Things That...

go

in the night.


It's that time of year.  Harvest Fest...didn't go.  But the town did dress up with some scarecrows.  Here is one display.

outside the ice cream shop

'A' and I have been walking just about every night and all sorts of creatures have been out there.  The scarecrows, of course.  One of which sort of took us by surprise.  Even made us cross the street thinking that it was a real, rather questionable character.  Yep, it's that time of year. 

leather shop gets scary

On another night time walk we discovered a skunk scooting the edges of the main road on Bearskin Neck.  I tried to get a photograph but the flash couldn't handle the distance and I really didn't want to try to decrease the distance.  No way.

My favorite display was a portion of one.  I didn't like the full scarecrow-y thing that one of our shops had out on their porch.  It was rather poorly executed.  But I did love this part.

on the porch in front of Willoughby's

There are lots of pumpkins and orange lights.  Halloween is getting to be too decorated.  I like saving the big time lights and all for Christmas.  Others think otherwise obviously.  Right about when we got to this display on Main Street two bunnies ran across the sidewalk in front of us.

orange glow on Main Street house

We've been enjoying the night walks.

full moon over the harbor with Motif #1 at far left and the end of T-wharf middle to right

In Response

to my last self-portrait post may I present two historic title references.

The first, the Van Gogh (without bandage, without hat, Scribbs)

And another title example, a self portrait by Gustave Corbet.

For those of you wondering what on earth I'm talking about...you haven't read the previous post.  Go read!

Self Portrait with Pipe

Amanda and I broke with tradition today.  Instead of walking several miles throughout town, trying to explore new routes, discover overlooked gems, we headed to the South End and beach walked.  It was ideal...very low tide.  The cold wind was blocked by dunes of popples*.  I toted camera, of course, as I have been trying to do more of lately.

I took a couple dozen photos.  In reviewing them I deleted some, naturally.  I'm trying to be a bit more selective in my review process.  Is it a 'good' shot, technically well-composed, color good?  I don't like to 'doctor' photos if I can help it.  Sometimes just some cropping.  Then come the next questions.  Is it a photo worthy of keeping?  Why?  More often than not the deletions outnumber the keepers.  That being the benefit of digital...just go for it, experiment, erase it if you fail...some techie advances have been good!

Self-portrait with Pipe

For my self portrait I was inspired by a self portrait taken by someone dear to me.  The concept the same...the emphasis quite different, I think.  To that person who's brought much to my life...thank you.

*popples are stones that have been washed smooth and rounded by years of tossing in the surf.  In Rockport, many of these stones came from the local quarries and were once ballast in sailing vessels.  Removal of popples from Rockport's beaches is prohibited.

The Hole Gets Deeper

Halibut Point sunset

I can't seem to get ahead of anything.  Household projects like getting ready for winter, or work - not that there's a lot - I just can't get any time in at it without interruptions, money is going out as fast as it comes in - I needed a new muffler this week in order to pass vehicle inspection - there went a chunk, plus the regular bills and business bills.  The up side could be that I never lack for something to keep busy.  The down side is that I have been too busy.  Never ending.  I'm caught between crying, fleeing to a far away country, screaming, banging fists or head against something unforgivingly hard, or doing nothing but nursing an unhappy stomach and a headache.  The latter won.  So all of you will have to be content with a pretty picture because I haven't managed to climb out.  It's only gotten deeper.

Close Up

Felt the need to post here and I haven't much to say. 

That's not entirely true.  I'm just too tired to organize any thoughts to make them worth reading. 

Work has been backing up on me.  Not because there is any significant amount, but because other obligations have interfered...or I've decided that I just need fun time.  So now I'm trying to catch up and I'm frantically working...long hours.  That's made me too tired to write much.

'A' and I went up to the Moseley Estate on Saturday afternoon.  I took over fifty photos.  Most were mediocre, a few were pretty good.  Another few I took just to play. 
Like this self portrait:

or...What do you hide inside your tree?

or...The texture photo.  A close up of the unfortunate demise of a wonderful barn destroyed by a recent fire.

 So that's all you get with this post.  When I finally dig out from under, I'll write something more.

Humor for a Gray Monday

Thought this was cheery fun.

Stuck in the Past

It has very little to do with the photo of the front end of a Crosley.  The only thing relating the two is that I saw the Crosley on the same day as the following happened.

Skip's, our favorite burger and fries (Susie-Qs) joint is closing for the season today and since 'A' works today and we couldn't go, we went yesterday.  Actually, as we found out last year, dining there on closing day isn't good.  They run out of all the good stuff.  As it happens, yesterday they were out of both vanilla and coffee syrups.  We had to get black & white frappes instead of our favorites of either...yeah, vanilla or coffee.

But that's not what this post is supposed to be about...

We ran a lot of errands on our way to Skip's.  The timing and locations of those errands resulted in a trip up I-95 getting off at Rte. 113 to head into Newburyport.  Mom wanted to stop at "Oldies", an antique and junk shop.  So...off the exit and on to Rte. 113 east.  It starts as a four - laner (two each way) and after a couple traffic lights becomes High Street with one lane in each direction.  Now at this point I must say that there are the two opposing lanes each flanked by a bicycle lane, then on-street parallel parking.  As I was driving along that section, I heard a horn blaring.  What the heck?  Where was that coming from?  Then I caught a glimpse of a little Hyundai passing me on the right...in the bicycle lane!  NUTSO!!!  She, yes a 20ish woman, scooted that car right in between mine and the car I was so nicely following.  I couldn't believe it.  As we continued down High Street, Ms. Hyundai kept pulling ahead to tailgate the car in front and swerving into the bicycle lane like she was trying to pass them as well.  Finally, with a long blast of her horn...she did it again!  By now we had memorized her license plate...just in case.  I'd love to post that info here...probably shouldn't so I won't. So now the line up working from back to front...me, the second car she passed, Ms. Hyundai, more vehicles.  Then the second car she passed turned off High Street and I found myself, once again, behind Ms. Hyundai.  We eventually came to a stop at the traffic light at the top of Market Street.  Ms. Hyundai couldn't sit still.  Did she have some high energy rap music playing in her car?  She was bouncing all over the place.  The light changed to green and we were all off again..Ms. Hyundai swerving behind yet another vehicle.  I'd gone far past our destination and needed to turn down a side street and backtrack so I have no idea what eventually happened or where Ms. Hyundai finally went.  All the time we were hoping for a police car and there was not one in sight.  Never is when you want one, is there?

But what I'd totally forgotten, and what prompted the title to this post, is that among the three of us in our car there were three functioning cell phones.

Yep, we should have called her in.