Everyday Stupidities

Hello, blog buddies and total frickin' strangers. You've reached a blog, I'm not here, so leave your name and a message and we'll think about getting back to you. The photo at left illustrates that a true friend is one that holds your hair while you vomit -- or while you pay for parking. The thing I mentioned three weeks ago, of a date for my old friend Bertie and I to get together being set (which failed due to a variety of timing conflicts involving other people), is back on and scheduled for this coming Tuesday Wednesday. I was expecting to hook up with her sometime in the last week (quoting her in late July: "When are you available during the first week of August?") but as it turns out her sister didn't bother setting the computer back up until a couple days ago -- and due to some family political nonsense she didn't try to use her father's computer. I love my old friend dearly but she's always been even more patient and quiet (read: passive-aggressive) than me. Anyhow, to repeat what was said a fortnight and a half ago: Stay tuned for a report in a few days, this post's got nothin' but aches and pains. [update 8/13: So she wrote on Monday night that she has a sudden schedule conflict on Tuesday afternoon so bump the get-together up to Wednesday...]

The only real stupidity that I have to report in the last week is that I'm out of shape. Possibly a little flabby but definitely have not been getting much exercise, causing me to be sore whenever I do engage in any aerobic activity. Case in point, this last Tuesday. I've been forcing myself to shoot a photo every day, and since I had the day off I decided I was going to get out into the world and find something unique to photograph. I had my sights set on this shed in a field where there used to be a house. Eh, cancel that, the neighbor (who doesn't have a fence) is out back watering the garden and appears to be taking a small backhoe to the old shed in his own back yard. (I'm assuming that was his shed, and not a second neighbor structure I would have been wanting to prowl.) [update 8/14: Both sheds have been bulldozed. Guess I was too late!] But I kept going up the road and got a glimpse of this abandoned house behind tall trees with a real estate sign at the edge of the driveway. Turn around, drive in, park out of sight. This place was a trip, man... it was like these people just dropped everything and left, but not before taking out the sinks and cabinet doors. The livingroom ceiling was on the floor. The records in the hi-fi downstairs were pretty intact but the ones upstairs in the record rack in one bedroom were really decaying. The RV out back was consumed by blackberry brambles and the engine compartment was completely missing, but it too was full of stuff that had been ditched, but not before taking off the cabin-refrigerator door yet leaving all the food inside. I enjoyed this field trip because I found, in a storage shed, hundreds of family photos in one album and several paper packets and loose bundles... Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul thanks you, former Roberts residents! Anyhow, to my gripe. The front door was presumably locked, I never checked it. The back door was barred from the inside, first time I'd ever seen that done on a house door. This left a completely broken-out window in the utility room, which had some plywood nailed up from the inside but not actually covering the opening. On the other side of the window is a washing machine, so I have something to step onto once through the window. Using a truck tire as a stepladder -- gee, I used to be able to just pull myself up to the windowsill and climb in, that's I'm Getting Old part 1 -- I climbed in and made my way around the house. The calendar on the wall by the front door was dated 2006 so it couldn't have been vacant that long, but really did look like it'd been empty since 2000, the date of the calendar on the RV's wall. I'm Getting Old part 2 is how while I didn't really smell the mildew that much while I was in there, my sinuses have been totally full and hurting every morning since then. I'm Getting Old part 3, the thing I'm trying to get to, is that the climbs in and out the windows, which were really nothing at all but just a little crouching and folding, have my legs really sore. Gaaah! Desk job syndrome! I can handle the cuts and scrapes from the blackberries that I didn't know about until I was getting ready for bed (nope, the broken glass and other fun features of the house didn't do me any damage), but just those simple climbing actions making me sore?! That's just wrong! The photos from the shed out back and RV were all I procured; nothing inside the house, beside maybe some records and an artificial Christmas tree (but I didn't), were deemed worth carrying out. [update 8/14: In the span of a week work has been done on the property -- the growth I had parked behind has been cut down and there's been so much bramble removal that the RV is now visible, though this cane at the shed door is intact and I put a big cut in my forehead. Ouch! I went back for more photos, and didn't stay long and didn't find much because all this bonus garbage from somewhere had been hucked into the shed in the spot the album had been found, and I didn't see fit to go digging. Seems they cleaned up one mess while creating another!]

So that's my fun, and more fun will come next post (likely Wednesday Thursday or so). I wasn't hurting for more Spackle photos (hurting from them, as said) but this was definitely a welcome shot in the arm because I haven't found that many of my own photos, or worthwhile ones (did find a 35mm roll the other day and had it developed that same morning as my field trip -- all an 8 year old boy's sports banquet, meh). So see ya next time, and may few stupid things happen to you until then.