There is Mexico and then there is Mexico

“That’ll cause a commotion,” is what she said when we were walking away.

I didn’t know what she was talking about. We had just got off the shuttle bus at the airport and she talked to some of her co-workers, that she has only ever talk to over the phone. It seemed like normal network building chatter. Prior to that, the reason we were at the airport was because we were seeing her daughter off to Mexico. We were part of a group of parents and family members also seeing off about six loved ones, south to Oaxaca.

I just remained quite as I was trying to figure out what the heck was going to cause a commotion then she added. “They’ll be asking: Is she married to a white dude?”

...

One of the teacher going on the trip asked if I had ever been to Mexico. I said, "Well, Cancun," and finished with a shrug. "Yes, I guess that really isn't Mexico," responded.

For colon lover's eyes only.

I'm probably clinically depressed but I mostly feel just unmotivated. I think I need: a kick in the ass.

My plan was to: stuff the chicken breasts, and then set a toilet. But after cutting the rib cages out of ten chicken breasts and stuffing them which included tying them; I felt like doing nothing.

I somehow ended up blowing bubbles in the front yard with my nieces and then I grabbed my camera.

A picture's worth a thousand words or so they say; but as the internet has proven: you can have a thousand words and not have a story. You can have ten hundred words and still not tell a tale.

I was sitting here, avoiding work around the house and remembered that I had taken some photos; even with an LCD screen, you still don't know what you've got until you download them. Looking at what I had I thought: "I can post some of these," but then I thought: "Who cares about my nieces?" I asked myself: "Would I look at these if they weren't blood?"

Yeah, I would. Especially the last one.


neices01
In the front lawn I have a Japanese Maple tree. They tend to grow into a bush-like shape and I like to prune it into a tree-like shape. It's about four and a half feet tall at its highest. It is kind of cool being under it.


neices02
For years, I've used the mulching feature on my mowers when cutting the lawn, mostly so I wouldn't have to rake or deal with the trimmings but lately, since I have a compost bin, I've been using the bagging feature and keeping the grass taller. Tall grass is better for playing in.


neices03
For the city; it's a large front lawn


neices04
I think, posing often looks unnatural and that's why I don't ask people to pose but sometimes they just pose all on their own and I feel obligated to snap a shot.


neices05
Not posed.

I'll start to think about posting and then I'll think about all the other things that I should be doing besides posting

I think a lot of things in life can be overcome simply by hanging on and outlasting whatever it is. I do believe that more often or not that this too shall pass. But there are those things which you have to more than just wait it out; there are those things I which you have to fight against, there are those things that you must conquer.

That’s where I am.

I can no longer just breeze by waiting until my dilemma is something that can be seen in the rearview mirror.

So, that’s where some of my energy and effort has been. It’s been there and not here.

It's quiet

My TV has no picture anymore. It sort of flickered then sputtered and then died. There was a flash of green at the end.

It was about eleven years old is my guess.

...

The article suggested that the villagers stock up on tiger urine to keep the elephants away.

I would rather take my chances with a killer elephant than trying to obtain tiger urine.

...

I'm brining a chicken.

x-ray eyes

I had been stopped for maybe a minute and a half; I had pulled over to write some notes, when someone knocked on my passenger side window. My government car is marked so I get a lot of questions and a lot of complaints. The lady told me two statements and at first I didn’t reply because I had nothing to add but the silence got awkward so I said, as friendly as I could, “And?” to which she told me her concern; and then interrupting herself she said, “You have wonderful eyes. They look like you can see right through me. Can you see right through me?”

I looked her in the eyes trying to at least see her to her soul but my sight seemed to stop right at the surface of her dark brown eyes. I replied that I couldn’t see through her and I added that I wasn’t in her neighborhood for the reason that caused her concern.

I found her statement surprising because I frequently feel that my eyes have worked just opposite of her impression.

I just couldn't get the shot I wanted

pair01


pair02


pair03


pair04

greeen

I was mostly just wasting time. I wasn't really being a creep.

From my kitchen window to the tennis courts across the street is a distance of about 200 feet. I couldn’t see the young brunette as well as I liked, so I grabbed my camera aimed it across the street as I lightly pressed the shutter button which caused the 75-300mm auto focus lens to turn into focus onto the chain-link fence.

I thought, “Hmmm” because I hadn’t turned the camera on which I thought was an odd revelation because why would I try to get the camera to auto focus when at some level I knew that I hadn’t turned the camera on? It seemed that I was expecting the camera to do nothing and I was surprised when it actually did something. I then tried to remember when it was that I last used the digital SLR and had obviously left the thing on.

It was a least two months prior.

I don’t think the tennis player was the regular that I had thought she might have been.

Foreign Films

I wonder where the cultural divides are that cause someone to say: Oye, Oh or Aye, when they are being drilled up the ass.

Strangely, to me anyway, is that I kind of miss the writing

Strangely, to me anyway.

…

Things haven’t been just falling into place. I’ve actually have had to nudge things into place and sometimes I have had to actually make an effort to be successful.

It has been sometimes not dissimilar to work.

Everything seems to be an effort lately.

…

They were walking side by side down the stairway not leaving any room for someone to walk up the stairs. He was a well dressed white guy in his late twenties. She was an attractive Asian woman of the same age. They were kind of close to the last step so I stood flat footed on the right side at the bottom. I felt that they guy heading towards me should realize that this particular staircase, in this particular subway station wasn’t for his sole use. But to his arrogant, poppas credit, he didn’t give me space. And to my self-righteous, city-punk credit, I shoulder checked him a bit which cause him to change direction.

I thought of all the snide things that I could have said but nothing productive would have come from a verbal exchange, so I just ascended the stairs.

…

I still don’t feel the need to post but then I’m not certain that I ever did. I wonder why I have posted so many times for so many years. I think I might find a partial answer in my archives but I have no desire to read them.

Lately, I have so little desire.

There is still a good bit of lust though.

Actually, that’s not true; the lust is waning as well.

I still feel as I have nothing to say

I still feel as I have nothing to say but if I go too long without saying something: I think that's rude.

Friday was the same old same old but different. I was still at the bar but I didn't start with Bud Light and I didn't finish with vodka. Things seemed slightly off for most of the day, so I just went with it after work and ordered a Bass Ale followed by Margaritas followed by a few glasses of Scotch.

The guy that was sitting next to me, move so that I could continued my conversation with an off-duty bartender. We were sitting at the short end of the "L" shaped bar. From this short end, one can get a full length backside view of whoever is pouring a draft beer. One can also sometimes get a peek down a blouse from time to time when the button on the dishwasher is being pressed.

I usually sit at the opposite end of the bar, but for my last few visits, I've been stuck at the short end. The off-duty bartender turned to me and said, "You can really check out the bartenders from here." I said, "Yeah, but it's like checking out my cousin or something." We talked for awhile longer and then she left with the bartenders that had just gotten off duty.

I left and bought a box of Godiva Chocolates and then walked backed. I handed the golden bag across the bar to Kim.

Two week prior I ended up sitting at a table with some distant co-workers and one of those distant co-workers knows that I get tired of beer and asked when "The Timmy Specials" would start flowing. It had to be explained to some that a "Timmy Special" is a vodka based drink that is usually served in a pint glass. I only order them from the bar because they are especial to me and not every bartender knows the secret formula, but we ordered them through our waitress and after some discussion at the bar, Kim sent the drinks over in pint glasses.

The folks at the table liked them, so they ordered a second round but only one of them came in a pint glass and it was explained that only Timmy get Timmy Specials in pint glasses.

I felt that Kim did me and my friends a favor and that she might have been spoken to by one of the managers so she got a box of premium chocolates as a thank you.

I had left and was walking to the subway station when I heard someone call my name. It was the bartender that was sitting next to me earlier, she was calling me in to a different bar for a drink. I sat at at her table which included the two other bartenders she had left with and a guy I know from the bar, named Nick, and one of his female friends.

Nick was asking for someone to do a shot with him, everyone refused and then one of the bartenders volunteered me. I wouldn't say that we're friends but I've done shots with Nick before, we both like Patron, so I joined him in a shot. Nick left soon after that and we watched him stumble a bit as he made his way across the street. Someone at the table mentioned that he had just lost his job that day. It was also mentioned that he is sometimes a jerk, particularly when he's drunk.

I then felt a little bit guilty that I let him buy me a shot. I also felt that the recession was getting that much closer to me.

And I reassured myself that I was pretty sure that the bartenders don't call me a jerk behind my back.

not all rice is equal.

I've never had risotto so I won't know if it will be good risotto when I make it.

...

It was grilled chicken, onions, peppers and squash, all over rice. It was served on a blazing hot cast iron fajita pan.

She said, "Rice makes me happy".

No cats or raccoons?

He was like bugging me on it.

I was like, "Dude" but I went and as I predicted three days stuck in a training seminar backed up my workload. My workload nowadays has deadline that fall within days, even sometimes minutes, as opposed to weeks. My deadlines used to be to get things done before "the season was over," but now, like earlier today, I had fifteen minutes to get the thing off my desk and that's with the phone ringing and people shouting questions at me.

Yelling over a cubicle is a pet peeve of mine. But that's what happens when you're the go to guy and everyone has an emergency.

And as I was faxing the thing away, I got a call requesting a change in the order.

Such is life. I'm sure most people have survived through stuff not dissimilar.


I knew he was on his way out. I knew there wouldn't be too many more photo opportunities.

I was inside the full panel glass double doors as he was sitting in a sled. The sled gathers rain water which he always seemed to enjoy. I knew if I stepped outside that he would come to visit me and ruin the shot I wanted.


I think he was ready to go. Surprisingly he caught two rather large mice the day before and he's never been much of a mouser.

Two weeks later, as I was walking up the drive, not being greeted by the household cat, I thought about how long he had been around. I thought, "He came from the old house". I thought, "He knew my father".

And then I thought about how people fade from memory, fade from history, like they never existed.

I sometimes feel like I'm exploiting situations with my camera.

I forget the name of the show I was watching and I forget the name of the guy who said, "Taking a photo is sending that precise moment into the future," which I thought was interesting because I always think of photography as the past.

-

He was missing for three days. He was seventeen years old.


Here's a roof update. I know it has been keeping you up at night.

Fishbone

Work and complaints, mostly.

So, no posts.

There are parts of my multi-level roof that chronically leak.

I think most of the reason is because rolled roofing was installed on a completely flat roof. I could have changed the roofing or I could have changed the roof



I chose to change the roof.

You might notice that I sanded down the sharp edges. On top of the plywood, 30lb tar paper was installed and then I torched down rolled roofing; but rolled roofing only has a life span of 5 or so years so I'll top the rolled roofing with regular asphalt shingles which might get me twenty years.

You might be thinking: "That pitch is too low for shingles," and that is what most people say but the company that makes the shingles say that you can install them on a pitch of 2" per 1 foot (2/12 pitch). You just have to double up the tar paper and use rolled roofing in area prone to ice dams. You might be thinking but that isn't what you did and you would be correct but the directions say to use 15lb tar paper and they cold apply the rolled roofing. I used heavier tar paper and I covered the whole roof in rolled roofing, not just the ice dam areas, so I should be good.


And I guess I disturbed one of my tenants.