Don't tell me that winter is almost over. I know what the groundhog said. Early spring. Blah, blah, blah. Personally the longer winter holds on the longer it is until we see those God-forsaken 90 degree days over and over and over. 'Cause let me tell you what, I'd take two foot of snow and mid-20's for thirty more days a year if I didn't have to suffer through twenty days of ninety plus every summer.
Someday this will be the view from all of my windows. And that's not just because the Glenwood Canyon Brewpub is a half a block behind me. I'm not picky though, it doesn't have to be these rocks and trees or that hot spring specifically. But these mountains in general. At least that will be my dream. This is, for those of you from elsewhere, Glenwood Canyon looking east from Glenwood Springs, Colorado, taken late last October between the time we ate lunch at the brewpub and a relaxing soak at the Hot Springs.
A frozen look at Pennsylvania's capital city. This was taken last month. With the warmer weather that snuck into February last week all the ice and most of the snow is now gone. The white and blue building is the City Island Bathhouse.
Ever hear the old saying, "I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out"? Well, last night was, what seems to be, my annual trip to Hershey for a hockey game. The Bears were playing the Bridgeport Sound Tigers and were beating them very well. Although the score wouldn't tell you that. After the third or fourth Hershey goal these two stood side by side waiting for the restart and the Sound Tiger kept picking a fight. Well the fight was brought to him. This was the longest fight I've ever seen at a hockey game. Not the worst or bloodiest, but the longest. The Bear-guy pommeled him for quite a while. All in all it was a good game. Bears won 6-4, so there were a lot of goals and it didn't get boring. Below these videos show the third goal (I think) for Hershey
and the ritual afterwards.
No seriously here are some of the signs and miscellany I've run onto while taking pictures of firehouses. The first one should just say "No Nothing". No Skateboarding, Rollerblading, Bicycling or Playing on Fire Company Property? And what's that other one? No Parking fire trucks at the Firehouse? What? And what the second one all about? I've heard of fire company junior member programs but Fire Department Head Start? The third one is just some cool graphics on a brush truck, I think. The final one... do you think that really works?
Today we travel to a place far far away. How far? About 100 yards out behind my house. I've been up there before and you've seen from up there before. But that was then this is now. This is sunset from a couple of weeks ago.
Today's Painted Gentleman comes from my short lived Cheesesteak Roadtrip and sits on Arch Street in Philadelphia. The Winston Building also was once home of The Connelly Organization, Incorporated. Offering such modern services as Duplicating, Addressing, Mailing and Copying as well as Electrical Multigraphing. Sorry I don't know who was on the 2nd floor.
Gray's Papaya is in three different locations throughout NYC. This one sits 402 Sixth Avenue at Eighth Street. When I saw it I was reminded of the scene in the movie "Fools Rush In" with Matthew Perry and Salma Hayek. She has his mother send some hot dogs from Gray's Papaya's in NYC while he's homesick and stuck in Las Vegas. Check out the clip on YouTube. Sorry, Didn't realize you didn't speak German. It's a good thing I told you what was going on. Actually it gives it a certain foreign film feel doesn't it? maybe sometime I could do the Great NYC Hot Dog Roadtrip. Yeah, I like that idea.
What would a trip to the City be without some pictures of a firehouse? We left Chinatown and headed for the NYFirestore on Greenwich Avenue to pick up a t-shirt. Half a block before we got to the store I saw the tell tale red doors of a fire station. Squad 18 is located at 132 West 10th Street in the West Village neighborhood. The door has got to be one of the best in the City. According to their website the city budgets money annually to maintain the painting that was originally painted in 1976 when 18 was an engine. As we were ready to head on about our business we saw the squad coming back down the street from a call and I was able to snap some shots of the unit in front of the station.
Today I pay a bit of homage to one of my daily reads; Kitty at NY Portraits. There are several NYC blogs that I check each day and my favorite and first check of the day is usually Kitty. Now while I have no intentions of trying to take pictures like her I simply took some pictures with her style. Average New Yorker going about a typical day. Street corner and sidewalk pictures and straight on images of store fronts. And mostly black and white. I say mostly because yesterday was a rare color photo from her. My picture of Vanessa's Dumpling House I think I did a good job with but my average New Yorkers pictures just don't speak like hers. Must be that " I don't like people" thing I have going. So, if you get bored at work today check out Kitty's Blog.
I've been asked why I go to the Lunar New Year parade. This is my second year and I can't explain. I can't explain why I went for the first time last year and I can't explain why I went back up this year. It's like taking a trip somewhere far far away but actually it's only 3 and a half hours away. The sights of Chinatown, the smells of the open street markets and the sounds of the parade are something so much different than I have ever experienced at home or in any of my travels. The drums at the parade and constant. Boom Boom Boom Boom Boom. You can feel it vibrating your insides. The colors are so vivid. The reds and the golds. These drummers where just playing for the crowd, the parade was still most of an hour away. They all wore the gold pants, I guess the switched out carrying the dragon. Junior got some good video but it was video from a video camera not the point and shoot. Maybe I'll have to post to YouTube and attach it here. I'll have to figure that out.
Confetti was the name of the game. That and those little snap cap things. The confetti comes is those tubes and when you pop them the sky fills with streamers, foil pieces and little tiny hundred dollar bills. When I got home the hood of my sweatshirt was full of those foil bits. All afternoon there was confetti falling from the sky. The sanitation department was cleaning the streets , I'm sure, before the parade had completely finished. Brooms, leaf blowers and the big street sweeper. I wonder just how long it took them?
I attended Icefest in Chambersburg last Saturday with the Mrs and my daughter. These ice sculptures were lining Main Street from King Street to Liberty Street, Most were maybe three feet tall. Some of them around the square were much larger. Some you could sit on for a special picture. There was even a 40 foot slide in one parking lot. The biggest problem with events like this is that other people attend. Rude people. People who step in front of you when it's obvious you're about to take a picture. Or those who think they have the decency to walk behind the sculpture when you're standing there with the camera ready. Hello. It's ice. l can still see you. Duh.