Existing In BFE

Sometimes its just plain weird out there.  My routine up here has been to awaken at 3:00 am (same as in Kitschland),  head down to K-Burg for barge pics, back to Emerald City, shower, do my computer reading, and head over to Seaton to assist the Wombie in his water work.   The trips to the river don't often vary except for the various critters I might see along the way in a very dark, often foggy, adventure.  Oh, yeah, that annoying little feature with my 21 year old pickup when the lights go out momentarily go out raises the blood pressure some, and the deer in the headlights thing can get your attention, too.  But generally traffic is non-existent, the river is without barge, and the creatures that ply the lands at this hour pretty much stay on the side of the road.   Except for this particular trip. It was a dark and stormy night. As I entered town I saw a car a few block down and straight ahead but didn't think anything of it.  I turned right to head to the dyke a

Once again a portfolio of pictures I have found on the internet, are not mine, and I steal them with the greatest respect.  I wish I'd taken them.   Can you tell we are coasting toward Labor Day weekend without spending the usual amount of time posting great entries with thought, care, and with the similarity of the loving embrace of mother and child?  It is because I am lazy and doing other things.  Refunds are in the mail.  

+++++++++++ This was a beautiful overnight natural creation in the Wombies yard last week. Genus: fungus amongus . ++++++++++ Just when I thought Northlandia sunrises couldn't get any better. ++++++++++ I'm trying to tone down the politics.  The life of an independent thinker in these tribal times is risky.  My subscription numbers have fallen dramatically since the election.  If I'm going to have my ass handed to me it's going to be over something more important than Donald Trump.  My advise?  "Steady, Lads."   ++++++++++ Exclusive Eclipse Pictures Before After ++++++++++ P icture of our mini-MDH get-together at Pat's place in Knoxville.  From left:  Julie (Secretary), Rebecca (Assistant Superintendent), Pat (Administrative Assistant,  Randy (Superintendent), Courtney (Supervisor), and Mike (Program Coordinator). ++++++++++ The quiet of the Cabin in the Woods wil

The Perseids meteor shower is an annual event in August.  Simply find a dark sky, and watch.  On really good peak nights perhaps 50 sightings an hour.  Unfortunately, this year much of the shooting star show was drowned out by the moon's brightness.  You couldn't see any but the very brightest, and I saw 4 or 5 nice ones.  Otherwise, the camera had a better shot at capturing them.  Here, then, are the ones it caught, mostly small and unseeable by eye.     By chance or by foresight I have managed to be in Northlandia during the Perseids the past few years. Kitschland night shots are impossible.  The first time I came back, sans Cabin in the Woods, I was staying with my friend Pat in Knoxville.  She lives right by a cemetery and I chose that spot to aim my camera.  Around 4:00 am here comes this wispy, ethereal vision out of the mist and it was Pat with a cup of cocoa for me.  I never forget acts of friendship.  Never.   Although this year was blinded

I was going through some old boxes and came across a couple of items from college days.  The first, a card with Hymie was on my room at Hershey Hall, commonly called Hymie Hall.   The nickname derived, ahumphh, from a certain female item that, well, get out your anatomic books and read up on it for yourself.  I think I know who coined the phrase, we still keep in touch, and is a  nurse in Iowa City.  Nicknames are fun - they engender a kind of casual friendly familiarity.  This one didn't survive college - when I graduated it went to nickname heaven.     I wonder where Bebe Brooks is today?  On the occasion of my 21st birthday, my frat bros took me to Gulfport and the nudie bars.  G-Port was a real den of sin back in those days.  Later they would introduce dwarfs to the miasmic fog of the place and sink even lower.  It was wonderful.  G-Port isn't anywhere what it used to be today, but then neither am I.  But at one time it was a place where youn

Are some of you missing the beauty of Kitschland?  Well, in that case you can either look out the window at your neighbor's faded plastic pink flamingo lawn ornament or look at these pictures I took just before my trip up here.  It was another bicycle trip on the bike path from Largo to Clearwater.  It takes me 20 minutes to ride from here to there and the path is kind of neat:  it has sensors along the way that turn on caution lights to stop traffic.  Kind of like a train.  You just keep pedaling and piss off drivers.  How fun is that?  Tommy, my old neighbor from G-Burg and long-distance bicyclist could actually go from one end of the peninsula to the other on the Pinellas Trail going through St. Pete, Dunedin, Palm Harbor, Tarpon Springs, Clearwater, Largo, Seminole and South Pasadena for 38 miles.  Cool, huh?  These pics are the Clearwater waterfront and causeway bridge.            Who knows, maybe Santa will bring me spandex biker pants and one

The Existing in BFE Book Sweepstakes is now history.  But before I announce the winners let me make a couple comments. First, the number of applicants was small, very small.  I had anticipated a higher number if only because we were giving away a free top-rated book.  I recall a couple around Emerald City, now long gone, who went to all the local visitations to eat, even if they did not know the decedents.  They even stuffed food in her purse as a kind of doggie bag.   Spouses and friends of friends, I wrongly assumed, would be throwing their hats in the ring.  Unfortunately, I discovered this blog either has readers who can't read, or don't, or no readers at all.   But I'm a plucky little pirate and am thrilled at those who did take the time to send me their emails for the chance to win.  Thank you to those who joined in the sweepstakes.   As a thank you to those who have followed the blog all three applicants will receive a copy of A Gentleman In Moscow.   T