Category Archives: Photos

Entries with photographic accompaniment.

Photos, Stories

A Change of Perspective

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Rachel and Evangeline seem to have chosen as their favorite “Uncle Blair story” the tale of the time back in college when I was trying to get some peace and quiet so I could study. In an effort to get away from their father and their Uncle Steve, I finally ended up going out on the porch roof at which point they locked the window behind me. This didn’t bother me over much, but when they kept annoying me by banging on the window, I finally lost my temper and banged my elbow against the window. An important lesson my nieces have hopefully taken away from this story is that tempered glass doesn’t hold up very well against elbows.

I needed to do some home maintenance this afternoon, cutting back some branches that were brushing up against the roof. Although this post was written from the comfort of my home office, I’d like to think that Rachel and Evangeline will appreciate the fact that I sent their father a copy of the photo below while sitting in the exact spot where I’d taken it just a few moments earlier.

The view from my roof.

Mischief, Photos, Silliness, Stories, Work

Caution

Things have been a bit stressful at work lately. Not quite six weeks ago, I completed a very high profile project. There were a few minor glitches, but things overall went fairly well.

Before that project was even complete, I was already being pulled onto another project, also very important, and also with a very high profile. We’re evaluating several complex software packages to replace a highly customized mission critical application, we’re doing it on a very short schedule, and it turns out that there were some bad assumptions early on about the level of effort required for the evaluations.

This past week, the inevitable happened.

An office with caution tape across the doorway and what appears to be a chalk outline on the floor.

No, no, no. Nobody died. Just a case of a sense of humor coming into play.

Friday a week ago, I was intensely working on the project and to minimize distractions had kept the office door closed most of the day. (Interestingly, most people assumed it was my officemate who didn’t want to be disturbed. Either way, the effect was the same.) Around 5:30, I noticed the silhouette of someone standing outside my office door and upon opening it, discovered my boss taping a piece of yellow Caution tape across the doorway.

I laughed and even obliged by collapsing on the floor. As my boss snapped a photo, a passerby commented on my performance, “He dies well.”

The caution tape stayed up over the weekend confusing both the cleaning staff and several co-workers. By the end of the day Monday though, the boss hadn’t done anything with the photos and then sent out an email saying he would be out for the next few days.

When he returned on Thursday morning, he laughed to find the caution tape across his door. When he found the “chalk” outline (actually done with masking tape) he needed several minutes to stop laughing. His favorite part was a touch an accomplice had added (it’s difficult to mark an outline of yourself) where the outline ran over (and fastened to the floor) an envelope which had been slipped under the door. He even laid down on the floor for a photo of himself in the outline.

My boss, surrounded by a chalk outline.

Inevitably, somebody who hears this story will comment that I have too much spare time. To me, this seems like a fairly reasonable use of five minutes. It certainly beats letting the stress get to the point where someone in a more “official” role is drawing outlines.

Photos, Work

Shell Games

No luck getting any photos of the empty goose nest yesterday, so I went back again today. You can see chunks of the hatched eggs laying around the sides of the nest.
Empty goose nest, lined with feathers, surrounded by hatched shells.
No sign of Mama Goose and kids today either, I think they’ve moved off to be closer to water. The facilities people must think so too as the traffic cones have been removed from the adjoining spaces.
For the longest time, I could never understand what the appeal was to putting a low-quality camera in a cell phone. It hit me a year or two back — the camera may not be very good, but it works well for casual shots, such as these, which might not have been taken otherwise. (Thankfully they’re starting to use slightly better cameras.)

Photos, Work

Empty Nest Syndrome

When I went into the office this morning, Mama Goose was still sitting on the nest. It looks like last week’s goose photos were “just in time,” because when I went to get something from the car in the late afternoon, I found a few of these signs in the parking lot.
Sign: Slow! Please Be Careful! Baby geese are here!
I tried to get a couple shots of the nest, but they didn’t come out right. No sign of Mama Goose and the kids though. They either waddled off to the stormwater pond out behind the building, or else she was already busy teaching them to poop on cars.

Photos, Silliness

Church of the Terminator

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When I first spotted this card, I noticed a model sailing ship, a stack of books, and a computer keyboard. What really got my attention though was the metallic-looking skull, like something from The Terminator movies. Add in the bit at the bottom where it mentions a theater and I thought for sure it was a promotion for the new Terminator film which opens next weekend.
Card featuring books, a model boat, and a metallic skull.
Looking at the back of the card, it turns out to be a promotion for a new ministry of a local Mega-Church. Along with their multiple locations and frequent radio ads, it turns out they’re also branching out into holding services in area movie theaters.
It’s entirely possible that they’re making a subtle tie to the new movie, Terminator Salvation. Unfortunately, once I figured out what the card was about, the message which crossed my mind was, “Give your life to Christ, or else he’s going to send a killer robot after you.”

Photos, Work

Scenes from a Parking Lot

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About a month ago, the facilities people at my office set up some cones in the parking lot, blocking access to three spaces. Surface parking is always kind of tight there, so on the one hand, I was a bit mystified as to why they would do this. On the other hand, our parking lot is currently in the midst of its annual occupation by a group of Canada Geese, and I wouldn’t want to be parking at the surface level anyhow, lest I have to clean some nasty goose stuff off the car. (And anything like that gets on your car, you need to wash it right away. Otherwise you’re gonna need a new paint job.)
Two weeks ago, I was heading out to my car at lunch time, and I discovered why those spots had been blocked off — Mama Goose had moved in and set up a nest on the traffic island!
Mama Goose on her nest.
Late last week, I happened to walk by while Mama Goose was standing up to stretch and count the eggs. I didn’t want to get any closer for fear of disturbing her, but still managed to snap this shot. If you look closely, you can see about a half-dozen eggs between her feet.
Mama Goose and her eggs.

Photos, Stories, Wylie's Tale

Bad Birdy!

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I have a child safety gate sitting in the hallway at the top of the stairs. The general idea is that if I put the gate across the top of the stairs, Wylie will stay upstairs while I’m away at work. Of course, it’s really just one more thing I have to deal with every morning and again in the evening. Wylie is so well behaved that there would really be no harm in just getting rid of it.

Take today for example. After a somewhat unusual start to the day, I forgot to put the gate up before leaving for work.

Not to worry though! When I came home in the evening, Wylie was still sitting on the bed. Oh, to be certain, he was ready to spring into action if there had been any sort of trouble – flood, fire, break-in, ol’ Wylie was prepared. But mostly he was just sitting on the bed, patiently awaiting his master’s return. Wylie is a good boy after all.

Wylie, patiently awaiting his master's return.

Clearly it was that dirty, rotten Terry Dactyl who tore a hole in the sofa cushion.

Torn sofa cushion in front of the bird cage.
Assorted Ramblings, Photos

Shoes

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I’ve occasionally heard female friends talking about the number of shoes they own. One has more than a dozen pairs shoes in various styles, just in black, and more in brown and other colors. Going against the stereotype, one male friend has likewise admitted to having multiple pairs of shoes in differing colors.
I don’t even pretend to understand.
It wasn’t planned, but this is the scene I discovered on Wednesday morning.
Four pairs of shoes, two pairs of slippers.
Without realizing it, I’ve apparently fallen into the habit of taking my shoes off while standing in the same place every night. That’s very nearly every bit of footwear I own. The only shoes not in that photo are a pair of snow boots and a pair of do-it-yourself dance shoes.
That seems to me like plenty of shoes, but I’m left wondering: why do I have two pairs of slippers?

Photos, Silliness

Christmas Lights

The first batch of Christmas lights went up on December 7. In keeping with an old family tradition, it was bitter cold when I put them up. I could have waited until the following Wednesday to put them up when the weather forecast was calling for temperatures in the mid-50s, but that would have involved following another family tradition and putting up Christmas lights in the rain.
The streetlight in front of the house gives the scene a kind of orangeish glow. It’s not intentional, but I’ve come to think of it as Christmas meets Halloween. One person I showed the photo to said the lighting combined with the candles in the windows gives the impression that the house has eyes.
The first batch of Christmas lights.
The remaining lights went up the following weekend. That was followed by a week of rain and then a cold with the result that I didn’t manage to take any more photos until this past Monday. The details in the large version are a lot sharper because I learned from my previous mistake and used the tripod this time. (That made a huge difference.)
The full set of Christmas lights.
The additional light makes the “eyes” a bit less pronounced, but I’m not sure the multi-color lights are a good combination when paired with the blue icicles. Throw in the orange highlights from that street light and the Halloween effect is even more pronounced. So…
Happy Hallowmas!!!!!
(Or should that be Merry Chrisween?)