Lazy Post, Just To Post Something

I haven't had a very sunny disposition lately, so yer gettin' some sunny Florida pics from the archives. (Translation: I don't feel like writing and I haven't taken any newer photos that the ones I posted yesterday.)

I've been scanning some slides, but they aren't that good, or they are family Christmas photos. Great to move forward on the slide archiving, but no gems that might interest you.


This first one was at Downtown Disney in Orlando, an open area of shops and stuff.


This rock is called coquina. I think it's ancient coral. It's all over down here. I like the stuff, it has lots of character.


Three bird photos. A great blue heron up first, the second one with the nice reflection, I'm not really sure but I think it's another type of heron, and the bottom birds are white ibis.

Oh. It's Friday

You know, some days, no matter how hard you try, you end up having to phone it in. Know what I mean?

I have nothing witty, clever, or meaningful to say.

So y'all are getting pictures.

This first one made me laugh. Boy did I need to do that. I was just setting up, wanting to take some photos of Lovely Wife's flowers a few weeks ago, when Rosie jumped up there. It was like a little kid jumping into the shot. If you have kids, or if any of you ever were kids, you know what I mean. But her eyes were half shut from looking into the sun, and I hadn't had a chance to adjust the flowers. Both Rosie and the flowers look kinda droopy. But she's a cutie, that's why I love this shot.



The rest of these were taken because I tried an experiment. I can't take a camera into work, but since it's still hitting 90 degrees F most days here, I also didn't want to leave my camera in the car.

So, what I did a few days ago, was to take one of those puffy material, collapsable, coolers. Like what you might take on a picnic. I put my whole camera bag in there, took the rechargeable battery in with me, and left the whole bundle, camera, camera bag, and cooler in the trunk of my car. The car is white. At the end of a whole day in the sun, when I got out there after work and checked on my camera, it was just barely warm. Actually it was perfect for taking out in the still warm evening without having to worry about fogging the lenses, or worse, the electonics inside the camera. Moisture + electronics = trouble. I had tried this scenario with shorter times in the trunk until I was sure I wasn't going to kill my camera.

So these photos were taken from my work's parking lot and the last one at a hospital just up the road from there because the sky looked cool, and the red Emergency sign looked interesting.

Thursday Thirteen #9

Thirteen Things I Haven't Done/Seen/Smelled/Watched/Whatever In Years 1. Charlie Chan Movies. When I was young, these movies were on TV all the time. I love classic mysteries. They made a whole bunch of them in the 30's and 40's, but they are considered politically incorrect now. That's the inspiration for my calling my daughters Number One Daughter and Number Two Daughter on my blog. Charlie Chan had more sons than he could remember names for and referred to them as Number One Son for the oldest, Number Two Son for the second oldest, and so forth and so on. 2. Mimeographed Handouts In School. Back in the olden days, there was this big round machine in all school offices, that kinda looked like a giant Rolodex with a handle on the side, which the teachers used to crank out copies with for tests and handouts and such. The sorta-purple ink had a wonderful smell. When tests were handed out, everyone picked up their copy, and held it to their face to inhale a deep sniff of that wonderful smell. Of course, those days are gone, but I would love to smell a mimeographed sheet again. 3. Pixie Sticks. Years ago, I saw a 'concert' on tv wherein the commedian Sinbad, talked about growing up in the 1970's. In it, he said, "Pixie Sticks was OUR crack!" I laughed so hard. Because for me, it was true. I remember trying to make coolaid out of several of them and it was terrible. But I especially loved the HUGE ones in the 2-3 foot long plastic straw. Jet fuel for an 8 year old. 4. Lifting Weights. In my teens and early 20's I loved to lift weights. I loved the way I felt after working out, and then the way I felt overall from being in shape and strong. That was a lot of years and four back surgeries ago. I'm thinking about taking it up again, on a lesser scale of course, but the inertia of not going to a gym has the upper hand right now. Blast Isaac Newton and his "objects that are at rest tend to stay at rest..." maxim! If he hadn't discovered that, I would SO be at the gym all the time. (And if he hadn't invented gravity, I might be able to fly too.) 5. Sainted Mother's Fried Chicken. It's been a long time since I had some of Mama's fried chicken, gravy, and rice. I can't talk too much about this one, I'll get all verklemt. 6. Don C.'s Smoked Sausage. My Dad (Don C.) knew how to make the best smoked sausage EVAR. When he couldn't make it, he knew other people who did and bought it from them. It has been years since I've had a decent, lean, smoked sausage. It's a small thing, I know, but I would love to have some of his. Believe me when I tell you that I have tried every brand on the market, wherever we have lived, and NONE come even close. 7. Darkroom Chemicals. Yeah, I guess I could go down to a local photography store and take a whiff of the stuff there, but the curious vinegar-ey smell of the classic black and white darkroom, is something I would like to smell again. It's not a good smell, really, but the associations ARE good. 8. Memories of My Daughters. When they were little, they said and did so many wonderful/cute things that I thought, "No way will I ever forget that." Well, I know now I've forgotten a bunch of stuff. And I regret not writing them down. 9. Vacation. It has been years since we've taken a road trip, even for a few days, to have a real vacation. I've totally forgotten what it's like. 10. Mountains. Ok, being from Louisiana, mountains have not been in my life very much. But our time in Georgia, and visits to Utah when my brother was alive, made me appreciate the beauty of hills and mountains. I'm more of a beach person than a mountain person, but I'd still like a stay in North Georgia with some crisp cold air... 11. Cold Weather. Again, being from Louisiana, winters were usually pretty mild. But after almost 10 years far enough down into Florida that I no longer own a coat, makes me long for a nice cold snap. All I have is a hoodie. It IS funny to see people down here when the weather drops below 70 degrees F. I've seen Parka's in 50-something degree weather, I kid you not. 12. Receiving A Hand Written Letter. I have more communication with loved ones now, in the days of email and 'free' long distance on cell phones, than ever before, but receiving a hand written letter is a great feeling. 13. Family and Friends. Lastly, but most importantly, there are a bunch of family and friends I haven't seen in a long time. This list ended up being too morose, but I really do long to see family and old friends again. This list went from light and frivolous to woe-is-me, when I meant to keep it light. But I don't feel like doing it over, because it IS truthful. The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

Got A Call From ANOTHER Old Friend

My health really hasn't been that great the past few years. And lately, although I don't think it's anything other than stress, I've noticed some weirdness in my heartbeat, especially at night when I lay down.

Because of my cruddy back, I cannot sleep either on my stomach or my back; I can only sleep on one side or the other. I mostly sleep on my right side, to try to lessen any pressure on my heart. If that even helps, I don't know.

So, two nights ago, I had gone to bed early, and was laying there listening to my heart skip every now and then, when the phone rang.

It was another old friend from my youth. (I had another one call me out of the blue a few weeks ago that I spoke of here.)

Anyway, Mike K. is another high school buddy that I have, most of my adult life, taken inspiration from.

Mike, and his wife Anita, were from Monroe, Louisiana too, and it being a small world sometimes, he ended up stationed with the U.S. Air Force at Eglin AFB near Fort Walton Beach, Florida. When Lovely Wife and I got married, I worked for Johnny's Pizza House, and at the time they had a unit open in Fort Walton Beach, but were having trouble getting people to move from Louisiana to manage this particular restaurant. I went through their management training, and after our honeymoon, Lovely Wife and I moved there for me to be an assistant manager.

During this time, Mike and Anita, and Lovely Wife and I would do some things together. Go to the beach, play miniature golf, you know, Florida stuff. We were all young newlyweds and it was cool to have an old friend nearby.

My time in Fort Walton Beach was short lived. The Johnny's unit did well until the winter months when many other businesses closed down, and it would lose lots of money. They closed it down, and that's when I moved to manage the Johnny's Pizza in Haughton, Louisiana I spoke of here. We eventually moved to Dallas when I quit the restaurant business and was rehired by Delta Airlines.

Our time in Fort Walton near my old friend Mike was short but nice. But then we moved away, and both couples started having kids, and well, you know, just didn't keep in touch as much as we would have liked.

(WARNING, self analysis ahead. But, I always screw that up anyway. My natural tendency is to, after a while, imagine that my life is so dull that nobody would want to hear from me anyway. I have to take the blame. I stink at keeping up with people. I think about them a lot, and I pray for them when they come to mind, but I'm always able to convince myself that nobody would want to hear from me anyway. It's a sad way to think of one's self like that, but there ya go, it's true in my case. Back to the story...)

In the late 1980's when my family and I were living in the Dallas, Texas area, and I was with Delta Airlines, I started having the desire to go back to college to learn something that would help me get a better job within Delta. I mean, this was a great company, but I couldn't see myself loading freight and baggage on planes for 30-40 years. I went around and got college catalogs from the various schools in the Dallas, Ft. Worth area, but I ended up not starting back to school.

Then a couple of years later, we moved to Atlanta. We could get to Panama City Beach, Florida in less than six hours driving. Wuh-hoo. So we would go down when we had the chance, and since Mike and Anita were still there in nearby Fort Walton, we saw them a few more times before he was moved. They really had a pretty long stay in Florida, as far as Air Force personnel are concerned.

But one of the times we were there, I saw Mike and he had started college while in the Air Force. He ended up earning a computer science degree. Just talking with him one day about his experiences and his ambitions to move his life forward, really made an impression on me.

I had pretty much given up the thought of getting back into college as a pipe dream, but after talking with Mike, I began to rethink my situation.

To get on with this, I looked at my school options in the Atlanta area, and did what I needed and started school at Southern College of Technology in Marietta, Georgia. My idea was to learn electronics so I could get a better job with Delta.

But as my school year progressed, I learned more about what job opportunities there were in the world beside my wanting to stay with Delta.

I ended up with a whole school year of credits from Southern Tech, and we moved back to Louisiana, where I eventually earned a degree in electrical engineering from Louisiana Tech.

But the catalyst was that afternoon spent talking with Mike while he was working on his first college degree. It lit a fire under me that got me back in school.

Flash forward. I've been wanting to get a Master's degree, to further my career here in Florida. But due to health concerns, I've put it off.

So last night, Mike calls me to see how I (and my family) am doing. What another massive blessing! Wow.

While we are catching each other up on our lives and those of our families, I find out Mike is now working to get a Phd, to help his career. See, the computer science degree was just the beginning. He applied to, and attended Officer Candidate School, and worked for years as an officer in the Air Force, AND also ended up earning an MBA to boot. How many folks do YOU know that took advantage of the military's offerings to such an extent? Mike's an old friend, but he's a big time inspiration, too.

And after talking and catching up, I lay there for several hours, thinking (and listening to my heartbeat).

Guess what I've been thinking about?

Getting off my lazy butt and DOING something about a Master's degree, instead of just thinking about it.

We shall see.

But the real blessing was to talk to another dear old friend, to share his joy in his successful career (he's out in the corporate world now) and beautiful family.

It was a much needed reminder of just how incredibly blessed I am as well.

Thanks Mike. Speaking with you truly blessed me. Your hard work, and determination to live the American dream, never fails to inspire me to do the same. God bless you and your family.

(Thank You too God.)

---

Since this post just popped into my head, I had no pictures of Mike to show you. But then I remembered one from our high school days that I thought I had scanned the print. I found it.

That's Mike K. on the far left, just to his right is his identical twin, Jim K., to Jim's right is Tommy T., and finally me on the right. We were in Arkansas one winter to hunt in the woods around Tommy's parent's farm. I was glad no one shot my camera. (I luuuved my old Canon AE-1, and still have it.) The pic is full size and won't enlarge.

It Came From Outa The Sky

True story.

For a long time after we moved to Florida, I took advantage of our lunch period where I work to go sit in my car by either the Atlantic Ocean, or the Indian River Lagoon, several days per week. I still do once in a while.

In the winter months, there's usually a lot of dolphins and manatees in the Indian River Lagoon, which I never tire of seeing.

And back then, I was still blown away by how Florida-ey things looked. Palm Trees in cow pastures; that was a sight to behold.

Anyway, one day, I was sitting on the Indian River Lagoon at a local park and enjoying the water vista. I was eating a whopper or something, and I looked down to take a bite, when something ZOOMED! out of the sky and SPLASHED in the water right in front of my car.

I had just caught the action out of the corner of my eye, and it was enough to really, really startle me. I looked up to where the splash had taken place, and there floated a single pelican, looking all nonchalant, as if he had been there chilling out the whole time.

He had a "it wadn me!" look on his face. Well not really, but he was floating there all calm, like he'd been there all morning, in total contrast to the amazing Kamikaze manoeuvre he arrived with.

I laughed at him for a bit.

And then I laughed at me.

It sure made THAT lunch memorable.

---

Here's a coupla more slides from my scanning this past weekend. Flowers, or 'flars' in Louisiana.

Big Chicken

There's an old saying, "You don't know what you have, until it's gone."

And when I look back on my life, there were a lot of little things, that at the time were not a big deal, but now, in my mind, have gained a higher status.

When we lived near Atlanta, in Powder Springs, Georgia, from 1989-1992 we spent much time in Marietta. Powder Springs was a beautiful small town, but most of the stores and stuff that we went to were in Marietta.

When I started on my path to getting an engineering degree, that path began at Southern College of Technology (now it's Southern Polytechnic University) in Marietta. I transferred from there to Louisiana Tech, which I've talked about here before.

And I still listened to music on the radio a lot back then. And of course watched some tv, too.

Any self-respecting business anywhere near the Big Chicken in Marietta used it as a reference on how to get to their business. "We're two blocks south of the Big Chicken, at (such and such) Marietta Parkway," was a somewhat typical mention on commercials.

So anyone from that side of town knew The Big Chicken.

What is the Big Chicken? Behold:


Simply, it started out as a hamburger joint, and they added the chicken to advertise their new menu item.

It ended up being leased by Kentucky Fried Chicken, now KFC, in 1974.

I think the Chicken part was built in 1963, added to an existing building, and in the early 1990's, was almost demolished to put in a more modern building like the other KFCs. But the very mention of the destruction of such a respected landmark brought out the fangs and claws in even the most sedate Mariettan (?).

The Big Chicken was saved!

And instead of a new building, the old one was refurbished, and even the chicken itself had it's beak, and rolling eyes repaired to working order.

And all was right with the world again.

So if you ever make it to the Atlanta area, go on up to Marietta, to the Roswell Road / Marietta Parkway intersection, and feast your eyes on a true Georgia landmark.

While you're there, you might as well feast your stomach on some of The Colonel's Original Recipe.

Yeah, I know. It's kinda lame looking as chickens go, but it HAS stood the test of time.

And being a proud WalMart shopper, I'm just the classy kind of clientele that would frequent such an establishment as the Big Chicken KFC. I've et chicken from there my own self.

But then, ya gotta make room to eat at The Varsity, too, sometime while you're in the Atlanta area.

Though not if you have a delicate constitution and can't handle greasy food.

But I'm just low class enough to love this kind of goofy stuff and glad they were able to save it.

Picture Post, Sunday October 1, 2006

Wuh-hoo! October!

I scanned some of my old slides on Saturday. Most were from a trip I took with Lovely Wife's (then Lovely Fiance) family, to Rockwood, Tennessee. It's in the east Tennessee mountains about half way between Chattanooga and Knoxville.

All of these are from that trip and scanned Saturday. Give 'em a click.

First of all, this is one of Lovely Fiance at the precipice to Ozone Falls, in the mountains near her grandmother's house. You can see she would just walk up to the edge, freaking me out. Of course, being a true shutter bug, I got the shot amidst all of my freaking out. I only got as close to the edge as her while on my belly, scroonching up to look over. Just looking at her in this photo makes my head spin, and I don't exaggerate when I say that.



This is a slide I've always loved for some reason. This is my Father In Law (to be) raking and burning leaves at his mother's home in Rockwood. This is the only one of today's photos I cropped. Just a bit from the right because it was just darkness.



Here's one of Ozone Falls from top to bottom. There's nothing here really, to give you a sense of scale, but I would estimate them to be 90-100 feet high (27-30 meters). You can see why Lovely Fiance walking to the edge up there put ME on edge.



This next one is looking over the mountains north of Rockwood before sunrise one morning. Up on top of West Mountain (I think that's the name) is a fire observation tower and there is a small parking area and overlook up there. This is further proof, though rare, that I HAVE actually awakened before sunrise.



A final one of Ozone Falls from the same spot, just turning the camera up to get the sunlight through the trees. It was late November, that's why there's not much color.



This next one is from the same day as the photo at the bottom of this post. The limestone mill, or whatever you call such a place like this, looked neat in the evening sun against that impossible blue sky.