO_coU3G9G7K0t6bPa4fQ/s800/I_done.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="737" data-original-width="800" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLbeNNfOitQzEacWSJIUQvJy6bsANNVBKoOITyKC-Az4MYAbEA9pKPbwSxPqBZNZ22U63yh9PPXcWXrJ6zkRXnEPkZPicweQwGqa0JMBeQggyIDUFlNe9eLWgO_coU3G9G7K0t6bPa4fQ/s320/I_done.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15.9375px; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">The Capital I Project</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Join me in an examination of just who and how the heck I am. As I look back on the path I took in becoming the person I am today it dawned on me that while I'm fairly comfortable in my skin, I doubt that my memories, impressions and assumptions about myself are even reasonably accurate.</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15.9375px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">I've started with a short list of things that I believe but also wonder about. President Kennedy's speech writer, Theodore Sorenson may have written, "Often wrong, never in doubt". I think that describes me perfectly. My mommy always said that she thought I'd rather be right than president. I think that's a perfect grasp of my nature too. But which one is right ?</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15.9375px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Yes, I did call her and refer to her that way. I don't remember anybody, even in high school who thought, or at least mentioned that it was strange. Maybe some did and I just didn't care. I've always taken some pride or pleasure in doing my own thing, so to speak. Whatever was popular or conventional wisdom just didn't seem compelling to me. </div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15.9375px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">And that's where I'll start my quest for myself. I place a great value on my own individuality. I even think it's great for other people and have often though less of folks who just follow the crowd rather than think about things for themselves. I am not trying to say it's okay to look down on anyone just being honest that I have. </div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15.9375px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">So what am I conflicted about ? I'm willing to defend your right to be what I'd call wrong on any number of subjects. I've got your back if you want to be a Nazi, but I would happily punch you in the nose too. You have the right to be a bigot, anti-vaxxer, gun nut and the list goes on. Don't expect me to agree with you and do expect a heated argument but I figure if you aren't doing anything that hurts anyone, you can believe whatever floats your boat. </div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Also if I'm being honest, I do have guns, skip some vaccines and miss telling a lot of jokes. I sometimes forget my mask too, but I feel really guilty every time.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15.9375px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">So, what say you - and please do. Should I share my quest for inner enlightenment or keep it to myself ? Do you have similar or conflicting thoughts that you can add ? Is the extra space in front of the question mark helpful or just distracting ? My "enquiring mind" wants to know</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">I got a little engagement on this as a facebook post. Not as much as I'd have liked, but thats okay too. Link provided if you care to see the comments over there.</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/188169847928942">The OP.</a><br /></div></div></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p>ted kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02651707333439328352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5826023633657873362.post-60335909804092064452021-08-24T17:42:00.001-07:002021-08-24T17:42:22.311-07:00One (maybe last) more random thought on a move.<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNnNv2uqbSqsrtX8ncakJ1LsCNyDtImrUADfwuJ_VCWk3bmJKY1XXugOqxzzQ4WoYdZ0wWNijpEGlsyyn9DFYXDWm5uH4jC99F3nAEonXeDTkCUNh9Mk-XTAHFVmswyx4IyINDHGeV3YY/s3264/20210730_154110_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNnNv2uqbSqsrtX8ncakJ1LsCNyDtImrUADfwuJ_VCWk3bmJKY1XXugOqxzzQ4WoYdZ0wWNijpEGlsyyn9DFYXDWm5uH4jC99F3nAEonXeDTkCUNh9Mk-XTAHFVmswyx4IyINDHGeV3YY/w400-h300/20210730_154110_HDR.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">This has been an adventure to say the least. Taking chances all the way and dealing with difficulties pretty much all the time.</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">My Health challenges</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">The Heat</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Razor thin budget</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Questionable decisions</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Bad roads</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">The list goes on but probably the worst part was a Portable Oxygen Concentrator that was trying to kill me.</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">I learned a few things along the way. </div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">One of which was that twenty some odd bottles of water was probably not enough water. It was so hard though to keep hydrated. The (pos) POC. wouldn't let me get out out the truck and some people would rather walk right into a sign post rather that look at you when you ask them to do a good deed.</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">I learned that "Please help me" works better than "Hey, do me a favor"</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">I learned that a very low oxygen level may cause you to make poor choices of words. For example, "I'm disabled and require assistance with the gas pump" might have been better than, "Hey good looking, you want to come out here and pump this thing for me"</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">I learned that some, or at least one, younger looking peace officer preferred to be addressed with "good afternoon deputy"rather than " listen up kid".</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Okay, I'm stretching my artistic licence a little with those last parts. It didn't go down exactly like that. Actually the clerk was a jerk who hung up when I asked IF I could get some help and I had to talk a deputy out of going in to arrest the clerk. He had been chatting with me and overheard the conversation. </div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">I just had way too much time on the trip to imagine different ways things might have gone, say without the six hour waits for road service or the broken sway bar on the trailer maybe. I rather liked my alternative story so that's the one you got to read about.</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Anyway, I'm here. I'm slowly getting settled in. I'll be saying good riddance to the evil oxygen machine at the UPS store in a little while and wish you all-</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Happy Monday !</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">P.S. I did actually say "Hey Kid" to a cop at one point on the trip. I felt that his much older partner </div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">needed a laugh and more importantly, that he'd have my back if need be. It worked out okay thank </div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">goodness.</div></div></div><br /> </div><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>ted kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02651707333439328352noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5826023633657873362.post-27608773335016610382021-08-24T17:31:00.000-07:002021-08-24T17:31:02.182-07:00<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_1YjR1IU4SVdpOtYFxagH8IRFnMIrENgO0JNx_X7mZSGornaSEfMDewdMOw5hZkY-3AExHntwfhsxZTV0HXZqS5tdR36wcbu-vjurEbfKQiPbBb6iNUG9-MDy5CEv9yzSmoHvxCOAOG4/s1632/1painter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1632" data-original-width="918" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_1YjR1IU4SVdpOtYFxagH8IRFnMIrENgO0JNx_X7mZSGornaSEfMDewdMOw5hZkY-3AExHntwfhsxZTV0HXZqS5tdR36wcbu-vjurEbfKQiPbBb6iNUG9-MDy5CEv9yzSmoHvxCOAOG4/w360-h640/1painter.jpg" width="360" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr></tbody></table></p><div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Well, we made it. For once I was ready for the welcome picture too. The phone was on my lap. Maps, and everything else turned off. </div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">I was ready for my close-up, so to speak. Wouldn't it be funny if I-35 was like Sunset Blvd. and I didn't get that shot ?</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Yep. That's right. Or maybe, nope, that's so wrong ? There wasn't a sign or a welcome center on that particular highway. </div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">That's okay though. I'm home. Painter seems to have forgiven me and I'm starting to recover from my "adventure"</div></div><p><br /> <br /></p>ted kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02651707333439328352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5826023633657873362.post-40603228648817917732021-08-24T12:58:00.001-07:002021-08-24T12:58:51.834-07:00Random Thoughts on the way home.<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvFuSf5DY7HiLDGvbh-MYUNVRoMzd92Y3GT0NlmyJb0JzmLwvEEK0D8UrRvXwqDDeUhBQOMRxPBu8I-E4YCmPmLHx0l_bb8gYWLZJP3zqS381Y-zxV-wk8ymK8A-G8NgL4Z7xGn83jQW0/s3264/20210818_183220_HDR.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvFuSf5DY7HiLDGvbh-MYUNVRoMzd92Y3GT0NlmyJb0JzmLwvEEK0D8UrRvXwqDDeUhBQOMRxPBu8I-E4YCmPmLHx0l_bb8gYWLZJP3zqS381Y-zxV-wk8ymK8A-G8NgL4Z7xGn83jQW0/s320/20210818_183220_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> The next step was the bumpiest one. Not the most difficult but just the worst roads I've ever seen. The people were almost as bad.<p></p><p>The MS welcome sign was supposed to be after the whiney rant but blogging from the phone is confusing. Sorry about that...</p><p>Next up, a brief visit to Tennessee. It felt funny that I'd go from Tupelo to Memphis in the course of a day. If you don't know why, leave a comment please.</p><p>I will say that the people in Tupelo were nice and the people on Memphis were just about exactly how I'd heard they would be. Granted, I stopped to secure a loose bit of the junk on the trailer in a "bad" part of town (is there any other kind in Memphis) but only one local tried to mug me.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnSB0J3jgKFtMPUVv_kiAa3bpi8D9Fezf6jOBj1BnIgVt-PVriP5eqQtzLvoFmj_NCrrRtx3cqCBQbEbjowN5yKQ09pcfp3RXf1BuSJ2Ix_HZ34k4VJ79beWNtKW6P0GAyF85ERv-umGs/s621/Screenshot_20210824-124948-01.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="439" data-original-width="621" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnSB0J3jgKFtMPUVv_kiAa3bpi8D9Fezf6jOBj1BnIgVt-PVriP5eqQtzLvoFmj_NCrrRtx3cqCBQbEbjowN5yKQ09pcfp3RXf1BuSJ2Ix_HZ34k4VJ79beWNtKW6P0GAyF85ERv-umGs/s320/Screenshot_20210824-124948-01.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p> Next up was Arkansas. The folks there were mostly really nice and the roads were better except when they were really bad. The first part felt like I was in one of those bucking broncos and drunk. Other than that first fifty miles though they were great. Kudos to the guys who maintain them.</p><p>I missed the sign on the bridge over that big muddy river. It, like most of the state was beautiful. Here is a borrowed and badly processed version I found online. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyfW8G1qy0KNI5_3XIqon6f3y9nFbmaAkIt9tK2TRlc8Pne7fsqRzEbpPWWutc_yCybarQyhWcKj6hkn7TXX92QCUYI6uyXN71HW0sqaAZy8P_ysfNsvoaSdAEFoohfu8KcFkfSs1viOs/s486/Screenshot_20210819-095646-01.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="486" data-original-width="473" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyfW8G1qy0KNI5_3XIqon6f3y9nFbmaAkIt9tK2TRlc8Pne7fsqRzEbpPWWutc_yCybarQyhWcKj6hkn7TXX92QCUYI6uyXN71HW0sqaAZy8P_ysfNsvoaSdAEFoohfu8KcFkfSs1viOs/s320/Screenshot_20210819-095646-01.jpeg" width="311" /></a></div><br /><p><span jsname="YS01Ge" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Well I never been to heaven</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span jsname="YS01Ge" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">But I been to Oklahoma</span></p><p><span style="color: #202124; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">It's really pretty and the people seems genuinely nice. I'd advise you to go a different way though if you</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #202124; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">fillings and want to keep them. The road repairs are continuous and ridiculous. I almost decided to drive on the rumble strips just to smooth out the ride.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #202124; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLoGT-Y0vWtLIKFoV0rEbdR_qtaSmZsbTql50FFyGjNIQtxXj4PrbfsUrKPaudrko4DKknnAe1l_dyDmm0MqjwZWcZosmTfWeBMkj3OKn6rKCrPIjfyubQd4Db1j4qM6z4tzcnu4i-QkM/s3264/20210819_124330_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLoGT-Y0vWtLIKFoV0rEbdR_qtaSmZsbTql50FFyGjNIQtxXj4PrbfsUrKPaudrko4DKknnAe1l_dyDmm0MqjwZWcZosmTfWeBMkj3OKn6rKCrPIjfyubQd4Db1j4qM6z4tzcnu4i-QkM/s320/20210819_124330_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #202124; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif;"><br />Almost home and at this point the phone never stopped. Are you here yet ? Are you there yet ? </span><p></p><p><span style="color: #202124; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">When will you be here ? etc... This is also about the time that Painter decided to play dead. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #202124; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">I couldn't get her to talk to me and she didn't budge when I poked her in the cage. I was hot, tired</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #202124; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">short of breath and certain that I killed my kitty when we were almost there.<br /><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #202124; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">I pulled over in the nearly hundred degree heat. I was in direct sunlight and rolled the windows up and </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #202124; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">opened the cage to see. I guess it was an escape plan because just as soon as the cage door opened, she</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #202124; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"> was ready to run. I was so relieved that I couldn't even be mad at her. Also, I was concerned that I'd killed </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #202124; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">myself at the end of the trip too. It must have been a hundred and twenty in that darn truck. </span></span></p>ted kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02651707333439328352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5826023633657873362.post-16140594605343329472021-08-24T09:39:00.000-07:002021-08-24T09:39:27.313-07:00Moving right along<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxdANdFIrBcQQlVknZTtSEt-DZGGjtCXQqhKnDCnMmSDaEyHugloQNCUl9bEteJmnsFvAWcGitg7q34Njon-Q' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /> So I left Fla and had only five more states to go through. First though, I had to negotiate Atlanta. If you've never done that there is a spot about half way where the signs and the map and even the signs they've painted on the street tell you to stay to the left. Then at the last possible moment your exit is on the right. <p></p><p>When there are a half dozen lanes of aggressive drivers between you and your exit it can be quite a challenge. My truck knows the way by now though...</p><p> </p><p>When I got to Alabama I completely missed the welcome sign. The rest stop was full of trucks that were backed up onto the highway. I'll just say that the interstate was in pretty good shape though the side roads were not. The folks I ran into were nice And the further north I went the lower the gas prices were.</p><p> More to follow soon.</p>ted kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02651707333439328352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5826023633657873362.post-19168231158064535302021-08-24T08:30:00.000-07:002021-08-24T08:30:49.658-07:00Yet another random thought.<p>Doing a little catching up here. I got into Kansas a few days ago. I'll probably condense a few of my posts and try to hit the high (and low) points in order.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitwcEB2llx3mZhPISF_hcKqYPUWxG9iSJKLQRK7jFijpuKDNqcei9GV5AtEV_tGGLD_GcqhczVG5J2e0yt5D1JK22Iuu124ilDiGQ5ltM4R9yt6TwJu0_NNaUNAtSNjfegPzmi9GngNmY/s3264/20210816_225440_HDR.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitwcEB2llx3mZhPISF_hcKqYPUWxG9iSJKLQRK7jFijpuKDNqcei9GV5AtEV_tGGLD_GcqhczVG5J2e0yt5D1JK22Iuu124ilDiGQ5ltM4R9yt6TwJu0_NNaUNAtSNjfegPzmi9GngNmY/s320/20210816_225440_HDR.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p>The obligatory shot from the rear view mirror. There are many things I'll miss about living in The Resort. </p><p>I left Florida and tried to get a picture of all the "Welcome to" signs along the way. I missed a few due to traffic or just not being ready and had to steal a few. This next one is legit though.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWZgJA728mD1HDM9R1cwlzTP31hB7K1ifwMvpDmC0-8DolxfSnZGIhl0h03iT3X4GYQC633qE2-EvvZx6zFKEYEmlS_cJAOXLzjyATOd7Jq4oqaFDpepYjTQvayRrY-3JSn-e8BrIq_YE/s3264/20210817_224943_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWZgJA728mD1HDM9R1cwlzTP31hB7K1ifwMvpDmC0-8DolxfSnZGIhl0h03iT3X4GYQC633qE2-EvvZx6zFKEYEmlS_cJAOXLzjyATOd7Jq4oqaFDpepYjTQvayRrY-3JSn-e8BrIq_YE/s320/20210817_224943_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>I'll continue later when my computer is charged up. Doing this on the phone is not too bad except for the ongoing battle with Otto, the auto-incorrector.</p>ted kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02651707333439328352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5826023633657873362.post-70514063729319084462021-08-10T05:56:00.000-07:002021-08-10T05:56:28.126-07:00<div>Random Thoughts on a Move - Part III</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Xwq1kcPyuFaqBPNFp0SoQhUAYl8RDlnU_CiBaaeLBCjHcq96VcKr2rQerLKkFztkeM4t2RHV3_QTT-kcwu5y0DIIvvIxGVun33lWbqjznqe1jqHdl7fJ_1ledKfQkLXjgUieYgScg2o/s3264/sunrise2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Xwq1kcPyuFaqBPNFp0SoQhUAYl8RDlnU_CiBaaeLBCjHcq96VcKr2rQerLKkFztkeM4t2RHV3_QTT-kcwu5y0DIIvvIxGVun33lWbqjznqe1jqHdl7fJ_1ledKfQkLXjgUieYgScg2o/w400-h300/sunrise2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not this morning but close enough...</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>This is an early one so it might be a little more random than most. </div><div>I may have just seen my last Sebring Stunrise. With a little luck I'll be hitting the road tonight.</div><div>That's probably wishful thinking, but one should never give up hope.</div><div>The sunrises here are breath taking. The colors, the light hitting the bottom of the clouds and the</div><div>reflections off of Dinner Lake or the lakes farther away combine to deliver an amazing view.</div><div><br /></div><div>Sunrise can have many different meanings. In my own experiences it's varied from -</div><div>OMG, did I just spend the whole night in that bar ? Mostly, it's been more along the lines of,</div><div>Oh great, off to work again. There may have even been a few times when I wondered who the</div><div>heck is that, and is she going to get up and cook us a nice breakfast or what ? Lately I've watched</div><div>a lot of sunrises and thanked God for giving me another day and something way prettier than any</div><div>old rainbow I've ever seen. If that was the last one I get to see here, it was a good one.</div><div><br /></div><div>I've probably experienced a few last times and I've sort of been watching out for them. The last </div><div>time I got to go to Publix, my last trip to the post office here and the last time I drove someone to </div><div>the jail to visit a loved one were memorable. The last time I have to rewire trailer lights on that darn</div><div>truck - okay, that's probably just wishful thinking again. A few things I wont miss are palmetto bugs, </div><div>love bugs and the toads. I wont miss the three am trips to take peeps to the hospital or the hundred </div><div>mile round trip to pick them up from the detox center. I will not miss the hundred plus mile trip to</div><div>the VA hospital. Those five or six hour, fifty dollar trips will be replace with a twenty minute run to</div><div>Wichita ! </div><div><br /></div><div>Well, I'm wasting daylight and it's only about eighty degrees so, back to work for me. I'm going</div><div>to try to get the bikes loaded on the trailer before the rain starts. Now if I can only find one or two </div><div>guys to help, I'll be in good shape.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>ted kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02651707333439328352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5826023633657873362.post-35097460776886372862021-08-03T06:43:00.001-07:002021-08-03T07:55:08.626-07:00Random Thoughts Part Two<h2 style="text-align: left;"> Random Thought Number Two </h2><div><br /></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">As I get closer to leaving there is less and less time for contemplation. On top of an extensive "To-Do" list there is still the need to deal with the mundane daily duties.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Things like showering, dishes and garbage take time and effort. Living with COPD often means that just those things alone are a struggle and I'm sometimes thrilled that I've done those AND swept the darn floor too.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">So, yesterday I had two appts. at the VA. This is a big deal as it's at least a two hour trip each way. I checked my tires and oil and stuff the night before and set the garbage out so as to make it easy to head out in the morning. I put the bag on the hood of the truck and drove by the dumpster on the way out.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">It all went according to plan. I took plenty of oxygen tanks and hopped in the truck feeling optimistic that the day would go well. Indeed it mostly did except for a wrong turn that made me a little late. I called and let them know and they implied that it might be a big problem. GASP - anxiety level through the roof !!!</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">I'm going to miss those guys at Bay Pines VA. The shuttle driver picked me up in about a minute and took me to the entrance. Then the son of a gun wheeled me inside ??? right up to the desk !!! The clinic people seemed delighted to see me. They took me in so quick I had pinch myself. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">But I digress...</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Sebring and to an even greater extent Sebring Resort is one of those special places that doesn't leave those who live here unchanged. I'm certain that being here saved my life and possibly my sanity, but it almost killed me in different ways and more than a few times. The folks here are mostly incredibly sweet and nice and of course there are plenty who do not fit into either of those categories.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">I'd say that this place has left a mark on me. <br />Okay, several marks - lol<br />All in all I'd say the good marks will last and the bad ones are at worst, reasonably worthwhile learning opportunities. At best, the bad ones have been good for a chuckle or two, many giggles and several good strong belly laughs. <br />The picture below is from yesterday morning. It's certainly a mark of the less that good kind but not one that will last except in a giggle and this blog post.<br />Can you guess what it is ?<br />Hint: Yes that's the hood of my truck.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWOWY2-8NA-cC9eZR0NP9lqJwm3xhXfNRzBkZAs3y4CnLvwRf_NKnlTckyhKOPggenveFSqIcFMwRhsHhyWjFx3QFWnXSYnL8VQRGulpSOky6nafoi3jH1TELP-g_GIfzftpK38ImFMYM/s3264/maggottrax.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWOWY2-8NA-cC9eZR0NP9lqJwm3xhXfNRzBkZAs3y4CnLvwRf_NKnlTckyhKOPggenveFSqIcFMwRhsHhyWjFx3QFWnXSYnL8VQRGulpSOky6nafoi3jH1TELP-g_GIfzftpK38ImFMYM/w400-h300/maggottrax.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">The tendency to think of this as a typical "mark" of living here is tempting. But seriously, these marks wash right off and life is too short to take everything all that seriously, right ?</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">If you don't know what it is I'll drop the answer below.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Give up ?</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">It's sʞɔɐɹʇ ʇoƃƃɐW 😱😎🤣</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>ted kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02651707333439328352noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5826023633657873362.post-30991390124384356392021-07-30T02:38:00.003-07:002021-07-30T02:41:12.742-07:00Leaving Sebring Resort<h1 style="text-align: left;"> Leaving The Resort</h1><h1 style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHQUK8_IcRth9ZFgxJrjP7GF6ILGFHeVXER2zl5KJisGj-eMW1Q2D2yWLtaKksUD8P21IZ_OHQO8TP5ECqrcw6QkYN4h9Fp4wCB9vz5cnmpoEzu09b9ujzZduhwyDYt-VOUpFN-FnDttg/s3264/oldpostcard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHQUK8_IcRth9ZFgxJrjP7GF6ILGFHeVXER2zl5KJisGj-eMW1Q2D2yWLtaKksUD8P21IZ_OHQO8TP5ECqrcw6QkYN4h9Fp4wCB9vz5cnmpoEzu09b9ujzZduhwyDYt-VOUpFN-FnDttg/w321-h240/oldpostcard.jpg" width="321" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;">This old post card, like this place</p><p style="text-align: left;"> has seen better days. </p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">When I got here I did a series of videos called </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">"Random Thoughts On A Divorce"</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This blogpost begins with - Random Thoughts on Leaving Sebring Resort.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Perhaps it too will be the first in a series...</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><div>I can't ever remember wanting to leave anywhere before.</div><div>I've been eager to go somewhere but not so much to leave somewhere.</div><div>There have been places where I lived that didn't suit me perfectly. </div><div>The climate - either political or the weather can put me off, it's true.</div><div>Oddly enough, those things are pretty tolerable here.</div><div>The traffic isn't bad and the folks here are generally very nice.</div><div>Not on Facebook of course but in Meet Space even the worst of them are cool(ish).</div><div>I live on a beautiful lake with virtually my own private beach.</div><div>I came here hurt and confused and heavy in heart mind and body.</div><div>I was at a low point in my life and in need of some place to heal myself.</div><div>I did that here.</div><div>I got distracted from my miserable condition by accepting a job.</div><div>I lost weight, got stronger, forgot to be sad and began an adventure of sorts.</div><div>I met and got involved with a whole bunch of really interesting people. </div><div><br /></div><div>I'm not going to go into the reasons I feel like I want to get away.</div><div>Maybe when I'm away for a while I can put it all into a reasonable frame </div><div>of reference or perspective.</div><div><br /></div><div>For the moment though I'll just try to convince myself that I'm more eager to go somewhere else than I am to just leave here. </div></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></h1>ted kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02651707333439328352noreply@blogger.com0Sebring, FL, USA27.495592 -81.440907-4.3485911004903137 -116.597157 59.339775100490314 -46.284656999999996tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5826023633657873362.post-63002478234635471982021-04-09T16:22:00.000-07:002021-04-09T16:22:22.212-07:00A Prickly Point About Piney Point <h1 style="text-align: left;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirFnbsbzhtz1chWhmzNdZ47iIw-XGrmhbE2X8gBGLhIzQhTm6-IlKtfWZx8qTdTVbpP0prhg1subAIjDvjd6dPj0LRvojSvgcBgu6PGR1tpndjny7DM5vyq5gAF084vzGjoNzqrshS_9Y/s526/pineywater.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="334" data-original-width="526" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirFnbsbzhtz1chWhmzNdZ47iIw-XGrmhbE2X8gBGLhIzQhTm6-IlKtfWZx8qTdTVbpP0prhg1subAIjDvjd6dPj0LRvojSvgcBgu6PGR1tpndjny7DM5vyq5gAF084vzGjoNzqrshS_9Y/w320-h200/pineywater.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Let's go to the beach !</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></h1><h4 style="text-align: left;">There's a mess getting worse right now in the middle of Florida. Phosphate mining leaves a mess behind. The toxic waste is dumped into vast retention ponds and forgotten about. When I say vast I'm not kidding. I always wondered what was behind the dike as I drove to Tampa. Miles and miles of dikes and I never knew I was just yards away from a potential flood of toxic waste.</h4><h4 style="text-align: left;">I've noticed one other thing out on that road lately. The miles of cows and pastures with only the occasional prison or park to break up the monotony are now being punctuated by stoplights. Yeah, stoplights to mark the gated entrances of the new developments. So many new developments and I don't even want to think about that much traffic on a two lane country road.</h4><h4 style="text-align: left;">Now you might think that a big toxic waste spill would make it harder to sell Mc-mansions. That might indeed slow things down, but only for a while. The mandatory evacuations and closing the only road to the west coast must be difficult for those who live there. The new people will forget soon enough or flip their houses and move on. Once the leaks get plugged it will be ancient history to the sales people in the new developments. </h4><h4 style="text-align: left;">Of course the land value in the area will suffer. Maybe not as much as Tampa Bay will, if millions of gallons of this stuff gets flushed into the bay, but the prices will come down. The land for the next development will cost a whole lot less than the last one.</h4><h4 style="text-align: left;">*** update here *** Change that "if" part above. They started sending the nasty stuff into the bay immediately. Change the millions part too. Sorry I was off a bit. Not by a decimal point but a couple of them. I believe so far they have sent somewhere around 300 million gallons into the bay.</h4><h4 style="text-align: left;">Cleaning up the mess wont fix the problem. Mostly what that does it will let some people get even more rich. Developers get cheaper land prices and clean-ups don't come cheap. It will get a fix of some sort and the mess will get remediated but the problem will still be there. </h4><h4 style="text-align: left;">The obvious problem are the massive ponds. They are prone to problems with leakage due to age and construction details. Another breach is inevitable. This isn't even the first one since the present owner bought the property. You might ask the obvious question, why would you want to buy a massive pool of toxic water anyway ? That question covers up a more important one though. Just like the toxic waste water covers the much more toxic and radioactive waste underneath the water ?<br /><br /></h4><h4 style="text-align: left;">The obvious answer is money. The best kind of money. Other peoples money. The owner of a hedge fund used six million dollars of investors capital to buy the land. With the land as capital he secured a seventeen million dollar loan. When the darn thing leaked last time he used the investors money to buy enough time to declare bankruptcy. Now state is going to pay for this repair. That stinks just about as bad as the air in Tampa once the algae starts blooming. </h4><h4 style="text-align: left;"> Now that covers everything I think I know up to now. Perhaps my cynical take on the developers and land values was even sort of a stretch. But the thing that worries me isn't the certainty that this wont be the last leak. It's probable even that the next one or the one after will involve a massive breach that sucks the radioactive stuff out into environment. My concern is that on rare occasions, come in like the ones in the 1920s, all the ponds and all the toxins and all the radioactive waste will sweep across half the state like a radioactive squeegee. If a hurricane can blow Lake Okeechobee half way to the Gold Coast I'd say it's almost certain that one will do the same with these "retention" ponds. </h4><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaWvkzkIbpzCj8CB-z_tyFGmw253fe3hLy71wZALc1Bn4TYqB1Ia3UT7wGtg6dyWXO3GEKY7O0NT057uPONaSN9c7jxVsOn4mvovKL7R8o0j274joP8anilfQCBA9Sw4hyouihMtDqurA/s570/26hurricane.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="287" data-original-width="570" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaWvkzkIbpzCj8CB-z_tyFGmw253fe3hLy71wZALc1Bn4TYqB1Ia3UT7wGtg6dyWXO3GEKY7O0NT057uPONaSN9c7jxVsOn4mvovKL7R8o0j274joP8anilfQCBA9Sw4hyouihMtDqurA/s320/26hurricane.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Imagine this with radioactive sludge !</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div>ted kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02651707333439328352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5826023633657873362.post-15036221105937233132020-12-20T11:34:00.002-08:002020-12-20T11:50:41.952-08:00Afterlife<p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMRYEToSYfgnvVthUT6Ndr3hWq-y0JrhO2f2EvjVpFbg6n1zieQufh2S3ogc3XQVzQePgyIN1kqR-ZbUWORisHlmUuA_tBTJdYIV64QGy2BXk0g0B-w_6pneX3gOMHfGtLflvcOXc3Xrg/s1280/afterlife.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1129" data-original-width="1280" height="353" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMRYEToSYfgnvVthUT6Ndr3hWq-y0JrhO2f2EvjVpFbg6n1zieQufh2S3ogc3XQVzQePgyIN1kqR-ZbUWORisHlmUuA_tBTJdYIV64QGy2BXk0g0B-w_6pneX3gOMHfGtLflvcOXc3Xrg/w400-h353/afterlife.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /> Eyes wide open. It's dark; but wait a minute ?<p></p><p>I feel like I just woke up, but why am I not in bed ?</p><p>Where the hell am I.</p><p>Why don't I have to pee. </p><p>Or cough ? I always have to pee and cough when I get up.</p><p>Ah, I must still be sleeping. This is weird. </p><p>I'll get up anyway. If I could march in formation for twenty miles while sleeping, I can walk twenty feet to the bathroom.</p><p>Wait, where's the bathroom ? </p><p>Holy crap ! Where's my stupid feet ?</p><p><br /></p><p>WHAT'S GOING ON HERE ?</p><p>Oh hell ! </p><p>Oh no, don't even say that word. I must freaking dead. </p><p>No gates, no book, no Saint Pete. It sure doesn't look like Heaven.</p><p>But then, no flames, no stink and no signs of hell either ?</p><p>I thought we did away with Purgatory.</p><p>What next ?</p><p><br /></p><p>There ought to be somebody to ask. Maybe a TOS to sign. A guardian angel or something around here somewhere.</p><p>And then there was something. It was a sign. Or a big sign that said, "Make up your mind". And hanging, somehow around it a bunch of smaller signs. There was one that said Manual and another with "Angel" printed in fancy script. Then I noticed more and more of the little ones. </p><p>Friend, Guide, Dad, Self Help, God, Teacher, The Buddha, and the signs seemed to be everywhere. They went on forever. I'm serious, for effing ever.</p><p>So I grabbed the Friend sign and somebody said, "good choice".</p><p>Now, I didn't recognize the voice. I couldn't see anybody .But somehow I knew that they really were my friend. </p><p>Can you tell me what gives ? Are you really my friend ?</p><p>Not exactly, but I can help you figure it out and yes, if you want me to be I sure am.</p><p>Deep breath.</p><p>Okay, first things first then. Am I dead ?</p><p>No way, but you are seeing things from a different perspective than you were before. </p><p>After a short pregnant pause they added, "there is no such thing as death".</p><p>Yeah, like that was supposed to clear things up for me. No such thing as death ?</p><p><br /></p><p>I'm confused.</p><p>That's what I'm here for. And I will keep it simple for you, friend.</p><p>You are in charge. You see what you want to see and it's all just as real as it's ever been and always will be. If you want Pearly Gates and harps and clouds, have at it. If you want a dinner with Jesus or Hitler, no big deal. God Almighty can be yours to hang out with. I'm an Atheist so I don't go looking for him but they say he's simply amazing.</p><p>Got it ?</p><p>Hmm...</p><p>What if I want to go back and fix those brakes ?</p><p>Now you're catching on.</p><p>And poof ! Just like that I did understand.</p><p>I understood everything because I wanted to understand everything. That made it real and gave it meaning.</p><p>But you know, I couldn't really be satisfied without some bit of mystery. Not in "life" or now even in "after life"</p><p>I just can't; for the, if you will excuse the expression, life of me understand why I let things just go wonky. I knew even then that life is what you make of it. But I didn't fix those brakes. I kept on smoking. I let things I cared about slip away. </p><p>Oh well, I still have something to learn. I guess that's what makes me happy.</p><div><br /></div><div>Image from OpenClipart-Vectors on Pixabay. A great place to find royalty free images.</div>ted kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02651707333439328352noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5826023633657873362.post-49455608796024114562020-07-03T04:48:00.001-07:002020-07-03T04:48:41.999-07:00<h2>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"> Fireworks & Sebring Resort</span></h2>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh41uGOSj48EW5t3t5NSseBg25HXEMheKElKG-YBZFRNb5YN8RLuoDtE4r4x9SzNwG1NUm-qbjIecQ6rKcIyfCJzPAENRB4KR_BaMFKKA3eamxLePPht7On_Ux1DJpuCUOOhmGhep7n17E/s1600/afire.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1200" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh41uGOSj48EW5t3t5NSseBg25HXEMheKElKG-YBZFRNb5YN8RLuoDtE4r4x9SzNwG1NUm-qbjIecQ6rKcIyfCJzPAENRB4KR_BaMFKKA3eamxLePPht7On_Ux1DJpuCUOOhmGhep7n17E/s400/afire.jpg" width="400" /></a></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Are fireworks legal ? Yes, but only on certain holidays including the 4th.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Can you set them off in Sebring Resort?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">NO ! The lease agreement and park rules are clear. We have a ZERO tolerance policy in the park itself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Take them down to the beach - no exceptions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Thank you. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Ted</span></div>
ted kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02651707333439328352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5826023633657873362.post-18035757836092511802020-05-01T10:51:00.001-07:002020-05-01T10:51:23.368-07:00<h2>
<br /></h2>
<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Vote 2020 Primer</span></h2>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I'm not going to tell you who to vote for. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">(or against - lol)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I would like to point out some obvious facts that I hope will help you make a good decision on election day. Because, now more than ever, <b>YOUR </b>vote really does count.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">1- Somebody is going to be president next year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">2- It will be either Trump or Biden and nobody else.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">3- There is no three. It's one of those two, period.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">If you like Trump, vote for him. I don't so I'll vote for Biden. I'm not likely to be able to change your mind any more then you are to change mine. See, we do have something we can agree on after all.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">There are lots of reasons to vote for Biden. There are plenty of reasons to not WANT to vote for him too. The horns of that dilemma might just stick us in the butt though. The election is probably going to be close. And like it or not, the people who voted for third parties last time but hate Trump did end up helping him win. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> You may want to argue that point but it's a moot point now. What's done is done. The fact of the matter is that Trump is president and will remain our president for the next four years if you do it again. If you don't want him to win, vote for someone who can beat him. If you don't vote for someone that can beat him, at least take responsibility for your actions. Since we all may have to suffer the consequences of your choice, it's the least you can do. </span></div>
ted kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02651707333439328352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5826023633657873362.post-20797248421777801152020-04-21T17:58:00.000-07:002020-04-21T17:58:30.373-07:00<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Stay Shut Down or Open It Up ?</span></span></h2>
<h4>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Regardless of how you feel about the subject you should be able to understand that it's complex and that others feel just as strongly but differently. The reasoning behind their actions may or may not seem valid to you but they are not going to change their minds any more than their feelings.<br /><br />Full disclosure- I feel that it's too soon. I'll try to keep that bias out of this essay as much as I can.</span></span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">First off, a few stipulations.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: times, times new roman, serif; font-size: large;">Covid-19 for whatever reason is deadlier than "the flu". We've already lost more people to it than the regular old flus' killed in all of last year. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: times, times new roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: times, times new roman, serif; font-size: large;">Where you live and other things influence how serious you think this is. Here in middle Florida we have only a few that have died and a few dozen who tested positive. In New York they have "refer" trucks filling up with dead people and the funeral homes are piling them up in bags. They can't even come to pick up your loved ones who die at home for sometimes several days. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: times, times new roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: times, times new roman, serif; font-size: large;">As for the protests and "sooner for the economy" movement. Is it the worst thing ever ? Is there perhaps some good in there aside from the "freedom at any price" ? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: times, times new roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: times, times new roman, serif; font-size: large;">Many of them will get sick and infect bunches of other people. They in turn will infect a whole lot more and I don't think our health care system is ready for that. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: times, times new roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: times, times new roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Most of them will recover though and our herd immunity will get a large bump. This will speed up the process. The price will be high but are the results worth it. Some number of people, real living people will die that most likely would not have even got sick.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: times, times new roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: times, times new roman, serif; font-size: large;">I can't say how many people that will be. I can only say I hope it's not you or someone close to you. Also I can hope and pray that by speeding up the process, some people who would have been infected will be spared by the bump in herd immunity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: times, times new roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
ted kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02651707333439328352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5826023633657873362.post-64167366070813989772020-01-12T11:33:00.002-08:002020-01-12T11:35:23.177-08:00<h2>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><i>Oh that smell...</i></span></h2>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV4QUxX7dU65gn-DdcTPfsrNcKh00o3kZGYERYrdzSnMSp6aBwQw2OvsyJ0_GbY8BiuijbVBeAq_nxhzNjMIZY69p6zQMaJg92naWKSMamee10zNguRnHjVqUrEvshUe_BbBoS3bk0T8U/s1600/spray-1514264_1920.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1066" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV4QUxX7dU65gn-DdcTPfsrNcKh00o3kZGYERYrdzSnMSp6aBwQw2OvsyJ0_GbY8BiuijbVBeAq_nxhzNjMIZY69p6zQMaJg92naWKSMamee10zNguRnHjVqUrEvshUe_BbBoS3bk0T8U/s400/spray-1514264_1920.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<h4>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">Many years ago I was invited by a young lady to a weekend in Key West. She had been my boss at one job and I was hers on another one. We were solidly in each others friend zones and had shared quite a few other adventures. </span></i></span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>There are a few good stories from that trip but this one came to mind when I heard about the new </i><b style="font-style: italic;">"GOOP" </b>candle scent. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">We crawled our way around Duval Street for a while. I couldn't tell you how many bars we spent time in. More than a few but not all of them for sure. We reconnected with some friends that we were travelling with and decided to hit a stripper bar.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">After a very short time I sat down right at the stage. Mel was circulating and though I didn't find out until later, was trying to find me a date. Bless her sweet heart. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">About half way through the second artists set I felt a pair of soft hands travel seductively from my shoulders, slowly down my chest and come to rest on my upper thigh. Long dark hair suddenly was falling all </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">round my face. I heard the voice of an angel right behind me. She said, "You must be Theo."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Well, I was so I leaned back into a very pleasant sort of neck brace and looked up. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Oh my buttons and bows. She was simply beautiful. On top of that she had an air of exotic mystery and this hungry, focused look about her. She reminded me of a wild cat about to pounce on some prey. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">So she introduced herself, with her stage name of course. Then she paused and said, very quietly, "My real name is Pam." She then asked me to call her Dixie, or Vixen or something like that.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">She asked me if I'd mind if she took Mel (my friend) in "the back" for a private dance. "No charge", she said and then she bought me a drink. I said that I'd be surprised because I didn't think Mel swung in that direction but that wouldn't mind in the slightest. She even asked if I was sure, that she didn't want to cause any problems. I assured her that if would not affect our "relationship" in the slightest.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">I was surprised !</span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Pam brought Mel back to me about forty five or so minutes later. They seemed like they had enjoyed themselves or each other and if it hadn't been closing time I'm not sure how long they would have been back there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Mel sat down at a table next to me. she looked a little wobbly, like her legs weren't quite working right. Her hair was a mess and her eyes looked like they were having trouble focusing or something. But the grin on her face was amazing. I don't think I've ever seen anybody over about a year old smile like that. It turns out I was surprised some more.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Dixie came in close again, from above and behind. I got treated to the spectacular neck brace for a moment but instead of running her hands down my chest, she ran them though my beard. She caressed or maybe fondled is a better word my beard for some time. She ran her fingers through it and cupped it in her palms. She even ran the back of her hands down from my ears to my lips and chin. I was pleasantly surprised. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now I'm not going to say what she was doing while she was giving me a what amounted to a beard job. Suffice it to say that my face fur was well seasoned by the, let's call it, conditioner that she had applied.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Did I mention it was closing time ? Mel got her land legs back about the time all the lights came on. We all got back together and headed to the first after hours bar we could find. Then if memory serves me, at least two or three other bars before calling a cab or two.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The funny thing was, I couldn't buy another drink that night. Every time I bellied up to order something, some woman or another would lean in and hit on me. "Oooh, you smell good", and "</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Can I join you guys", and the like. All night long. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">So guys, and some of you ladies, you might want to consider getting one of those Gwyneth Paltrow candles. It just might work better than AXE Body Spray ?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://shop.goop.com/shop/products/this-smells-like-my-vagina-candle?taxon_id=1175&country=USA">Link the GOOP page.</a></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT7FT2w8u7zDLrXPzaMjzp16slXT3DEDTTRJs8TEvoTbdgbCqB2AhWFHMJnyDpK13Mlz-iKrd8PLU7KFqHYKlaG_nmEiI0PJAB1eIz8-Z8Ve0dVEAOt4zO44Rzw8DfuQ5M6oH10jRFuA4/s1600/goop.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="548" data-original-width="908" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT7FT2w8u7zDLrXPzaMjzp16slXT3DEDTTRJs8TEvoTbdgbCqB2AhWFHMJnyDpK13Mlz-iKrd8PLU7KFqHYKlaG_nmEiI0PJAB1eIz8-Z8Ve0dVEAOt4zO44Rzw8DfuQ5M6oH10jRFuA4/s320/goop.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
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ted kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02651707333439328352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5826023633657873362.post-91807176087336964802020-01-04T14:53:00.000-08:002020-01-04T14:53:21.912-08:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggNJXCv-EENOXmCzsE_GRzL8CV2MNgFuqjR_AkD3ZnNzxfon3_uB3oGafgIyn1q2rGa_5idgmnOuN5yUcxNsY3TSUgmpQnin6j5XFe4BkzWJotjy0JRsuGDx5m-hSPG73-rNEVvFnZ_wo/s1600/NYBoom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggNJXCv-EENOXmCzsE_GRzL8CV2MNgFuqjR_AkD3ZnNzxfon3_uB3oGafgIyn1q2rGa_5idgmnOuN5yUcxNsY3TSUgmpQnin6j5XFe4BkzWJotjy0JRsuGDx5m-hSPG73-rNEVvFnZ_wo/s640/NYBoom.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<h2>
We should not start wars to help leaders get elected. </h2>
<h3>
As you read this, Iran is currently conducting military exercises with China and Russia. Is this a good time to be bombing them ? Also remember that Iran has been working on nuclear weapons for decades. One more thing. Teenagers in garages across America have built home made a-bombs already. Is it ever a good time to go bombing people who could easily set off nukes in NY or LA or just about anywhere ?<br />Well, that depends. </h3>
<h3>
It's probably harder to impeach a president during a war. Especially if the bad guys are blowing up our cities. So yeah, go ahead and support your president. Enjoy your stock market gains and reduced regulations on your businesses. Most of the people who are likely to get blown up are liberals anyway. </h3>
ted kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02651707333439328352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5826023633657873362.post-62456185276493297422018-06-03T10:09:00.000-07:002018-06-03T10:09:22.657-07:00Doh~Nuts !<h3>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsMw5cvcUxpQUj-Q_Ux0gAKcyfkKNlzbSr0LTNCXpOKZgcE-uXL_Tsxt61vQqcii99ImAEaL5JpiVv8NVJsj9D_sHwmmDbGIIH-vpgXlyoaDemFpcOa2FwTBq7otCfnDqyjq6-CI994dI/s1600/teddy2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="799" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsMw5cvcUxpQUj-Q_Ux0gAKcyfkKNlzbSr0LTNCXpOKZgcE-uXL_Tsxt61vQqcii99ImAEaL5JpiVv8NVJsj9D_sHwmmDbGIIH-vpgXlyoaDemFpcOa2FwTBq7otCfnDqyjq6-CI994dI/s400/teddy2.jpg" width="400" /></a>You just never know who you're going to meet in a topless donut shop.</h3>
It was a bright sunny Friday morning. I was on my way home from a mid-shift and I saw the "Grand Opening" sign and I like donuts as much as the next guy. I was a healthy, single, twenty something with a twenty dollar bill in my wallet and no steady girlfriend to spend it on. And I really like, umm... donuts.<br />
<br />
I was expecting some sort of Vegas style atmosphere with maybe a hint of Mardi Gras. What I found instead was four customers and two waitresses and more of a Mels Diner sort of vibe. The guys looked a little sad and the waitresses looked really sad and a whole lot bored. They were underemployed housewives and the younger one looked to be in her late forties and I'd have bet they both had granny panties under their obviously new hotpants.<br />
<br />
So I pretended to enjoy my not so great donuts that probably came out of bag from the grocery store. I couldn't fake liking what passed for coffee but my server had a great sense of humor. We traded a few jokes and I made a token pass, which thank my lucky stars she didn't take seriously and I tipped well and might have left with a smile and no intention of ever returning.<br />
<br />
Except for that fourth customer. She was about my age and pretty and slid over to sit on the stool next to me. She was very much in the mood to talk and what the heck, I couldn't be rude, could I. So I got a warm up and a wink from my waitress and talked. I might have even flirted jut a little, it's hard to remember details from that far back.<br />
<br />
We made plans to go dancing that night and I put her bike in the back of my truck and gave her a ride home. We talked some more and I flirted some more and I took her home. Now I can't say that there weren't any warning flags. I don't recall noticing any though. We did make out a little and maybe I just wasn't looking for anything to worry about. I mean, I'd just picked up a girl in a topless donut shop, I sort of expected her to be a least a little bit funny.<br />
<br />
So the date went well, excepting for that I'm not a good dancer. I tried hard to learn something called the Electric Slide, and the best I can say is that at least nobody got hurt. We had a pretty good time though with lots and lots of laughter. And then we went back to her place. <br />
<br />
Now; a gentleman would never even think about talking about certain activities that night. I'll just say that shortly after we got there we removed a fairly large number of stuffed animals from her bed. One of them was a huge Bear (not Pooh) and she giggled a little while saying she was trading one Teddy Bear for another. Then some things happened for a while and we went to sleep spooning.<br />
<br />
Cut to about four or so the next morning. I feel her slip out of bed and mostly wake almost up. I can hear her bare feet on the terrazzo and some tinkling and flushing noises. After hearing some hand washing noises I started to drift back off but then heard other noises that just didn't add up. <br />
<br />
I thought I heard a drawer in the kitchen and some rattling and then her bare feet coming back closer. Then it got weird. I just couldn't figure out the "fffft", pause, "fffft, fffft, fffft" noises. Curiosity kick in and I slowly pulled the curtain aside, just a little. I just had to see what the heck she was up to.<br />
<br />
Well, I wish I could have seen the look on my face when I noticed the big ass carving knife sticking out of that poor old bears chest.<br />
<br />
Now, she didn't actually seem to be awake, and I thought that was a good thing. I know you're not supposed to wake up a sleep walker. It's supposed to be dangerous. I was willing to bet the same thing is true for sleep stabbers too so I decided to quickly and quietly ease my unstabbed ass out of there.<br />
<br />
I grabbed my clothes and shoes and almost made it. I got to the door without waking her and managed to unlock the door knob and deadbolt just fine. I started to get the door open, but only about an inch.<br />
It made a hell of a racket when it hit the end of the chain and woke her up. <br />
<br />
She was, for just a minute, more scared than I was. And for the record, I was plenty scared. But this poor girl wakes up to some naked stranger trying to run out the door carrying all his clothes. She felt violated and scared and she gave that knife a good hard look and then I was more scared than she was again. Then she looked at the bear and the knife and sorted it all out and we shared one more good laugh.<br />
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And that's why I stay away from topless donut shops.<br />
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<br />ted kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02651707333439328352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5826023633657873362.post-10732324660687054912017-06-05T03:41:00.000-07:002017-06-05T03:41:11.508-07:00WYSIWYG<h2>
What <strike>You </strike> I See Is What You Get</h2>
<h4>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Hi - You're back ! I'm glad, share this thing would you ? I'm never going to get rich and famous without a little help. </span></h4>
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">So you're looking at a screen right now and lots of little bits of light are getting bounced off of the back of your eyeballs from your device of choice. Look up for a second. (I'll wait)</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">While you were looking at the wall, or what have you, bunches of bits of light were being reflected off of stuff and ended up getting bounced right to the back of your your eyeballs too. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">Now, your brain was able to process both of those experiences without too much difficulty but actually, the little bits of light from the wall and the screen were way different things.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">I'm not going too deep with this so bear with me for just a little bit more. One way they're different that most folks are aware of (sort of) is that the screen colors are made up of red, green and blue bits. The colors we see on the wall however, or in a painting are blends of the primary colors. Just remember that. The next time you see a rainbow on the screen, it's all just a mix of red, green and blue bits.</span></div>
<h4>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">I know a lot of people who just hate the idea of "doctored" pictures. I get it. "Shopping" is the same as lying. Even cropping just means you were to lazy to take a few steps and shoot just what you wanted to. So they snap away and post their pictures on Facebook (or wherever) and know that they're real honest to goodness photography purists.</span></h4>
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Just remember that when you point your camera at something and hit that button, you are </span>not<span style="font-weight: normal;"> taking a picture </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">in any kind of color. You're just, figuratively speaking, recording a bunch of ones and zeros in your camera. The sensor has places that are mostly sensitive to the red, or the green, or the blue light and it records the image in such a way that you can reproduce something like the scene you were pointing at. It's already being processed at that point though. It simply has to be. Remember, if you're old enough, how fun the old ascii "text" pictures were ? Snoopy calendars were super cool and all, but just probably wouldn't cut it today. (obligatory LOL)</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">So you have a huge gazillion pixel image ready to share. The only thing is, nobody has the time to wait for slow files and Marky Z is cheap with his storage space. So Facebook compresses your file even more than jpeg already does. Fb also by the way "enhances" your pictures, to make up I guess for the mangling it does. In any venue though, by the time anyone gets to see your "untouched" picture, it's already been processed more that you probably realized. Unless you're shooting on film, the only question is who gets to mess around with it the most.</span></div>
<h4>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">So - speaking of messing around with them - here's some example of my messing around with one subject. Not a single bit of PhotoShop in the bunch either. I'm way too cheap for that. There might be just a teensy bit of tweaking via GIMP, XNView,XNSketch and FastStone Viewer though...<br /></span></h4>
<h3>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Three shots with different composition, ISO and aperture settings:<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk87za10I6PK1oahpwVhXPffRRUi9s2RNx8H5rpmwLAviHvGrNVnQPadmloJmjERVdXr341Xsk_jEnNuLyXtgpKAueTOMLjhdLVCg7u6HOuu0YVK4rv8wXhNsZmMRGate8QnNC-WytFVY/s1600/rusty_air2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk87za10I6PK1oahpwVhXPffRRUi9s2RNx8H5rpmwLAviHvGrNVnQPadmloJmjERVdXr341Xsk_jEnNuLyXtgpKAueTOMLjhdLVCg7u6HOuu0YVK4rv8wXhNsZmMRGate8QnNC-WytFVY/s640/rusty_air2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">f5.6 ISO 800</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjum5lnHdEWWMx9C5N6b1xgMMUhkolI5rnKUsQtNwjEpTCG8sf8zWvKMxlXuDMMeSx-g5dG3839ezzUJImxogqGMMhUe3gP8x-nCYlk39FyvhHaUuxtNG1iBDhDgWF9Bi52buD6JAdTjrY/s1600/rusty_air3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjum5lnHdEWWMx9C5N6b1xgMMUhkolI5rnKUsQtNwjEpTCG8sf8zWvKMxlXuDMMeSx-g5dG3839ezzUJImxogqGMMhUe3gP8x-nCYlk39FyvhHaUuxtNG1iBDhDgWF9Bi52buD6JAdTjrY/s400/rusty_air3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglwMXCM4iOgid5W71PD4Ul_uv1Y5ky-Kl9ZO4NVd0LelIoUqjewgcCCoUYzqOvwJRZG1JU4-qjtdtkSeREidrD6Pduc25qXzmobzh2QDPXRyWoQGQdxJuEE_9zdnNPh0ArvrWucRInYkg/s1600/rusty_air.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglwMXCM4iOgid5W71PD4Ul_uv1Y5ky-Kl9ZO4NVd0LelIoUqjewgcCCoUYzqOvwJRZG1JU4-qjtdtkSeREidrD6Pduc25qXzmobzh2QDPXRyWoQGQdxJuEE_9zdnNPh0ArvrWucRInYkg/s640/rusty_air.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">lower ISO (top) f11 (bottom)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></h3>
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Those were to practice looking at something differently. By changing my position, it's position and my settings I was trying to "focus" on different aspects of the same thing.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">In the next (and last) album I took one shot and looked at it in different ways. In the interest of full disclosure, I did "erase" a wrinkle in the backdrop from the next group.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCwUDyHnh5IAfXJ54eQ-BVB9pkIbeTjcuJAkIW0iSW6WZYhSPczspkGgnoOt9w4HYw2WfxMFW27l_0JJIZK-ucAJhQY0hMC_AaWdqYm-5QDooNeCBLiwht1zCQZ80spoudQ7V9ofqc5wk/s1600/rust_reduced.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="131" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCwUDyHnh5IAfXJ54eQ-BVB9pkIbeTjcuJAkIW0iSW6WZYhSPczspkGgnoOt9w4HYw2WfxMFW27l_0JJIZK-ucAJhQY0hMC_AaWdqYm-5QDooNeCBLiwht1zCQZ80spoudQ7V9ofqc5wk/s200/rust_reduced.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQpPK923HCjS4ZjXKuk1tc-QNRcBPgJwfQHxk_Ugrn4Nutd7OhYo9mN1UCv0DHc8yWdHcs06OZE6nj2wG1syY6spDNaeasCkPw5vYsiE_sSKXOHA5JUtGFEFYEeuR_3Du3SPSTMdF9CTo/s1600/rusty_halftonejpg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="681" data-original-width="1024" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQpPK923HCjS4ZjXKuk1tc-QNRcBPgJwfQHxk_Ugrn4Nutd7OhYo9mN1UCv0DHc8yWdHcs06OZE6nj2wG1syY6spDNaeasCkPw5vYsiE_sSKXOHA5JUtGFEFYEeuR_3Du3SPSTMdF9CTo/s320/rusty_halftonejpg.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxl5fq7oEWq6tmyQlBDi9atUQgBEn2PKlpL65fwECzsiyj__RSDEejIkCyMp-mPCLwqmSsU5b68WjE5WYdh9RNj0cIvk1ip5xSgcuKWIr0dL8yR1ZR2hpE2wMy2kJG-OUnSVqhIHdaD28/s1600/rusty_negative.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxl5fq7oEWq6tmyQlBDi9atUQgBEn2PKlpL65fwECzsiyj__RSDEejIkCyMp-mPCLwqmSsU5b68WjE5WYdh9RNj0cIvk1ip5xSgcuKWIr0dL8yR1ZR2hpE2wMy2kJG-OUnSVqhIHdaD28/s200/rusty_negative.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqm9kKyC-8GU0Wg6KKCnAqDMonjA85knJfH8OJ2CKCn-8gUHCThpI54MI0MqLz7NzI6pOi0tGKFjEsAL6gQifHpcuLfhRgYuBZKNuTGb_H_JPEPE2wsfONaINJHkJroqpFe9jJpEwWurU/s1600/rusty_levels.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqm9kKyC-8GU0Wg6KKCnAqDMonjA85knJfH8OJ2CKCn-8gUHCThpI54MI0MqLz7NzI6pOi0tGKFjEsAL6gQifHpcuLfhRgYuBZKNuTGb_H_JPEPE2wsfONaINJHkJroqpFe9jJpEwWurU/s200/rusty_levels.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZGaiDjQEMoYQs31jniFQwmsyEaHJKOEJnCsj1-Y79uRKAdVug5D8UnxtM2mqil8uNHCAedwogV2sfvxHXjcaICXbJYjIG_4ReyCUA3kdbJNuTbCDd7aIaJ1lSf__cdeqYDZDoURYBkcg/s1600/rusty_neon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="681" data-original-width="1024" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZGaiDjQEMoYQs31jniFQwmsyEaHJKOEJnCsj1-Y79uRKAdVug5D8UnxtM2mqil8uNHCAedwogV2sfvxHXjcaICXbJYjIG_4ReyCUA3kdbJNuTbCDd7aIaJ1lSf__cdeqYDZDoURYBkcg/s320/rusty_neon.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU7ORIRb_214GQ5K49fwnta0RwKSYkZoQYN3QS-yQO12P3g5R2tZTw-FPTq0x1TwcqEOVD7wQrj9yXWXIkT9MYSvGsga6GybOfQ5iuOetbpE6tz6Fv2CIeL1Aure9Hok2Upe5XCJhIvq4/s1600/rusty_sketch4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="681" data-original-width="1024" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU7ORIRb_214GQ5K49fwnta0RwKSYkZoQYN3QS-yQO12P3g5R2tZTw-FPTq0x1TwcqEOVD7wQrj9yXWXIkT9MYSvGsga6GybOfQ5iuOetbpE6tz6Fv2CIeL1Aure9Hok2Upe5XCJhIvq4/s320/rusty_sketch4.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4gDQr0lrz6HDLkV8b2GZ6pG_CrUdzrEk_8bPYT6eglO8jntW9mbF7Gfqquch71AnPUl-uqMk-13h1YYWo47wdmmh1kAZ0KBeW9V0dnUjuWVVaFvG6TAe6vcI4Tb_CcJ-ONBhFlzhfn7w/s1600/rusty_sketch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4gDQr0lrz6HDLkV8b2GZ6pG_CrUdzrEk_8bPYT6eglO8jntW9mbF7Gfqquch71AnPUl-uqMk-13h1YYWo47wdmmh1kAZ0KBeW9V0dnUjuWVVaFvG6TAe6vcI4Tb_CcJ-ONBhFlzhfn7w/s400/rusty_sketch.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdwKDibjpKqkXCBPHzO7mfu7nSc3MpsXfG_nQiHdnBuqSQWNaqvNTnw2XcaQkX2Brsiu0HA7-OjGOFzZkeeWVRwCP204V034-gbaGRIERX0wYh6m7WHRC9wkHvxP3GP8K4SJgsfbItMKI/s1600/rusty_threshold.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdwKDibjpKqkXCBPHzO7mfu7nSc3MpsXfG_nQiHdnBuqSQWNaqvNTnw2XcaQkX2Brsiu0HA7-OjGOFzZkeeWVRwCP204V034-gbaGRIERX0wYh6m7WHRC9wkHvxP3GP8K4SJgsfbItMKI/s640/rusty_threshold.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">So there are a few ways to look a something. I see this thing every day and hardly ever look at it. It's just there, ready for a hurricane or power outage, but simply just there. When I did take a look at it though, I had to think about it. How am I going to present it, printed, or blog, or faceboo ? What am I trying to say. Is it sort of artsy or merely utilitarian. In actuality, all I did was to let some little bits of light bounce off of a sensor at a certain time. </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">And the time was (then). </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">B</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">ut now it's time for #circleshapesmonday</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">#rustysunday</span></div>
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ted kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02651707333439328352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5826023633657873362.post-63748287608242666202017-03-27T09:29:00.000-07:002017-03-27T09:29:46.312-07:00Photographers Fb -vs- Google+<br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">How I Learned to Love Photography</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I used to snap a few pictures with my phone. I'd post them on Facebook and they were sometimes funny or often showed some interesting thing I'd found or was involved with. It was mainly a social activity and I never even thought about taking photography at all seriously.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'd tried that a long (really long) time ago and even got some darkroom experience. I knew a semi-pro and joined a club and bought my first 35mm SLR back in 1975. It took me four months to get it home from the lay-away room at the camera store and I was thrilled. It only took about three months before it was stolen though and I never got a "good" camera again until a few (very few) year</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">s ago.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So - to make a long story short: All the "cool kids" I met on "The Plus Side" have drifted back to Face-boo...<br />(that would be the crazy shutter bugs of course)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I get it. The g+ platform has slowly evolved from a social one to a more interest based one. Heck, I still post on both sites too. What I don't get though is the ongoing migration of "serious-ish" photographers to limit their interaction to the book of faces. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Fb is perfect for showing your friends and folks the snaps from your parties and vacations and such. FB is where the people are so sure, by all means, post that stuff where it does some good. But FB is a terrible place to showcase your "good" stuff. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Here are a couple of screen shots that I hope will show what I mean. I shared this along with a hashtag #rustysunday on the plus side and then put the same exact image into my fb photos to see how they look in comparison.</span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmsROMwx8RAamMmvdLGDB76dpk7qPKxNDNZ8pskLTAPLdD2ebZZMrh3UEpJ6-893OMD8bDfwOgR3FE4EwQd8qGL10W-uLYHHn3HZqFujdazNL4fi-FsnqiZZwqFJM1_GcSqDtKreW7hzI/s1600/fb_feed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmsROMwx8RAamMmvdLGDB76dpk7qPKxNDNZ8pskLTAPLdD2ebZZMrh3UEpJ6-893OMD8bDfwOgR3FE4EwQd8qGL10W-uLYHHn3HZqFujdazNL4fi-FsnqiZZwqFJM1_GcSqDtKreW7hzI/s320/fb_feed.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Facebook feed</td></tr>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqO5fK1zJkxgABVqs30QdUYG5C7LzPcbSy8RZeBDJnRj1FCh3rTCAsRf3iyQTN5Nj6Qai_VeOE-WyugyrF-U6pmjGamUq8fdqtWQZn_CfIVhODQGmfqR4L4fB4xdEvlnu6BBbdhjKV_O4/s1600/g%252B_stream.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqO5fK1zJkxgABVqs30QdUYG5C7LzPcbSy8RZeBDJnRj1FCh3rTCAsRf3iyQTN5Nj6Qai_VeOE-WyugyrF-U6pmjGamUq8fdqtWQZn_CfIVhODQGmfqR4L4fB4xdEvlnu6BBbdhjKV_O4/s320/g%252B_stream.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">google stream</td></tr>
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They don't look all that different as they go by in our feeds and streams and that's a good thing. Most of the time people don't do more than glance at our pictures as they go about their normal web surfing activities. By this of course I mean looking for cat memes and spelling or grammar mistakes...</div>
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But then the plot begins to thicken...</h4>
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When they do see something they find interesting and they "click" on it, the different platforms start to show some different results.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicbinvevOwo5AWV7XnFVTfVEfxIRmePXCftORUPX4WH0weQTqtlbEx_SaESvef-vxDIEHBT-s0t4r3OSdnC8AMZEFT2NJEeSS8DIv6ZT_wWCONlRPkcU-Qoe-pQi0Z5btY0UacMcZZFFo/s1600/fb_opened.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicbinvevOwo5AWV7XnFVTfVEfxIRmePXCftORUPX4WH0weQTqtlbEx_SaESvef-vxDIEHBT-s0t4r3OSdnC8AMZEFT2NJEeSS8DIv6ZT_wWCONlRPkcU-Qoe-pQi0Z5btY0UacMcZZFFo/s640/fb_opened.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A picture "opened up" on Facebook</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjY2W5yS-BEyEcSpNiiD6tI3fHljPMiNew74l4CmR6MDIcjA1aQHShMjnuvKXjJfkh24YfCReRJ-dCgHbYN9S1zTGSZ6vYD5UCQQmU9z3c3DgyDCcIhJekAZASQo4RGr61ziFxx6zPgvE/s1600/g%252B_opened.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjY2W5yS-BEyEcSpNiiD6tI3fHljPMiNew74l4CmR6MDIcjA1aQHShMjnuvKXjJfkh24YfCReRJ-dCgHbYN9S1zTGSZ6vYD5UCQQmU9z3c3DgyDCcIhJekAZASQo4RGr61ziFxx6zPgvE/s640/g%252B_opened.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A screen-grab from the Plus-Side of Life<br /></td></tr>
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Notice that they look different. Some people (lots of them really) might actually prefer the Fb version. The contrast and saturation are boosted; I think. This gives it a snappier look and a bit of "pop". If you don't see it just look at the reflection of the flash in the footpeg. (above the space between "themes" and "you"on the google (lower) version.</div>
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So, you might say, what's the big deal ? That nice Mr Zuckerblurb made my picture better for me. Yay !</div>
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Now the folks who are what you might call my "target demographics" for this blog post can feel free to move on if they want. I made my point already for them and the next part is just for my "nonphotographer" type friends. If you are cool with your social media platform "enhancing" and also resizing and recompressing your pictures them I'm cool with that. Just because you have a nice cellphone camera or even a good "real" camera doesn't mean you have to go all crazy about it like some of us do.</div>
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But, just like on TV --- <b>Wait !!! There's More !!!</b></div>
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Sometimes I see (or make) a picture that just looks better when it's bigger. I'll want to get right up close and personal and see some details by gosh. And well, faceyboo just doesn't do that so well. Or at all. And sometimes I look at a shot and wonder, just how in the heck they got <b>that</b> shot ? Because I'd love to be able to take one like that, or something. The googles gives you that chance. It's - oh heck, I'll just show you...</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqO9asbLAHOx2tDMItTtyWTX-o1RzdBb3WRXkgCx8sOznnnzoLHmHqI84aC-TpSFspkEcv6ltgWpwsuzrk76zv7_4rHmj8H6f_S2_cwmuRG-eGF1bkZv893yVcDd-nIbEGJq78s4nB5uk/s1600/g%252B_zoom%252Bdata.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqO9asbLAHOx2tDMItTtyWTX-o1RzdBb3WRXkgCx8sOznnnzoLHmHqI84aC-TpSFspkEcv6ltgWpwsuzrk76zv7_4rHmj8H6f_S2_cwmuRG-eGF1bkZv893yVcDd-nIbEGJq78s4nB5uk/s1600/g%252B_zoom%252Bdata.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zoomed about 80% of the way on g+</td></tr>
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This is why I continue to show my better photos on g+. I'm not a professional so I'm not concerned that someone would steal my work. Of course there are plenty of things you could do from watermarking to posting in smaller sizes and highter compression etc. if that's an issue that concerns you. Also, if you want your platform to enhance your shots, the plus will do that for you too. (but only if you tell it too) </div>
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There are good and bad sides to every coin of course. But my point is that if you care about your photos and the work that went into taking and/or making them, then please, post them where I can see them properly. </div>
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Thanks Theo.</div>
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ted kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02651707333439328352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5826023633657873362.post-4167385229161974082016-08-03T22:33:00.000-07:002016-08-03T22:33:26.352-07:00Liking Things That Aren't True ?<h3>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I hate being wrong</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I don't mind changing my opinion about things. "Live and Learn" is good advice. My mother always said though, that I'd rather be right than president. So when I find out that I was wrong, it just bugs me (a lot). I guess that's why I get so fired up on the internet so much. Like this little gem that I saw yet again tonight.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbkGyhM1m2fzg8V2T6Pfp0uNezC1Y4BW06nco497SnSH4Zl2ANEIral-PCowC_wDXNJCIzD8EPghDbgVaEQ7GO7jnbZHdzw0ul16XzLHPONa0cjasMbwx2Rg8XjRmR73iVZ5wAwZyZtkw/s1600/11188192_10206146205595324_1816515321773361930_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="472" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbkGyhM1m2fzg8V2T6Pfp0uNezC1Y4BW06nco497SnSH4Zl2ANEIral-PCowC_wDXNJCIzD8EPghDbgVaEQ7GO7jnbZHdzw0ul16XzLHPONa0cjasMbwx2Rg8XjRmR73iVZ5wAwZyZtkw/s640/11188192_10206146205595324_1816515321773361930_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've been seeing this for years and never really looked beyond the obvious lie. You see, Dr. Rogers was from my home town and since he wasn't born until 1931, that alone was enough for me to just curse and move on or mention Snopes and let the poster know on the off chance that they cared about being lied to themselves. Usually the response is something along the lines of, "who cares- it's still true". This sort of thing still bothers me, but I'm just funny that way I guess. I still think that if it's not true then wishing it were just doesn't make it true.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But you know what ?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was not looking at the whole picture. I was taking the lazy way out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here's the deal. (with footnotes)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The quote was from a sermon that Dr Rogers gave in 1984. He lifted it almost verbatim from a work by Gerald LK Smith in his magazine "The Cross and the Flag" in the late 1940's (or early 50's). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I know - pretty boring history lesson Theo ! But wait - There's More !!!</span></div>
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<b style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px;">Gerald Lyman Kenneth Smith</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px;"> (February 27, 1898 – April 15, 1976) was an American clergyman and </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far-right_politics" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px; text-decoration: none;" title="Far-right politics" wotsearchprocessed="true">far-right</a> <span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px;">political organizer, who became a leader of the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Share_Our_Wealth" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px; text-decoration: none;" title="Share Our Wealth" wotsearchprocessed="true">Share Our Wealth</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px;"> movement during the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px; text-decoration: none;" title="Great Depression" wotsearchprocessed="true">Great Depression</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px;"> and later of the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Nationalist_Crusade" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px; text-decoration: none;" title="Christian Nationalist Crusade" wotsearchprocessed="true">Christian Nationalist Crusade</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px;">. (Wikipedia)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px;">What is this Share Our Wealth you ask ?<br />Hmm...</span></div>
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<b style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px;">Share The Wealth</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px;"> was a movement begun in February 1934, during the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px; text-decoration: none;" title="Great Depression" wotsearchprocessed="true">Great Depression</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px;">, by </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huey_Long" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px; text-decoration: none;" title="Huey Long" wotsearchprocessed="true">Huey Long</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px;">, a </span><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor_of_Louisiana" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px; text-decoration: none;" title="Governor of Louisiana" wotsearchprocessed="true">governor</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px;"> and later </span><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senator" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px; text-decoration: none;" title="United States Senator" wotsearchprocessed="true">United States Senator</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px;"> from </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px; text-decoration: none;" title="Louisiana" wotsearchprocessed="true">Louisiana</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px;">. (Wikipedia again)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px;">Now Long claimed that the Great Depression was caused by the great disparity of wealth between the very rich and everyone else. If he hadn't been assassinated in 1935 it's likely that he would have started a Share the Wealth Party. They actually had a platform that I'll excerpt from here. It looks like somewhere along the way, their message got twisted up a little.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px;">No person would be allowed to accumulate a personal </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_worth" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px; text-decoration: none;" title="Net worth" wotsearchprocessed="true">net worth</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px;">of more than 300 times the average family fortune, which would limit personal assets to between $5 million and $8 million. A graduated capital levy tax would be assessed on all persons with a net worth exceeding $1 million.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px;">Every family was to be furnished with a homestead allowance of not less than one-third the average family wealth of the country. Every family was to be guaranteed an annual family income of at least $2,000 to $2,500, or not less than one-third of the average annual family income in the United States. Yearly income, however, cannot exceed more than 300 times the size of the average family income.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px;">Free education and training for all students to have equal opportunities in all schools, colleges, universities, and other institutions for training in the professions and vocations of life.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px;">The raising of revenue and taxes for the support of this program was to come from the reduction of swollen fortunes from the top, as well as for the support of public works to give employment whenever there may be any slackening necessary in private enterprise.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px;">This message somehow got completely flipped around. The whole "take from the rich and give to the poor" thing turns into "I got mine and it sucks to be you". Which is okay I guess. You don't have to agree with my world view and I can (and do) have an opinion about yours.<br />(just kidding - not you really, just some people)<br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px;">But I ask you. If you're going to be posting stuff for the world to see, doesn't it bother you just a little that you're being lied to. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px;">Grrrr....</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Rogers#.22You_cannot_multiply_wealth_by_dividing_it..22">1931 Quotation</a></span></div>
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_L._K._Smith#See_also">Smith Bio</a></div>
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Share_Our_Wealth#Major_provisions_of_.22Share_The_Wealth.22">Share Our Wealth</a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.75px; line-height: 25.2px;"><br /></span></div>
ted kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02651707333439328352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5826023633657873362.post-87112634137534678592016-07-26T14:10:00.000-07:002016-07-26T14:10:23.961-07:00Remember That One Time Where Your Vote Really Did Count ?<div class="_39k2" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24.12px; margin: 0px auto; padding: 40px 0px; position: relative;">
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Remember When ?</div>
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<a class="_2yug" href="https://www.facebook.com/theodore.kelly.9" style="color: #90949c; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;" target="_blank" wotsearchprocessed="true">THEODORE KELLY</a><span class="_4_mg" style="padding: 0px 6px;">·</span><a class="uiLinkSubtle" href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/theodore-kelly/remember-when-/1173441656055842" style="color: #90949c; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" wotsearchprocessed="true">TUESDAY</a></div>
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<a class="uiLinkSubtle" href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/theodore-kelly/remember-when-/1173441656055842" style="color: #90949c; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" wotsearchprocessed="true">, JULY 26, 2016</a><span class="_4_mf" style="margin-left: 8px; text-transform: none;"><span display="inline"><a aria-label="Shared with: Public" class="uiStreamPrivacy inlineBlock fbStreamPrivacy fbPrivacyAudienceIndicator" data-hover="tooltip" data-tooltip-content="Shared with: Public" href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/theodore-kelly/remember-when-/1173441656055842#" id="u_9e_2" role="button" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;" wotsearchprocessed="true"><i class="lock img sp_dn_m1AauxQx sx_38bc5a" style="background-image: url("/rsrc.php/v2/yl/r/7mCkEjtPNNA.png"); background-position: -13px -24px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: auto; bottom: -1px; display: inline-block; height: 12px; margin-bottom: -5px; position: relative; vertical-align: top; width: 12px;"></i></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px; line-height: 28px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I'm anxious about a Trump presidency but resigned to it. We'll probably be able to survive it and I hope his lasting legacy via the SCOTUS appointments will put us back only fifty years and not a hundred and fifty. </span></span></div>
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px; line-height: 28px; white-space: pre-wrap;">What scares me much more are his "supporters". Them and the other "NeverHillary" people of all types. A quadruple whammy from them and all three branches of government may well be just too much for us to bear.
So - yeah, you want to vote Green or whatever ? I know I can't persuade you otherwise. Even Bernie can't get through to you.
But just remember to tell your children and their children how it was you. You and just a few others who made all the difference back in the old times. Back before it all fell apart</span></span></div>
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ted kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02651707333439328352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5826023633657873362.post-12050357113315259472016-07-08T21:41:00.000-07:002016-07-08T21:41:53.837-07:00What Lives Matter ?Who's Lives Matter ?<br />
The BLM has a phrase they use. Black Lives Matter.<br />
Do they ? And to whom and how so ?<br />
I mean the actual declaration itself. Not the wide range of associated meanings and inferences that get bundled up with the phrase in conversation. Do they matter or not ?<br />
Now I hope that the majority of people who read this would say, "Of course they do". I would hope that they think it as well as say it too.<br />
Some might say, "No. But black lives SHOULD matter". I'm feeling more in line with that version myself. Some folks want to add a "too" on the end. Too many I think add a "but" instead. You can only decide for yourself if they do to you.<br />
<br />
Another popular expression these days is, "All Lives Matter"<br />
I don't see much evidence that very many people agree with this though.<br />
I know you want to disagree with me. Hell, I want to disagree with me.<br />
<br />
Every time somebody gets killed, I feel bad. I wonder why it happened.<br />
Of course I know why.<br />
Mostly fear or maybe anger or sometimes maybe just a mistake was why.<br />
I know for sure though that for that at least one moment, for at least one person; not all lives mattered.<br />
I know for sure one more thing. Almost all of us could be that person for that one moment.<br />
It might take different things to push us each to that point but at least sometimes we all have added an "except" as in "All Lives Matter" (Except certain ones or a specific one).<br />
<br />
I would suggest that it matters little who pulled the trigger or who got killed. It's not important weather you identify with the killer or the victim or even if they were a good buy or a bad guy. What matters most is very simple to understand but something we all need to work on.<br />
<br />
Not all lives matter.ted kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02651707333439328352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5826023633657873362.post-46250553721120099822016-03-20T16:25:00.000-07:002016-03-20T18:22:38.254-07:00<h2>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Dear Trumplings:</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Actually this memo is not written to, or for, you at all. I can't reach you. Haters gotta hate. Nothing I can do about that. I know this picture is going to upset you and well, that's just going to have to be enough for now.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioX6Hp_Ql1cs6HRP8RYdG3UZwY3k7rDhlwjYAT8Zx6-YBcJn0mcTiIQjVGZAWfRcMzY-wQBD6XkuQ3EHW7OHIQLW214XXgRPqEXT2xrsT7ZzGClrwVRwOerYFGCi8J_tXEDos83K7NZQQ/s1600/selmamarch3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioX6Hp_Ql1cs6HRP8RYdG3UZwY3k7rDhlwjYAT8Zx6-YBcJn0mcTiIQjVGZAWfRcMzY-wQBD6XkuQ3EHW7OHIQLW214XXgRPqEXT2xrsT7ZzGClrwVRwOerYFGCi8J_tXEDos83K7NZQQ/s640/selmamarch3.jpg" width="640" /></a></h2>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not a violent action</td></tr>
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<h4>
Dear Sane People, Protesters, and other Minorities:</h4>
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<b>Relax. Resist. Remain Patient. Quit fighting those you must oppose. If you lower yourself to their level, they will beat, or wear you down. Love them and reach out. Do what the people in this picture did. Do what some of them are still doing. You can't win by becoming like those others. You can show them the way out of their place of fear and hate. Show them your grace and strength so that they will want to be like you. </b></div>
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ted kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02651707333439328352noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5826023633657873362.post-60505023539596467922015-11-11T16:25:00.002-08:002015-11-13T12:43:15.398-08:00Sweet Sixteen Scavenger Hunt<h2>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">My Hunt Pictures </span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Here's my entries from my last scavenger hunt. I will be skipping the next round. Sign-ups are this Friday so be sure to be ready at noon (mountain time) on Nov.13th. Just follow Chrysta Rae and keep an eye on Mr Jingles...</span></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1ZOf4oyfnu0cVKBWzRHmDH7Q9bunGa3sUsxPKOtZkDcWPACQ3z5uuLPopVoDv4E73aOApji7LicTz7XOXSpAanKHKQrkGULOg8abdE6QE8-Bp7L9Ng_Q3zvTe2-FsioAyKcXduU4n47Q/s1600/Angry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1ZOf4oyfnu0cVKBWzRHmDH7Q9bunGa3sUsxPKOtZkDcWPACQ3z5uuLPopVoDv4E73aOApji7LicTz7XOXSpAanKHKQrkGULOg8abdE6QE8-Bp7L9Ng_Q3zvTe2-FsioAyKcXduU4n47Q/s400/Angry.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Angry</td></tr>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVldmjD32n_z8KGymEUEpNP9xLZxRZ1Z47C6Z-hN20oGiCXk_2E0og3jh7N_c5NgLOhl-wPmRfN46HIOij6Hwek2zzHPj4m3YVCi6BC7SBuXwQktqRDXNJUonWSDt-PL-aGv9EYbNEWU0/s1600/Brick.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVldmjD32n_z8KGymEUEpNP9xLZxRZ1Z47C6Z-hN20oGiCXk_2E0og3jh7N_c5NgLOhl-wPmRfN46HIOij6Hwek2zzHPj4m3YVCi6BC7SBuXwQktqRDXNJUonWSDt-PL-aGv9EYbNEWU0/s640/Brick.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brick</td></tr>
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We were stuck in traffic on the highway for a long time one day. A really long time. I looked out the window and saw this angry face and knew I just had to use it.<br />
I shot it with the fish-eye option on my camera and did have to fiddle around a bit in GIMP to get it to look like this though.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3uIihzmKU4VVZeGkOkucIbzJ7O76Q-ZUmMOg_XQwwTc-EgmnocUPeQAU_B5VCAU_unrkbNCfPEnEJmCXCNu33KlK2HtrKE2oV6pKLoAzoeAzwzva-OlRTqe65xpYYKwjOFvuxZ2rSdX0/s1600/Bunny.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3uIihzmKU4VVZeGkOkucIbzJ7O76Q-ZUmMOg_XQwwTc-EgmnocUPeQAU_B5VCAU_unrkbNCfPEnEJmCXCNu33KlK2HtrKE2oV6pKLoAzoeAzwzva-OlRTqe65xpYYKwjOFvuxZ2rSdX0/s320/Bunny.jpg" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bunny</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKb8VjZhKY_RAGhTxJDvOLMTKCAcyu-b8dFO1bpSv0YNpjYbGKjflx4Mz5dTf8XD1b43WpBETF9_Xj6X3DRE6xzx6Fb8JiFfUpXV3x5z8FWw3Mth8UGC4x1NiASAZXvcgQ4ei93xFmQFY/s1600/Electric.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKb8VjZhKY_RAGhTxJDvOLMTKCAcyu-b8dFO1bpSv0YNpjYbGKjflx4Mz5dTf8XD1b43WpBETF9_Xj6X3DRE6xzx6Fb8JiFfUpXV3x5z8FWw3Mth8UGC4x1NiASAZXvcgQ4ei93xFmQFY/s640/Electric.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Electric</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZXvUpITcU4BdDrLxbBTwMLMFmOGlWS3qIaRBwJsE-tDhe5C6-dOdd1Q7P2ijgBaAawLrKpDzEvZTrmwkTLXLVpPdOHE2Dz5yPdsXt1Ri22LoQwP9r-3LhHIJ3imPMIku-vXH9MbHHITA/s1600/Fish.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZXvUpITcU4BdDrLxbBTwMLMFmOGlWS3qIaRBwJsE-tDhe5C6-dOdd1Q7P2ijgBaAawLrKpDzEvZTrmwkTLXLVpPdOHE2Dz5yPdsXt1Ri22LoQwP9r-3LhHIJ3imPMIku-vXH9MbHHITA/s640/Fish.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fish</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGDguk3Zgc7aLY84q8ctIdu_e5b8ld6OtawGWzI9fp47kqv9dJMr4i9tWHqlKugInjDVyr6w3AuNdwYyIYzBbryxeKLsQbbDJ1o6SyKDYbXMZ5_xYWjgK6HPTcdZba17JQp5C3lk28EPM/s1600/Juicy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGDguk3Zgc7aLY84q8ctIdu_e5b8ld6OtawGWzI9fp47kqv9dJMr4i9tWHqlKugInjDVyr6w3AuNdwYyIYzBbryxeKLsQbbDJ1o6SyKDYbXMZ5_xYWjgK6HPTcdZba17JQp5C3lk28EPM/s640/Juicy.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Juicy</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd3QMy2KS0AVPzeqaL4GswW9ZGkuR-bSARrFHBahpC1-URcpI9_i1VBR5PMVSfezs5aSha0owt3pD7YvDqf4AcZHNax3cKoWlogoyZM5pjyH5hYy0J8Xeu_K06YZfZZLtypA7zxAoJtHQ/s1600/Plumber.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd3QMy2KS0AVPzeqaL4GswW9ZGkuR-bSARrFHBahpC1-URcpI9_i1VBR5PMVSfezs5aSha0owt3pD7YvDqf4AcZHNax3cKoWlogoyZM5pjyH5hYy0J8Xeu_K06YZfZZLtypA7zxAoJtHQ/s400/Plumber.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Plumber</td></tr>
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I had big plans for "Brick", I was going to shoot a picture of a police car and another one of a brick going through a car window at the junk yard. I figured I could combine them and have winner.<br />
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I never got past the part where I got a brick though. I still have it if anybody wants an old brick. </div>
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I like this one though. It's my new wall paper. I wont be needing to keep "The List" on my computer if I skip this round.</div>
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The bunny shot - what to say ? It just grabbed my attention and I had to use it. Those eyes...<br />
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Did you ever try to jump start a car and and - well, have this happen ? I have and it sure does make an impression on you. It seems a lot brighter and more violent than this picture seems to indicate. I was tempted to liven it up a bit with post processing magic. In the end though I decided to leave it just the way the camera caught it. </div>
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BTW - No batteries were injured in making this picture. There are some marks on the cables though. (lol)</div>
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The Lost Sea - It's in, or rather under, Sweetwater TN. One hundred and forty three feet under, to be precise. That's a whopping fourteen flights of stairs down. (minus the stairs of course) And remember: What goes down (me) has one heck of a time coming back up.<br />
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No. The fish really aren't quite that big either. I "helped" them out with a bit or artistic license. </div>
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Juicy - that one was fun. Does anybody need a twenty pound prop mallet ? Only used once.</div>
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Plumber - I knew everybody else (mostly) would shoot pictures of toilet related people and things, I saw more pictures of coin slots, which is a nicer way to say butt cracks than I ever wanted too. </div>
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So my idea is that one tripod is more level than the other. Get it ? </div>
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It's plumb-er...</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz2NpYB5NHKGMoTonycG7tdwKn14DHGcG96zqJLRm6AuHX_bH5gkIyIUrmYaXosQg4yp_yutFWpPlvm6k33pVXTbhyphenhyphen1If8Ozyc-ZXZaYYxua55rVW-tT3PfghyphenhyphenF70URtqLsdkVDZzMNIo/s1600/Stripes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz2NpYB5NHKGMoTonycG7tdwKn14DHGcG96zqJLRm6AuHX_bH5gkIyIUrmYaXosQg4yp_yutFWpPlvm6k33pVXTbhyphenhyphen1If8Ozyc-ZXZaYYxua55rVW-tT3PfghyphenhyphenF70URtqLsdkVDZzMNIo/s640/Stripes.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stripes</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrT4RCpt7VV_v7HpMT_MF4fhFQuLfeCZA_Fw7g5rnVCAdD8XDL4BO1wBaSmaXCIYIaiwx1wRwD8hwYGq4PpUmlvJ6nkNwyYJSmDYcf3j8cvb26OuLQ3u8WfHwu2TbSWANAzcAxvztYYMc/s1600/Urban+Legend.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrT4RCpt7VV_v7HpMT_MF4fhFQuLfeCZA_Fw7g5rnVCAdD8XDL4BO1wBaSmaXCIYIaiwx1wRwD8hwYGq4PpUmlvJ6nkNwyYJSmDYcf3j8cvb26OuLQ3u8WfHwu2TbSWANAzcAxvztYYMc/s400/Urban+Legend.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Urban Legend</td></tr>
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Stripes - Hey, I'm Irish, Do I really need an excuse to go hang out in a bar ?<br />
Q:How many stripes do you see ?<br />
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I was shooting for seven, but some of the other hunters pointed out a few more.<br />
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Urban Legend - I wasn't the only hunter who used this idea. IMO though, I think I had the cutest snake that ever graced a toilet seat.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEictoQwS6VLqImLQESk6FTFepPsvdkLjAyFBGG2uLdfL1OeijPQjXEVxaSCh5RUnrfT5lY3ZQEjU-PNemH6q8wBWkYXbXVxOalBJbgypVBeNNjzoPLzVQnfOqlOs3lj9m1BPzysaabdIp4/s1600/Violet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEictoQwS6VLqImLQESk6FTFepPsvdkLjAyFBGG2uLdfL1OeijPQjXEVxaSCh5RUnrfT5lY3ZQEjU-PNemH6q8wBWkYXbXVxOalBJbgypVBeNNjzoPLzVQnfOqlOs3lj9m1BPzysaabdIp4/s400/Violet.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Violet</td></tr>
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Violet - Might have been the hardest shot to get. I couldn't find anything that was just the right shade of violet to suit me. Everything was either too blue or too dark or otherwise just not quite right.<br />
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So I went to the big-box home improvement store and had the paint guy make me some. The thing is: they have a no pictures policy.<br />
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Paint guy said, "No", the dept.manager did too. The front end manager had a hissy fit. Luckily, the store manager is a photographer. He not only said yes but invited me to go right up close behind the counter. He was going to get some lights even but I think it came out okay.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Apologies for the funky formatting. I thing I need to use a different template or switch to a different platform or something. Every time I think I have it figured out - I don't.</b></span></div>
ted kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02651707333439328352noreply@blogger.com0